Zenith VRE4222 VCR Player
I Made a Huge Mistake
Do not buy this VCR. I don't say this lightly, for this VCR is worthless at the one function it has to perform well: playing tapes. The tracking on this machine is almost nonexistent for tapes that I recorded on my old Sony machine, and the picture doesn't dissolved into fuzz (which would be normal!) but goes wobbly and shakes like a mad indie filmmaker with his first handheld. It's extremely frustrating. And it doesn't even consistently mess up--some of my old tapes play fine, others, made recently on this very machine weeks ago, play wobbly. As for rental tapes, of the very few I've played (I mostly rent DVDs now), they've been okay.<br />The other problems I have with the Zenith are fairly minor in comparison. I'd characterize them as inconvenient rather than fatally flawed. It doesn't have a counter, so you never know exactly how much of the tape has gone by, and rewinding to a specific spot an hour earlier is imprecise. Setting the timer to record is annoying too, as you can only press in the time by clicking the right arrow button on the remote. So say you're leaving the house at 3 PM and want to set the timer for 6 PM, you'd have to click the remote button about 180 times to get the timer to 6 PM (three hours = 180 minutes). Click 180 times or hold the button down continuously for a minute. Setting the timer runs down the batteries on the remote something fierce.<br />The one redeeming feature on this machine is that it records decently. The picture is a tad bit grainier than I would like, but overall I like the picture and sound quality. Hi fi sound is just cool, in my humble opinion. It's the only thing saving this machine from the axe (literally).