Sony SLV-N900 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR, Black
SONY TOP LINE VCR - CAN YOU GET HIT BY LIGHTNING TWICE?
Remember trying to tune old fashioned VCRs? This machine does all the tuning automatically, but the first SLV-N900HF I bought with all of its awsome electronic features would not play a tape with any decent picture quality. Black and white, for example- was just that, not too many grey tones inbetween. In color movies,everything looked like the tropics with purple skies and flourescent skin tones. This clearly was defective and so I brought it back.and got a replacement brand new sealed SLV-N900-HF. <br />As I set up the second new machine, it seemed more like an inexpensive walkman than the very best VCR Sony makes. It looks cheap with an unimpressive finish overall. The LCD screen replaces the older large symbols for video setting and for tape-in with tiny ones that are very hard to see. <br />This machine had good picture quality. It might have even been as good as my old machines were, but unfortunately, this VCR would not activate my cable box through the =hole in the head= infa red emitter on top. Here in tthe big city we have  cable boxes (the cable companies want to make the U.S. all cable box equipped, I hear so it will be more difficult to =steal=cable channels.) Instead of using a cable mouse as all previous Sony VCRs, this one cheapened even that inexpensive accessory by building it in. <br />The  Sony Control ports on the back  (used for your home theater so you can tether all of your componants through the receiver) are now reduced to an in-port only so you can't hook up your old cable mouse should you want to. The problem here is if you have your VCR set up with the cable box on the other side of the room, or in a different part of your home theater array-as Sony says you need to do(and this is correct) you now have to reconfigure all your wiring so that your cable box sits on top of the VCR--- and you have to move it around to find the =sweet spot=  because the off-center infa red emitter window has to be able to transmit signals to the sensor of your cable box. I know that the SLV-N-900 can do this, because the first mahcine I had worked. It was slow as a snail, requiring you to punch in one numeral, then wait till it was good an ready to transmit to the cable box, and only then, with one number already up, could you enter the second digit of the channel you want. Hurry up! if you are too slow about it the channel will revert to the previous one you had tuned in. Some fun. Ufortunately, the new machine would not access the cable box at all. And I tried everything including phoning for technical help. <br />My fiirst experience working on a VCR was in a TV station in 1965, and once home VCRs became available, I got the first one I could. Once Sony went into VHS (Remember that Sony had the  Beta system originally) I bought only Sony VCRs. I always found them to be reliable, and in fact, my only reason for buying new ones has been to upgrade my system.My oldest Sony VCR is still cranking out the miles of tape plaiyed for my freind's son. The SLV-N900HF is the first defective VCR I ever got from Sony, and to get two of these must mean something about quality control. Each VCR I got from Sony had electronic improvements that made for more impressive features and better quality. This machine goes back a few, with its overall cheapness. <br />And the fact that I got two of these with different defects has to be like getting hit by lightning twice.