Philips VRB613 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR
once bitten...
I have had this VCR for 9 months and it's already in the shop. The picture quality was OK---nothing great really, pretty much what you'd expect for a VCR in this price range.  The remote was OK, though it did have a few annoying traits. It was quite easy to work your way through the commands on the menu (though, like one reviewer pointed out, the &quot;12345678&quot; programming was a little hard to keep track of when recording multiple shows).<br />This brings me to sound quality.  Which started out great, then for some reason took a nose dive.  About two months ago I started to get a static-y hiss in Hi-Fi mode which completely disappeared in Mono.  At first I thought it was my Theatre System, then the tape, then finally the VCR which I cleaned over and over again, but to no avail.<br />I contacted the Service Department with this problem and they politely informed me that &quot;I was out of luck&quot;. There is only a 90 day guarantee against defects on this model.  They have enough faith in their product to only stand behind it for 3 months---after that you are S.O.L.  I had a Panasonic VCR that lasted me 10+ years (why I bought a Philips is beyond me). To me the quality of anything goes beyond how it operates, it's how the company behind it reacts when you have a problem with it. With Philips I was very disappointed.