Toshiba M265 2-Head VCR
Cheap price, mediocre picture,  TANSTAAFL.
Low price, spotty picture quality As a disposable-priced VCR this is fine; it's unsuitable for dubbing tapes though. It worked fine right out of the  box, and the on-screen time counter etc. worked fine.<br />I bought this VCR  to save a little money, and I'll keep it rather than go to the trouble and  postage for an exchange. You get what you pay for in this case. <br />The case  is smaller and much lighter than most VCRs that I've handled, and the input  and output jacks are well labelled. This would make a good VCR for a  child's room or playroom, I think. Since the display quality is like a  mediocre tape-dub job, this wouldn't do as a second VCR for copying tapes.  Since the buttons and printing on the remote control are very tiny, a  separate remote would be a must if the machine is meant for a child's use.  I strained to read the lettering myself.<br />It's working fine so far (I  haven't tried the programming functions). The image quality for a good tape  is mediocre: faces and so on look a bit smeared and there's some aliasing  visible (as with lower quality computer images). This problem might be  caused by the tape heads. (I imagine the quality would be just fine for  most cartoons though.) As important, it adds a lot of bright specks to the  picture when the scenery is very dark (and the picture is properly colored  when the scenery is bright). I think this darkness-problem is electronic  and not caused by the tape heads. If you like movies with dimly light  bedroom scenes, or soldiers creaping through the shadows, the bright  flickering noise will bug you.<br />Personally, if I could rewrite the  original order, I'd spend a bit more since the VCR is for me. This price is  not a slash-down sale sort of deal, or a clearance deal; it's in line with  the quality. It's a bit hard to believe that Toshiba actually made it.