Toshiba W708 6-Head Hi-Fi VCR
Such a disappointment--what happened to Toshiba's VCRs?
My wife and I were given a Toshiba VCR for a wedding gift in 1987.  It lasted more than ten years without ever giving us a problem.  While its technology obviously fell behind--way behind--the thing was a workhorse, taping thousands of hours of video and standing up to countless hours of playback without ever diminishing in picture quality.  When that VCR died, we didn't hesitate to buy another Toshiba.<br />We purchased this one specifically because of its features and six heads, assuming we'd get top-notch picture quality.  Boy, were we surprised.<br />After getting past the clunky programming features (which actually took a step back from our older model), we weren't overly impressed with the picture quality.  We have a high-end Sony TV and digital cable, so we're used to a good picture.  No matter what we tried, the recordings from this VCR, even with top-end tapes, were muddy and snow-y, with distortion and no color depth.  Sound quality was murky as well.<br />In addition, the tracking was never quite right.  Besides struggling with tapes recorded on the VCR itself, it often would not play tapes from other VCRs at all, no matter how hard we tried to fiddle with the tracking.  Ugh.<br />Having kept it too long to return it, the VCR became our backup to a Mitsubishi that very much out-performed this one.  It was an expensive lesson, but we figured it was adequate for a backup...until it died just shortly over a year after we purchased it.  A trip to the shop confirmed it would cost a bundle to repair (it had two separate problems), so...it went into the trash can.<br />We were so disappointed that we will never buy another Toshiba VCR, and likely no other Toshiba product, period.<br />Yeah, the thing rewinds a tape very fast and the exterior looks nice.  But who cares if it's a piece of junk?  Ouch.