Toshiba W607 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR
High quality recording/playback
Before I offer my evaluation of the Toshiba W-607, I would like to express a general observation of the majority of the VCRs available on the market at this time.  Due to the competition to offer lower priced units, I feel  that this has been detrimental to picture quality, especially when viewing  tapes recorded from network TV.  In the past year and a half I have had to  replace two VCRs that were purchased approximately five years ago and fell  in the $400 price range.  None of the half dozen makes or models I brought  home came close to duplicating the older units picture quality.<br />The  Toshiba W-607 was purchased to replace a 5-year-old Toshiba model M-660, an  excellent machine that I used as my criteria when judging all other VCRs.   Although the picture quality of taped programming, including digital cable,  falls short of the M-660, it comes quite close.  Overall I am pleased with  the W-607's performance and features.  It's mechanical functions are smooth  and quiet.  All of the new Toshiba's offer the one minute rewind capability  with T-120 tapes.  Although this feature may seem convenient, it is a  generally known fact that the fastest way to damage the VCRs mechanism, is  to rewind tapes in the VCR.  It is far better to invest in a separate tape  rewinder for $10 or $15.<br />Programming and set up is straightforward.  The  addition of auto channel scan and automatic clock setting, are probably the  greatest improvements in new VCR technology.<br />The 607 lacks the  &quot;index&quot; feature available on the older unit.  This feature placed  an electronic &quot;tag&quot; or &quot;flag&quot; on the tape to indicate  and allowed easy return to a chosen location on the recording or the start  of a recording and remained on the tape until it was taped over.  The 607  does have a &quot;counter reset&quot; that allows the user to rewind or  fast forward to that zero point.  This can only be used once during  recording and leaves no electronic &quot;tag&quot;, meaning that once the  tape is removed, the zero point is lost.  My other complaint is that  whenever a tape is inserted and viewed, the on-screen display automatically  shows the counter setting, speed etc. this information can be removed by  pressing the remote's display button.  I must say that this feature is  useful when flipping through channels in that it displays the program title  and channel being viewed.<br />The newer remote has larger main function  buttons for play, pause, rewind etc. but retains the record and timer  buttons of the older remote, which I feel have always been too small for  easy activation.<br />Despite the fact that I have pointed out a number of  negative features of Toshiba's Model W-607, my primary concern for high  quality recording/playback, ranks this VCR number 1 among all the  &quot;newer&quot; units I have tried.  Taking into consideration that the  W-607's price is approximately one-third the price of a unit purchased five  years ago, I guess a few concessions must be made.