RCA VR634hf 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR
It may look simple to operate, but...
This is my fifth VCR unit.  I've had an old dependable 50 pound Magnavox  back before remote control when VCRs were new, a JVC, a Sharp, another  Magnavox which I still use, and now this RCA.  This RCA unit is not nearly  as easy to use as my Magnavox.  Here are the biggest drawbacks with this  VCR.  First, you can forget about commercial advance.  After recording, it  spends several minutes trying to locate and mark all the commercials.  The  problem is, it never seems to differentiate any commercials anyway, and so  it never skips the commercials during playback.  You have to resort to  manually fast-forwarding thru the commercial breaks using your remote  control, which is a real nuisance considering that is a sales point of this  VCR.  I remember that it did skip one commercial during part of a  commercial break one time, which probably accounts for less than 1/10th of  1 percent accurate commercial recognition!  Maybe modern commercials don't  make themselves easy to detect by these units.  Whatever the problem, that  feature needs some major work.  Problem number two, there is a large bright  green backlit button on the front panel -- the power on/off -- which stays  lit all the time and is annoying if used in a bedroom, which mine  is.<br />Third problem -- there is no TV/VCR button on the remote control,  which is a problem if you just put in a tape and sat down to watch a movie,  and you happen to be in the wrong mode.  The unit is supposed to determine  which mode it should be in automatically, but most of the time, I would say  75%, for whatever reason it does not determine that you need it to be in  the opposite position, and you have to jump up and go push the button on  the unit itself.  Not too smart.  Fourth problem.  You know how on the  newer smarter VCR units you never have to watch static or listen to white  noise?  Not so with this unit.  When changing tapes, or changing between  tape and TV, most of the time you will find yourself subjected toplenty of  both.  Fifth problem, and this is a real irritation with me: The remote  control may look rich and full-featured and colorful with all its dazzling  buttons some of which are nicely backlit when you press a button, but the  buttons you need to use the most are at the bottom of the remote, not at  the top where you need them, and where your fingers usually are when  holding a remote control.  So it takes two hands to operate.  In fact most  of the buttons on the top half of the remote are not needed during normal  TV and VCR operation.  Talk about ergonomically located.  I guess that's a  90's idea that just hasn't hit the RCA labs yet. I would think that RCA  would want to make a simpler, easier to use and maybe even fun remote  control to keep their customers from getting so frustrated.  I just don't  understand their logic here, or lack thereof.<br />The one exceptional feature  on this unit is the clock, which sets itself by downloading a clock signal  from the first television station it encounters that includes a time signal  in its broadcast.  This means that you won't ever have to set the time  again, or watch a blinking 12:00, or worry about the daylight savings time  change.  Nice, but hardly worth all the other trouble you'll have to put up  with.  It also has VCR+ which is a plus.  That works nicely.  Programming  to record TV shows without using VCR+ is a cinch also.  However I'd sure  like to see some big improvements on the above mentioned problems with this  product before I would consider buying another RCA product.