Sony SLV-N71 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR
great features, easy setup
I bought this vcr after reading as many reviews as I could find on the internet.  Overall it seems like a great vcr but let me mention some positives and negatives.<br />One thing I want to clear up is the Commercial Pass feature, since I had been confused on the Commercial Skip feture versus Commercial Pass, etc.  Here's how Commercial Pass works:  you are watching your taped show and once the commercial comes on, you push the Commercial Pass button on the remote.  The tape fast forwards through the commercial but does NOT stop automatically once the commercials are over (as I had thought it would).  You need to watch the screen yourself, and as soon as your show starts up again, you push the Commercial Pass button again.  This stops the fast forwarding and then automatically rewinds the tape a little so you don't miss any of your show.  At first I was disappointed that it didn't   stop automatically, but this is still a helpful feature if you are one who doesn't like to miss a single second of your show.  (With my old vcr, I'd fast forward through the commercials and when I saw my show start, I'd manually rewind it back, sometimes going back too far and then I'd have to fast forward again... very frustrating.  This model elimates that. )<br />Even though it's not fully automatic, I think Commercial Pass is still better than Commercial Skip that other vcr's have, which skips forward in 30 second or 1 minute intervals, which is still not automatic.<br />This vcr is very easy to set up... the self guided menu tells you exactly what to do so you really hardly need the manual.  Another plus is that the quick record dial on the front makes it VERY easy to program.  I fooled with the floor model at the store and figured it out in 30 seconds.   The VCR + is also nice but haven't really tested it.  <br />The Child Loc feature is a nice feature, too, and easy to use.<br />A few downsides:  The motor is a bit loud when it records (even if TV is off).  Other reviewers had warned about that so I wasn't too surprised.  Also, even though the remote is supposedly multi-brand, my Samsung TV was not listed among the  many brands that it is compatible with, so it looks like I'll still have to use my TV's remote.  To remedy this, I would look for a universal remote, but I have yet to find one with the Commercial Pass feature on the remote, so I'll have to juggle the remotes for TV, DVD player, and TV.<br />I also had an incident where the vcr played a pre-recorded video in black and white.  I need to check into that to see what the problem is.  Maybe I just need to adjust something.  I hope this helps.