Toshiba W522 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR
You get what you paid for!
This is a basic entry level Hi-Fi VCR.  I have 3 panasonic VCR and this one was my fourth one.  <br />The worst part was recording as you have to press 2 buttons in order to program recording.  When it was recording, a big \\"REC\\" showed in the beginning and then replaced by tape meter which could confuse you as you might not realize it was recording.  When programming, channels were not defaulted to those you had access but it went from channel 1, 2, 3...ie, it was a bit time consuming to program. <br />Remote was OK but it was quick enough if you do commercial skipping.  <br />Soundwise, for some reasons, it was better than my hi-fi panasonic even with the same home theatre set up.<br />Durability wise, I bought mine from Nov 2002 & I broke it in early June 2003 when I tried to clean up the tape head.  Something just fell out when I opened it and tried to clean it the 2nd time.  I guess it was my fault.  The inside of it was made with a lot of plastics which I don't think it would last long anyway.  However, it is reasonable if you don't pay more than $ bucks for this unit.  Now I have to deal with Toshiba people.  Don't know the outcome yet.<br />Picture quality was good for me as I didn't have any problem like others.  <br />Tracking was better than my 3 other panasonic.  It usually found the right tracking for the tapes that we put in.  <br />Noise was reasonable to me and was silent when playing.  Rewind was quick as advertised.  <br />It had good feature like showing you titles of TV programs when changing channels and auto clock setting.