Sony SLV-N81 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR
Great picture, Pain to program
I bought this because the N71 (its twin) was rated so highly in Consumer Reports, and this one happened to be a better deal at the time.  I have been very pleased with the picture and sound quality of pre-recorded tapes and things I tape from TV.  <br />However, since my local TV guide does not show the VCR+ coding, I set up my programming with the remote, and it is SO FRUSTRATING.  You can't just enter the time you want a recording session to stop and start using the numeric pad; instead you have to use the up and down arrows, which start from whatever time of day it is when you are programming (the stop time you have to go forward from the start time, which is not as bad, but still annoying to go through all those minutes for a half hour show).  Additionally, the &quot;OK&quot; button when programming actually does not &quot;enter&quot; or confirm your programming information, but ERASES it.  And since this button is the largest one, centered between the others, I have hit it several times by accident.  Another annoyance I've had is that I can't just enter the channel number I want to record from, but have to select the stations call letters, again by using up and down arrows in a list.<br />If you're programming with codes, then this is probably a terrific VCR, but for those of us stuck programming the old-fashioned way it's more frustration than fantastic.