Toshiba W712 Hi-Fi VCR
Just the basics
My last VCR machine lasted 14 years, and I miss it.  It cost several hundred dollars more than the Toshiba, in pre-inflated dollars no less. But it was far better, and easier to use.<br />The only thing the Toshiba does better than my old one: VERY FAST rewinding! <br />The Toshibas problems: its fast forward and rewind, thru the remote are also too fast for short bursts.  e.g. Trying to skip thru commercials without missing the program is tough, when you're flying at such a speed.<br />The VCR+ system is not that easy to use. Setting it to record programs is easy enough, but if you make a mistake, and want to cancel it, or erase everything, or stop the recording in progress, good luck in trying to figure out what to do!  <br />Setting up the machine initially, in terms of the clock, and the channels, is supposed to be easy. The clock is supposed to set itself off a radio signal. It did that once, the first time I used it, and has never worked since (after each power blackout, which happens about 6 times/year). And it was off by several minutes that one time. The channel selection is cumbersome and slow, and takes several minutes. And that too has to be redone after each power blackout. So much for automation being a labor saver. I bought a computer UPS back-up battery, as a way around of not losing the settings, because it got to be so aggravating.<br />I think the biggest problem is that they simplified everything so much that each button on the remote has too many multiple uses, and trying to remember what else the volume +  button, and all its mates, do is not something I choose to commit to memory, and so I'm reduced to having to look it up in the manual every time I need to go thru the rigamarole yet again.<br />As for its recording: it works.  I can't tell the difference between my old machine, after it was 14 years old, and this one when it was fresh out of the box though.