Sharp VC-H965U 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR
Great picture quality - but too many annoying details
When one of my 2 Sony VCRs died I decided to buy a non-Sony brand. I did a lot of research before deciding to buy this one. In part, some of the other reviews mentioned facts that I thought would be plus points for me. Sadly, after trying out this VCR for almost a month (and really wanting to try and keep it) I decided to return it back to Amazon. Here's my experience:<BR>Pros:<BR>1) The video quality is superb. It recorded and played back very well, even with old tapes. It also played tapes recorded by my surviving Sony VCR with no problem at all. And the picture was always great.<BR>2) The display on the VCR can switch between 'Tape Counter', 'Clock' and 'Channel' anytime you want (while playing a tape, or even if you're just using the VCR as a tuner). To me this was important and, in fact, the biggest reason I decided to try out this VCR. I can't do this with my Sony VCR - it will only show the tape counter on the display when a tape is in, and I find that annoying.<BR>3) Great search feature. It has this 'DPSS' feature where you can search for the start or ending of a recorded program on the tape. Most VCRs have this, but I must say that this one worked very well and was very intuitive to use.<BR>4) Two speeds for fast forwarding and rewinding. I quite discovered this by mistake. While playing a tape, if you push the fast forward (FF) button once, it forwards at a slower speed. If you push FF again, it forwards faster. There are only 2 speeds and it toggles between the 2 when you push the FF button. Same for rewinding.<BR>5) It can play S-VHS (Super VHS) recordings - doesn't give S-VHS quality (400 line resolution), but it can play it back in Standard resolution (230 line).<br />Cons:<BR>1) The display. I know I've mentioned it above as a plus that you can change the display on the VCR. But the display itself is quite unattractive. I really don't know why they didn't stick to the standard green LED display that most VCRs use. Instead, they use this yellow lightin the backgroud - has that old look to it. My wife just couldn't stand it. I'm not usually picky about the looks myself, but even I thought it was rather unpleasant.  <BR>To add to the display problems (and another review mentions this) - the display is practically invisible when you turn the power OFF. It's showing you the time, but you can't see anything! You'd have to shine a flashlight, or put this VCR in a very, very bright room to see the display when the power is OFF. <BR>2) Auto clock didn't work for me - and I think I know why. When the power goes off for more than 5 minutes, this VCR turns to its default settings. The default setting for the channels is 'AIR', not 'CABLE'. Since most of us will probably have cable hooked up to this VCR, it almost guarantees that Auto clock will NOT work. <BR>You can get auto clock to work once you set the channels to 'cable', but this would require manual intervention.<BR>3) Tape jumps forward before rewinding (also mentioned by another reviewer). If you're playing a tape and decide you want to rewind a little, the tape first jumps forward before it starts rewinding. It's annoying, especially when you fast forward through commercials and then want to rewind after going too far.<BR>4) There's no download for manuals on the Sharp website. Better make sure you don't lose the one you have! Certain things like setting the VCR output to channel 3 or 4 have to be done in a special sequence and you'd never guess it unless you had the manual.<br />Miscellaneous notes:<BR>I thought it would also be beneficial to mention facts that are neither bad nor good. Since there's little information on the Sharp website, these notes may come in handy.<BR>1) Tape counter does not reset to 0000 when you remove a tape and put in a new one. I don't think this is so bad really, especially if you push the eject button by mistake.<BR>2) The manual says that there's battery backup for 5 seconds. However, I found it to be more like 5 minutes when experimenting with this. The good thing is that all your timer recordings stay in memory for those 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, everything is lost. Also note that the time remains the SAME during those 5 minutes (E.g. if you lose power at 9:00am and it comes back at 9:04am, the clock will still display the old time of 9:00am). So again, Auto clock is very important - if it works, then the time will correct itself eventually. If Auto clock doesn't work, you'll forever be off by 4 minutes (in this example) until you change the time manually. <br />Hope this review helps. I really wanted to try and keep this VCR. Perhaps I was a little too picky, but I just didn't like how it looked. That, along with the Auto clock problem were the main reasons I decided to return it. If you can live with the drawbacks mentioned, this is a great VCR for $71.