Very good picture and sound quality. Commercial Advance can be useful. Likewise for timed recording.

Comm. Advance doesn't always work (sometimes it fast-forwards beyond the ads to the end of the tape). But the real handicap is the shutting down with "err" messages (see Summary). The owner's manual has no info on the "err(or)" code or how to troubleshoot it.

Good video reproduction. Unfortunately, the automatic record timer is unreliable: less than a year after I got it, the machine would "crash" and display an "err" message and not record a thing. It has gotten worse: I can't back up and re-play a section of tape or the VCR will stop and the "err" appears. Now it fights back merely when I try to play a tape ("err" again!) Looks like I'm not alone with this problem, either!

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Radio Shack Model 24 4-head, 1988 model. Its only problem was that merely putting it in a truck and moving it knocks the mechanism out of alignment, after which it eats tapes and requires a trip to th

Precisely the same scenario as the previous writer. Err message makes it totally unreliable

Automatically sets time from cable

Breaks right after warranty is up

I purchased this VCR 2 years ago. It worked OK, although it seemed to always have trouble downloading information from my cable company (Time Warner). However, after a year (just after the warranty expired), it occasionally displayed "ERR" on the display and shut off whenever a tape was inserted into the VCR. Now, 2 years after purchase, it does this about 95% of the time, making it virutally impossible to play back or record a tape. I contacted RCA, and they basically said there is nothing to try and that it must be serviced. They also said that customer satisfaction is very important to them. I guess this just doesn't apply to me...