Picture quality

Perfect picture. Have been using it for around 3 years, not one problem, excellent product. Not the cheapest one out there but worth every penny. (I have not always been convinced by Sony products I've owned, but this one I can definitely recommend.) The only minor flaw is that the clock doesn't seem to automatically adjust to daylight savings time although it supposedly should.

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Other VCRs that bit the dust and had a picture that was not as good.

Auto clock set, VCR+, ease of operation from remote & unit both,

None to mention at this point.

This is the best VCR I've ever owned. I replaced a 10 year old Hi-Fi VCR from Sears with it. Quiet rewind and play back. The auto clock set is great as well as the VCR+ option. I think the picture quality is fine(after all it's tape not DVD), however it would be better if it had S-video output. The audio, also is fine for tape. I think if people are looking for higher quality picture and sound, they need to look int getting a DVD player.

Great feature set

Poor record/playback

I bought the 799HF to replace a 7 year old 595HF that died. I liked the features, especially the ability to put in a recording program from the front panel. I do so HATE having to turn on my TV, wait for it to warm up, then switch to the video input, program the VCR, switch the TV back to normal input, then shut off the TV. And my wife hates it when I tell her I have to interrupt the show she's watching so I can set up to record some other show... I end up waiting for a commercial. Anyway, my defunct 595HF would let me program VCR+ with the TV off, and the 799HF lets you program time/channel with the TV off.

The next day, I took the unit back to the store and traded for a Panasonic PV-S9670. Features are nice and all, but the Sony just didn't produce decent pictures and sound.

The best thing about the R2 "Reality Regeneration" feature is that you can turn it off and leave it off. It just adds noise to the picture, making it look very grainy.

Actually, there was a lot of video noise (mainly luma, some chroma) everywhere even without R2. Watching a cable channel through the tuner, it was noisy. Playing back a rental movie, it was noisy. Recording and playing back was disastrous. Fields of white were particularly susceptible, invaded by moire' patterns.

The 799HF also didn't want to pick up the Hi-Fi tracks from the EP tapes I'd recorded with my 595HF. And when it switched to the linear audio track, there was no volume. Basically unusable.

Although Sony claims that their remote control now works with other vendors' TVs, the definition of "works with" seems a bit limited. With my Zenith, it'd turn the set on and off, let me adjust the volume, and it had channel up/down. No mute, no channel recall, and most glaringly, no ability to enter a channel number.

The Panasonic cost me $75 more, it has a lot less features, but it records and plays back beautifully (and I haven't even tried the S-VHS yet!). And the remote works with my Zenith TV (but no mute or channel recall buttons on it, what's up with that?)

set up of this was the easiest i have ever experienced. the sound is fine, going through a yamaha reciever. picture quality is not bad at play and still frame. timer recording features are truly what makes this unit stand out. worth the money

I bought this model and hated the picture. The screen looked as if a piece of white paper was over it. I took it back and the sales person convinced me to trade it out for the same model. I did and I am pleased that I did. The picture on this one is fantastic. The colors are crisp and deep. Playback is smooth and the pause picture is great. I am very pleased with this model. I also have the str-de935 receiver. The S-link is great. I paid $225 for it from Sears (10% discount). I also have the s330 DVD. Love all of it. I wish I could afford a Sony HDTV.

I have had 5 differnt Sony VHS and Beta VCR's in my time and thime one is the best. Very quiet running, rewinding, smooth starts and stops and nice picture quality. Bought mine from a local video/stero store for $ 229.00
I give it a 5

To start, brand loyality doesn't make this a good product. Having other Sony equipment that worked O.K. doesn't mean this is a good VCR. I can't believe someone did a review without even mentioning the quality of this VCR, unbelieveable!
You could say I'm a bit disappointed in this supposed Flagship standard VCR. I have tried 2 units with the same problem. They both had those scrolling lines. The ones that roll in one direction, stop, then roll in the other direction. I believe now that these units don't have enough shielding on their sensitive electronic components. Other components in the VCR are most likely sending this signal to these sensitive electronic components. I have no ground loop, and spent time to be absolutely sure of that. I even turned off all components and hooked this VCR directly to the TV, bypassing everything else. Still, the problem exists. Many may not find these noisy scrolling lines offensive, but I DO! It irritates me to no end. I couldn't stand cable because of all the interference and scrolling lines. I originally replace a 5 1/2 year old flickering picture, Panasonic with this Sony. I was deeply disappointed the Panasonic only lasted 5 1/2 years. Well these Sonys didn't even last 2 days without performance degradation. Hek, I even bought an $80 Broksonic 4 head Hi-Fi VCR, and it was fine! Yeh, an $80 dollar VCR. The Sony was normally $250. They better have a fix for this, or redesign it. I will not consider JVC VCRs because of a flaw out of the box. That is why I exchanged for that now flickering Panasonic. The JVCs had that "shooting star effect". The flaw that produced flashing, horizontal streaks on the picture. Almost like the heads are clogged. I don't have time to screw with incompetent crap. I wish these companies would get their heads out of their as* and built something that works correctly. Yes, some research is needed, but for the price we pay for this stuff, IT SHOULD WORK CORRECTLY!

I've had this unit for 4 months and am very pleased. The picture quality on playback is great and I have had none of the 'scrolling line' problems mentioned in the previous review. The only thing really missing is s-video, but at $230 I guess I'm just getting greedy.
All the TV tuner features are great. If you're on a compatible cable system, it sets the clock and station IDs and it has worked perfectly so far. It's a little flaky at handling LP mode [can't record, plays back a bit strange at times] but I record at SP anyway. The remote is good, but no jog dial. The jog dial on the unit itself works OK, if a little unresponsive.

Overall, I'm very suprised at how good this performs given it's price.

Many programming features and very easy to use.

That 'Reality Regenerator' thing doesn't seem to accomplish anything.

I recently purchased this vcr to replace my previous one (some old hi-fi sanyo) that kicked the bucket. I don't know why the other viewers encountered problems with horrible images or pale displays, but this vcr has worked perfectly for me. I've used some S-VHS models before, and while this Sony doesn't produce as sharp recordings, its image quality is still very clean and sharp. The vcr is also extremely easy to set up and use. Almost all of the functions on the remote are also found on the unit itself, and seting the timer is a breeze. The only thing I find odd about this unit is the 'Reality Regenerator' feature that claims to restore images to their original quality. How it can make this claim confuses me - I don't notice any difference with it on or off.. so it stays off. I've had the thing for 3 months now, and still not a hint of a problem.

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An anonymous Sanyo that took a taping of Friends with it when it died.

Auto clock set, VCR+ Gold

Poor picture when viewing cable stations

I purchased this machine largely because it had automatic clock set and VCR+ Gold (automatic mapping of VCR+ channels). And yes, these two features work fine.

I'm not too satisfied with the general performance of the machine, though. When viewing regular cable fare, the picture is much worse than it was on an old Toshiba I had -- so much so that I took it back to see if it was defective. I was told that "That's just the way VCR's look now...they don't make them like they used to." The picture when playing back tapes is ok, but the tape transport itself is very noisy and that bothers me.

I'd have to give this a few stars for the quality of the features, but subtract some for the quality of the basic operation.