Flying Erase Head. Sharpness Control!!

Mechanism is a little noisy and slow. No tracking control by remote.

This is the cheapest Flying Erase Head VCR with a sharpness control that I know of. That's the reason I bought it. The Sony does a good job. Nice sound, too. Did that guy ever check out the Toshiba?

Similar Products Used:

JVC 3500U

Easy to program & use / Flying Erase Heads / Good Stereo sound

Plastic, Plastic, & more Plastic (is this what this stuff it?)

I bought this unit at my High End Audio store (Digital Ear in Tustin CA.) at the advise of my friends (salesmen) working there, when my early 1980's Magnabox (is this how this is spelled?) died a slow and painful death. I believe the Sony cost me about $300.00 (I forgot, I know that it was not more then this). When I got home the 1st thing I notice was the cheap plastic (Is this what this stuff is?). The outer casing, the back end where the RCA plugs go into, even the forward/backwards dial was plastic (How does a company make a dial out of plastic - the thing will break). What a disappointment...when I pluged in the RCA and coaxials the whole back end moves. Sony, if your reading this, I would gladly pay you $200.00 more for metal. Now the good news. It was easy to program, I have never had problems with it, and the stereo sounds great through the TV, far better them my ex-Magnabox (it was the top of the line years ago). I even pluged it into my Theta Cosa Nova D/A surround sound PreAmp via Audio Research LS16 tubed PreAmp via Aragon 8008BB Amp into Martin Logan speakers (write about over-kill)...sounds GREAT!!! Oh, the rating...
thats going to be hard. A "4" for sound (there is no such thing as a "5" for VSR sound), a "5" for ease of use, and a "1" for the cheap plastic. (4 + 5 + 1)/3 = 3.33333...

Similar Products Used:

Magnabox

Sony SLV-998HF ($330 Store):
This is an excellent VCR. Supurb picture and sound quality. Tracking and stableness, while not even close to perfect, is as good as I've seen it. The only things it could use would be a separate 19 micron head, and the ability to add and erase index marks. I might exchange it for the Toshiba M785 ($307 Online). But I've had no experience with that brand.

Flying erase head, S-Link with other Sony gear, Jog feature on remote and on the unit

Very noisy, very bulky and limited function remote, slow response

Paid $249+shipping from the Crutchfield. I used to have a Sanyo 4-Head vcr, which I bought for about $200 about 2 years back. I did not see much improvement in the vcs as compared to the Sanyo I had. But this accomplishes what I really wanted in term of compatibility with my Sony TV/Receiver

Would I recommend it? well if you are in my situation, YES; otherwise, you will easily find something better (performance/price)

Excellent jog/shuttle; good slow motion/easy to program/good picture quality/3 sony vtr control modes

time does not display during on screen display/glow in dark remote loses strength after a period of time

I love this vcr. It is a huge improvement over my Sony SLV 900-HF, which I also like. True to Sony standards, it has excellent picture quality. The jog/shuttle is on both the remote and the vcr and works forward and in reverse. The SP/EP switch is also on both remote and vcr. The remote allows a choice of 3 sony vtr command modes, so I can control my 998 in mode 2 and my old 900 in mode 3 from the same remote. Sony has an excellent interface for programming recording, either with vcr plus or manual programming. I love the feature that displays the channel call letters and the name of the show during osd mode. The information is in my cable signal, so it's a free service.I don't like how the glow in the dark remote only has the number keys that glow; they also start to lose their glow after the lights have been out for a while. It also lacks manual tracking controls. In true Sony fashion, it seems quite noisy during rewind etc. I paid $300 from J&R Music world, I would definitely recommend it!!

Similar Products Used:

Sony SLV 900HF