Poor video quality and sound was going from stereo to mono every minute or so. Tried cleaning heads, but no change. Compared on two diff. TV's, still had problems. Tried many different tapes and narrowed down the video and sound problems to the vcr. I plan on returning for another brand.

It's a SONY

It is not manufactured by Sony! Lousy video quality and bad sound especially in SP mode.

I happened to get this VCR in exchange for Samsung. Surprised I was to see that the Samsung and Sony were nearly identical! These even have the same FCC ID!!!! Both are manufactured in CHINA at "Factory C". Only faceplates and remotes differ. And Samsung was $15.00 cheaper and had more features. Obviously Sony simply disabled some features in order not to cannibalize their higher end sales.


BUYER BEWARE: This is not a real Sony mckoy!!!!

As much as like the Sony brand this one is going back. The SLV-N70 that my parents have is much better machine, but I think it's discontinued....

Similar Products Used:

Samsung vr81xx

I've bought two of these vcr's and they both didn't work. One had a tuner problem, the other one had a video problem, Don't but one, I like Sony but it seems like their quality control is poor. Bottom line it.......SUCKS!!!!

Similar Products Used:

panasonic, sanyo

Sharp picture on playback and it was quiet.

Lack of extra features such as VCR + and Quick timer but can do without them

I first purchased a Sony SLV-N71 to replace an old Sony VCR. That was the worst VCR and was $30 more than the SLV-N51. It had a bad picture and was very noisy. I was ready to repair the old one if all new VCR's were that bad but decided to give Sony another chance and I'm glad I did. This model has less features but has a sharp, quiet video playback. And sharpness is very important when you get use to watching digital satelite TV and DVD's. I used a new tape TDK-EHQ, in both machines.

Similar Products Used:

Sony SLV-N71 and Sony SLV-720HF(7-8 yrs. old, still works fine)