Good feature set

PATHETIC rewind and f/f speed on short tapes

Actually an SLV-N70, the internals are the same as the -N80.

I just purchased this VCR today, and it's going right back to the store. The feature set is fairly complete, and some things like commercial skip, etc, seem to work well, BUT...

The main thing we use the VCR for is to play children's tapes for our 2-year-old. Many children's tapes are short (1/2 hour or so), and Sony VCRs for some reason fast forward and rewind MUCH slower for shorter tapes.

The SLV-N70 is even slower in this respect than the SLV 760 I owned which just broke. Fast forward and rewind speed for normal (T-120, etc) length tapes seems "normal" but not super fast.

I wish this thing wasn't simply trying to be "smart" - it's trying to slow down so as to not break the tape, but 3 minutes to rewind a 30-minute tape??? Come on, Sony, you can do better.

Similar features are available for less money with other makes. I went for the Sony name, and liked the remote. Value is not fantastic. Overall rating suffers because of the rewind, f/f issue.

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Sony SLV 760

Inexpensive replacement for broken vcr.

picture quality is suspect, especially depending on the brand of tape.

I've lost 3 vcrs over the past 10 years. The have a knack of dying right after the warranty expires. The NV81, seemed like a decent and inexpensive replacement. Tapes matter with this machine. One recording resulted in so many dropouts, that the picture was not watchable. I bought a new 10 hour tape and find that the picture is acceptable, if not somewhat grainy on the SP mode. The grain can be eliminated by switch off the Adaptive recording feature on play back. Its advantage is that it records very nicely on EP. The Adaptive control may improve the EP mode but results in excessive sharpness on the SP mode. There is color distortion that becomes obvious if you compare the playback against the source. If you don't make the comparision, then your eyes won't know the difference.

The bad side is that touted features do not work, such as the commercial pass feature or the automated clock set. These features may depend on control signals sent along with the video. I don't know if my cable company is sending them or not. The rewind is quite slow. The glow in the dark feature of the remote is simply a dumb idea. It does control both the vcr and my Toshiba tv, which is a plus.

My summary is this. There are better products on the market. This one cut it because of price and because I didn't realize that American had only a 15 day return policy, versus 30 days for Best Buy. In other words, I'm stuck with it. If I need a higher quality machine, then I'll wait until I move and get a DSS and a hard drive recorder, as my landlord won't allow a dish on the property. Since the cable sucks, why supplement it with an expensive vcr.

Great picture quality, decent audio.

Slow rewind and searching. Tape guide function is lousy. Some color problems.

This is a decent VCR with great VHS picture quality. The resolution is good and I see virtually no noise. However, there is a little color distortion, which makes people look a little yellow and sometimes reds will be too bright. This also happened with my other Sony VCR, and the color distortion gets worse with use. There is generally distortion on VCRs with only RCA type jacks, but the Sony's is a little worse than normal.

There are many useful recording features. There is a little knob on the front panel which allows you to program the time of a program you would like to record without turning the television on. However, the VCR takes approximately 20 seconds, starts recording, and then takes another 7 or 8 seconds to calibrate while recording. The VCR plus gold is nothing special. The only difference that I can see with the regular VCR plus and the gold, is that has the ability to automatically map all the channels and the call numbers of the channels. The display feature is useful, it notes the remaining tape length and where you are in the tape. There is a tape guide feature which indexes what you have recorded on a tape by when you started, stopped, and on what channel. I don't find this feature very useful because who remembers what was on 5 Mondays ago at 9 on channel 2? The tape guide also gets screwed up after recording a few times on one tape.

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JVC SVHS VCR and an older Sony VHS VCR with editing features.

Nice "wega"-style looks

Poor, grainy, flat picture.

Beautiful out of the box, gives the feeling that this is exceptional value...until you record something. The images are generally very grainy and pasty-looking. Not so bad with pre-recorded tapes, but generally a big disappointment. General facilities are otherwise pretty good. Sony's next level vcrs are a worthwhile improvement. The only reason I can imagine to buy the SLV N80 is if you want something to look nice UNDERNEATH your Wega TV. But I prefer something to look good ON my Wega. Thumbs down.
PS: I also tried the (black) SLV N80. No improvement and possibly actually worse.

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Sony and Toshiba vcrs

fit and finish, picture detail, sharpness control

Reality Regenerator feature

I bought this unit based on positive comments on etown and productopia.com. In addition, I've owned another Sony VCR and had good luck with it.

This model and other new ones from Sony have gotten mixed notices on audioreview. I'm quite satisfied with the performance of the N80, feeling that it's close to as good as you're going to get from the standard VHS format. I seriously considered getting a Panasonic but it seemed to have a cheap, plasticky feel (especially the remote) compared to the Sony.

I like to do a lot of time shifting of movies from HBO, etc. The tuner in the VCR is indistinguishable from the one in my Hitachi TV. Compared to my older VCRs, this one offers significantly greater detail and more vivid color rendition. Old tapes look fine as well. I like having an adjustable sharpness control, which I prefer in the lowest setting. Audio quality is good. I was intrigued by the observation of other reviewers that the sound is a bit muted. Perhaps it is a little rolled off in top end, but I'm not sure.

The Reality Regenerator feature (pretentious name!) is supposed to sharpen edges and detail in the picture. The effect is subtle at best. On some tapes, it makes a small improvement; on others, it just increases picture noise. You can't adjust it from the remote so it's a pain to operate. I think Sony could have done better in this regard.

All in all, I think this VCR is a reasonable choice and deserves a 4-star rating.

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sony, toshiba vcrs

This silver VCR is something new from sony, They are starting to make silver stuff, TV, DVD, reciver and now VCR.
I recommend this one for those who are shopping to match their sound system.

This is a good one

Not a bad value for the money, except for:

- Picture has a more grain to it in SP than I am use to.
- Cannot key in the channels directly when using the remote to operate a non-Sony brand TV. This is annoying!
- Cannot set the VCR display to always show the TV channel you are watching with te VCR tuner. It appears on the VCR for only a few seconds and then disappears or you have to push the display button to see it on the TV screen.
- The VCR tuner contributes some graininess to the picture compared the the TV tuner. This is unusual, my previous top of the line Sony VCR tuner actually had a better picture than my TV tuner.
- Tape is ridiculously slow to eject.
- Instruction manual is small and easy to lose.
- Remote is not backlit.
- Does not display standard symbols for tape actions such as play, rewind etc...
- Menu items are small and difficult to see.
- Too many submenu items...so you have to wade through a sea of menus and submenus to find what you are looking for.
- Picture depth is somewhat flat.
- No tracking adjustment on the remote.
- Made in Maylasia, not Japan!

picture/audio quality

slow rewind

I had to upgrade to sony because of my sony receiver and I needed a stereo VCR. I love the picture/audio quality in playback. I do not have a wega TV (YET!) but the silver color is cool.
Bottom Line, picture quality is great and due to my good cables, the audio is great too. I paid $190 for it and it is worth every penny. Only get if you have a sony receiver and sony tv though!

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toshiba

Nice looking, WEGA series style, crisp clean pics, nice price,

Remote not backlit

I purchased this VCR to match up with my sony tv i have bought recently. It looks so sweet as compared to most of the dull black VCRs that are out now-adays.

This VCR was bought online and I got it for $159, that including S&H.

If you want a VCR that looks great and is of awesome quality, then this is one that your guests will leave and remember!

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Sony old school VCR, RCA VCR