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Sony SLV-N500
Sony SLV-N500
MSRP: $ 78.00

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Rating
Reviewed by:

JNicks

(Audio Enthusiast)

Review Date
October 6, 2005

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Rate this review?

Review 1 of 1

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Boy, what a disappointment. I bought this unit to replace a household VCR that died, without giving it an audition, based on my positive experience with the Sony SLV-N50. I thought that since this was the direct replacement for the older model, it would have similar features and performance. I won't make that mistake again. This unit is inferior to the SLV-N50 in almost every way. Recording and playback performance in SP and EP is visibly poorer. The stereo audio quality is comparable, however. We have had no problems with the unit's tracking performance. The tape transport is much less precise than the N50's and overshoots up to 30 seconds when switching from fast forward / reverse to play. The firmware has fewer features, looks chintzy, and invariably tries to use its own defaults whenever you try to record something. It will not remember your last programmed settings, so the line input and recording speed have to be explicitly set for every recording. This is the only VCR I've owned that does this. Even the operation of the commercial skip function on the remote is inferior to the N50. The internal clock keeps better time that the N50, although that's not saying much (the clock on my N50 keeps poor time). Unlike the N50, this unit's auto clock set actually works. But that's hardly enough to recommend the unit. I am very disappointed in this Sony product. A decent product chopped down to a cheap commodity.

Strengths:
Auto clock set works as advertised.

Weaknesses:
Too many - avoid.

Similar Products Used:
Sony, Sanyo, Mitsubishi, Toshiba.


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