Price Paid:  $65.00

Summary:
When looking for a hi-fi VCR I had a choice at XSCargo (an end-of-line and refurb outlet) between a "Sylvania" (aka Funai) for $77 Cdn or this Toshiba for $99 Cdn. I was fished in by Toshiba's reputation of building great TVs and VCRs. Well, they sure fooled me!

The first thing I noticed was the "display" option was always on when watching TV or a tape.e tuner. It shows time, channel, TV show info (where available) or time, speed etc in tape play mode. For some reason the display defaults to ON necessitating pressing the display button twice on the remote to get rid of it! How irritating.

Also, the picture was jittery when tapes recorded on this were played on other VCRs and vice-versa. In fact, the same faults seem to occur in the V603 reviews on this site. Also, the linear audio (the non-Hi-Fi mono track) sounded way down in the mud when mono tapes were played on this (and vice-versa).

Since XSCargo offers no real warranty, I decided to take the lid off to see if I could correct the mistracking. Lo and behold- inside the 17-inch-wide case lies a compact mid-drive chassis no more than 12" wide. Did they think bigger was better and try to fool everyone? Anyways, I could see how the tape transport was skewing the tape at the linear audio/control track head, and after a slight adjustment to the back screw was able to make it better. Still not perfect, but at least watchable on other VCRs.

I should have stuck with the Sylvania (Funai) VCR and saved a few bucks. My daughter has been using a similar Citizen (Funai) VCR for 3 years with no problems. Does Funai make re-labeled brands for all the bottom-end VCRs out there? Their stuff is a deal compared to this Toshiba!

Strengths:
Auto clock set (if PBS ever gets it working again), displays TV show info on tuner, front & rear input jacks

Weaknesses:
program/tape display stays "ON" by default.
Slapped together at the factory with no quality control.
Jittery picture.

Similar Products Used:
Sharp VC-H945
Citizen JVHS3998 & JVHS3982 (made by Funai)