Price Paid:  $150.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
When my top of the line Panasonic SVHS began to have issues recording (after a lot of other issues over the years), I decided to buy a down and dirty basic SVHS machine. DVD was here and I still wanted to be able watch my old tapes and to record from time to time.
I saw this discontinued machine on sale at Tweeter for about $150, so I picked it up. Having never researched Toshiba or really not considered their products, I was amazed at the quality of the video reproduction this unit gave me.
In addition, with the limited recording and playback I do when it comes to video and audio reproduction, this unit blows away my former (and much older) top of the line Panasonic.
It took me awhile to figure out the remote (I actually had to read the manual), but now I am quite happy with this product.
There does not to be any noise problems during use, nor any video noise on playback or recording. Perhaps it is just because I rarely now use video tape, but I am glad I now have a basic SVHS machine I can depend on.

Strengths:
Superb basic SVHS recording and playback.

Weaknesses:
Confusing remote and counter intuitive operations.

Similar Products Used:
Akai, Panasonic

Price Paid:  $349.00 from Nebraska Furniture M

Summary:
This is by far the biggest piece of crap I have ever owned. If it is supposed to be the ultimate VCR for a Home Theater and is priced that way, then why isn't it. The Video is so bad that I have not kept one copy of anything I have recorded. I have a satellite system that is digital S-VHS and it has a crystal clear picture routed through the VCR via S-VHS cable. When you go to record that signal you get so much picture noise that it isn't even worth watching. Ah so you may think this could be a satellite issue. Nope. I also have a $400.00 antenna on the roof for my local channels and have that routed through the VCR via cable. Again I enjoy a crystal clear picture on my t.v. and when I go to record this signal I get the same exact noise that is blurry and just plain irritating to watch. The only time that the video is half way decent is when I watch a pre-recorded movie. I don't even want to get started on the remote lets just call that useless. I have an old JVC HI-FI that was replaced for one simple reason the remote went bad. I would have been months ahead of the game and much happier using my universal remote. Do not waste your money on this machine. And Nebraska Furniture Mart after 30 days was completely non-customer satisfaction when I tried to get this replaced by a different model. They did not even attempt to try to correct the problems.

Strengths:
I'm sorry there is NONE to list

Weaknesses:
Lets just say that this Toshiba product is the worst electronic equipment I have EVER purchased.

Price Paid:  $355.00

Summary:
I was impressed that this vcr had 6heads. I was hopefull that it would carry me till dvd recorders improved and came down in price. Boy is this a piece of junk. The cannel converter is really SLOW and a wide colour bar appears inbetween stations. The actual noise from the motor is really bad.(louder than my volume from my system)Picture quality is no great hell,my old 4head marantz put it to shame.

Strengths:
The vcr is pretty.

Weaknesses:
Almost every function is poor in performance. Don't buy this.....

Price Paid:  $120.00

Summary:
I bought this one as a refurbished. For $120 I got a good S-VHS machine. The problem that I noticed so far is that the recording in regular VHS mode have better resolution than the so called S-VHS ET mode. The S-VHS ET mode should be better but I compared it already several times and it is the same. Maybe that's why it became refurbished. Overall, the performance is good and I have no complains for the price that I paid for it.

Strengths:
Fast rewind,smooth tape loading,nice built and appearance.

Weaknesses:
Slow channel change, poor on screen display and menu format.

Similar Products Used:
Sharp VC-H800
Panasonic

Price Paid:  $240.00 from HD-TV ($380 Canadian)

Summary:
This VCR is o.k.

Oh well, my VCR died so I just went out to a store and bought a Toshiba VCR (got a Toshiba TV so wanted 1 less remote to handle). Unfortunately I forgot to ask the guy if I could return the VCR if I didn't like it... and the recipt says "all sales final, no refund, no exchanges".

D'oh.

I was using my Toshiba 40H80 40" monitor, and have the VCR hooked up directly to the monitor for this eval.

The good points. The VCR is nicely contructed. The tape loading is smooth and machine noise is minimal.

The SVHS-ET mode does seem to give more scan lines of recording. I don't have specific equipment and test patterns to do an absolute test.

Unfortunately there seems to be more noise in SVHS-ET mode than normal VHS mode. This is evident in high contrast areas of the picture near edges. VHS mode doesn't seem to have this problem to the same extream, but it slightly more blury.

The remote sucks... honestly is sucks. Why do I have to hit 2 buttons (that are normally covered) to record, and another 2 buttons (that are normally covered) to turn on the timer? This is 2001 right, not the 1980's?

Channel switch is patheticly slow... really, really slow.

I honestly think I would have passed on buying this in favour of either a cheaper VHS VCR, or the slightly more expensive Panasonic SVHS-ET (even though it's in silver).

*sigh* just give me my dream machine of a DV recorder that records to VHS tapes.

Strengths:
SVHS-ET support, nice feel to the product, smooth tape loading

Weaknesses:
noisy SVHS-ET, remote is terrible, menu functions inaccessable if VCR is in RW/FF mode

Similar Products Used:
JVC HR-S3800U