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Strengths: Reads all DVD formats without a hitch.
Set-up is automatic--just plug and play--literally!
Prominent display of timer-recording status--very important.
Easy-to-read display
Weaknesses: Remote-control would do justice to a radio-controlled airplane and might be too complex for some users.
Summary: If you want one device to play all your media--VHS, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, or any DVD produced by a studio, this is your machine. Add to it its remarkably low price and you'd be crazy to buy anything else, unless you need high-definition--and in that event, you probably wouldn't be buying a VCR-DVD combo, anyway.
Setup couldn't be easier. Just hook up the co-ax and your sound and picture patch cords to connect to the TV (and I recommend the triple-cable Composite Video patch outputs for the best fidelity and the least hassle when playing media on your TV), plug it in, and wait. Just don't touch anything for about an hour. And that's it! When you then turn it on, you will have all your channels automatically programmed, and the device will even know, often to within seconds, what time it is! If you're making timer recordings, that last is vital--because you don't want to cut off the first few seconds of the main-title theme just because your VCR clock was running slow! Trust me on that.
The downside--when you need to set up a timer recording, you'd best have your manual handy, because the setup for that is /not/ obvious. But these days, what you want in a VCR/DVD combo is a combination playback deck that will play all your studio-issued tapes, and disks that you burn on your computer. This device will give you that--and at this price, a minor difficulty with setting up a timed recording is a small trade-off. On-screen displays, once you reach them, couldn't be any clearer as to what channel you're tuning in, and what time it will start and stop. Best of all, when you save your recording schedule, you /know/ that you have a current schedule loaded--it tells you that with a bright red light that you /can't/ miss.
Which brings me to the second greatest strength of the unit, other than its fully automatic setup: displays are as easy to read as any I have seen--no small feat for a combo device that has to give you status for either a VCR or a DVD. One thing you can't do, however: you can't record from DVD to tape. The reasons for that are probably legal rather than technical--but why would you want to do that, anyway, given the wealth of information on a modern DVD that no tape could possibly hold? (Or at least not with the same quality and resolution.)
I give this device the five-star rating for one reason above all: bang for the buck. For the modest bucks, this device packs quite a bang. You will /not/ be sorry.
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