In and effort to get a little more fit, I recently bought a treadmill. We live in a rather small home and since I run a daycare out of my living room and sun porch I knew I couldn't have a treadmill anywhere that the children could get near it.

I decided that it would go in the basement, which was fine except that I knew that if I couldn't watch TV while walking I'd end up not using my treadmill as much as I would like to.

We had an extra 19" television so took that downstairs but since we don't have cable down there I knew I needed a way to use the television. A VCR was the answer. I tape Dr. Phil everyday upstairs and figured I could walk and watch his show as I walked.

I purchased the Sansui VHF6010 VHS VCR and even managed to set it up by myself!

This is a very basic, inexpensive 4 head hi-fi VCR that I purchased for only $49.95 at my local ShopKo. Since I was only using it mainly for viewing tapes I didn't really think that I needed a lot of bells and whistles.

Included in the box were the VCR, a remote control, which requires two AAA batteries that are not included, instruction booklet and a cable for hooking up the VCR to the television.

Since I wasn't hooking this VCR up to our cable the set up was pretty straight forward. The instruction booklet shows how to hook-up with and without a cable hook-up.

Features

As I said, this is a pretty basic VCR, but does include:***
 High Quality Picture Technology…in other words it will give the best picture possible.
 4 Video Heads….for optimal picture playback
 Hi-Fi Stereo Sound….they say the sound quality rivals that of compact disks…not sure I believe that one.
 8-Program/1 month programmable timer….means I can set up 8 TV programs to be recorded and can set it to record the same program everyday. When my hubby adds cable downstairs I may have it preset to record Dr. Phil for me. That would be very helpful and I wouldn't have to remember to turn my upstairs VCR on at 3:00 everyday.
 On Screen Display and Programming…so that when you change channels the TV will show that for a few seconds. You can also set up things, such as the clock, using the on screen display.
 Digital Auto Tracking….automatically adjusts itself to the best picture possible.
 181 Channel Tuner….this VCR receives VHF and UHF channels and up to 113 cable channels.
 One-Touch Record (OTR)…so that you can press the REC/OTR button and program the VCR to record for up to 6 hours.
 Automatic Power On….so that the VCR automatically turns on when a cassette tape is inserted.
 Automatic Playback….if the erase prevention tab isn't in place the tape will automatically begin playing when the tape is inserted into the VCR.
 Automatic Rewind-Stop-Eject- Power Off…pretty self- explanatory.
 Automatic Replay….when the AutoRepeat option is on tapes will automatically play over and over…not sure why I would need this, but it is there.
 3 Languages
 Slow Motion….slow steady playback at 1/10 normal speed.
 Frame by Frame Advance….allows you to view the tape one frame at a time.
 Real Time Tape Counter…to help locate programs that you have on the tape.
 2 Speed SearchԵ or 5 times normal speed SP search.
 3 Speed Playback… plays back in SP, LP and SLP.
 2 Speed Record…records in SP or SLP
 Front Audio/Video In Jacks…for connecting other VCR's or devices for dubbing.

My Feelings

I ended up with this VCR because I wanted one right away and Wal*Mart was out of their inexpensive model. The funny thing is, I knew I recognized the box and after getting it home realized that I had bought this same model for my son a few years ago. He's still using it, so I guess that it is pretty durable and can be used for a long time.

Setting it up was very simple, just attach the included cord into the back of the television and then the back of the VCR. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it myself until I looked at the booklet and realized that there was nothing to it. I had it up and ready to go in just a matter of minutes.

I popped a tape in, hit play and that was that. Very simple and straight forward. It does rewind tapes a little slower than the other VCR's we have, but since I'm using it to get in as much walking as possible that really isn't a problem.

The remote is a smallish, fits well in your hand type with easy to use buttons. I mostly use the Fast Forward and Play buttons, and like the size they are and the ease of finding these buttons without looking at the remote.

Both the remote control and the VCR are completely black. This didn't matter much to me, since this one is down in our basement, but it is aesthetically attractive and would fit in well with our other electronic equipment upstairs.

I would recommend this VCR to anyone looking for an easy to use, inexpensive VCR.

***This information paraphrased from the Instruction booklet.