Sharp VC-H800U VHS VCR

When our old VCR went into "tape consumption" mode and ate The Lion King, we knew it was time for a new VCR. We debated getting a DVD drive, but our television is an older model and doesn't have the right plugs on it so we would have effectively lost any gains in quality the minute we hooked the thing up, plus they are still a bit pricey, and we do have a camcorder that we use that records VHS tapes. All of this combined convinced us that we were still not ready for state of the art. :-)

So, armed with that knowledge, we decided to find a really affordable 4-head VCR to hold us over until we were ready to take the big plunge and get a new TV. We shopped for a couple of days and finally decided upon the Sharp VC-H800U. This is really the bottom of the line for the Sharp line of VCR's but for the price, it is a rather feature packed little unit.

The hookup was a breeze and this VCR offers a variety of additional ports on the back so we were able to work out a great configuration with the Playstation, the television, the VCR, and the cable box. Everything is hooked up together and works together flawlessly.

This VCR offers stereo playback, onscreen display, simulated S-VHS playback, auto clock set (when used as a tuner and played through the TV), instant replay, auto search, index find, rapid rewind (360x), and variable rewind and fast forward speeds. It has other advanced features as well, but I don't remember all of them and honestly don't use them.

My favorite feature is the auto start. This is great if you have small children or other electronically challenged people in your household. Just pop a tape in and the VCR starts playing. Another feature that I like that I've never had before is the "Eject" button on the remote. It's really handy if you want the little one to take the tape out for you. You can pop it out with the remote so little fingers never have to touch the VCR itself. I also like the variable rewind and fast forward modes. If you press rewind/ff once (while viewing), the tape begins to progress in that direction. Press the button again, and the tape speeds up. For phenomenally fast rewind or ff, press stop first, then the tape direction for the 360x speed. One final feature that I like is the closed caption. While none of us are hearing impaired, there are times when one of us watches television while others in the house may be resting. The closed captions can be set to be on all the time, on only when the television is muted, or off all the time. We have ours set for "on when the TV is muted." It comes in handy when the phone rings and you mute the television. Then while one person is talking on the phone, the others can continue to watch their shows and just "read" the dialogue until the phone conversation is over.

The universal remote that comes with this unit is programmable to work with a variety of televisions and cable boxes. It doesn't happen to work with our cable box so we use the remote that came with the cable box to control the VCR some of the time. Typically though, we have both of them around. They both work the television and the VCR. If we are watching a tape, I prefer the advanced controls available on the VCR remote.

I'd say, for our money ($95) we got a superb deal on this VCR. It was the cheapest we found and since we are planning to upgrade in the near future we didn't want to spend much. We are extremely pleased with this VCR and will certainly consider Sharp products again in the future.