Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips VRB664AT 4-Head HiFi VCR

I'm not an electronics guru by any standard, but when I plugged this VCR in, it seemed like it did most of the work for me. I Followed the instructions in the manual about halfway and the clock was functioning perfectly and the VCR remote that came with it controlled my TV at the same time. For me this was very handy, as I usually don't want to program, or get to indepth with anything like this. The VCR has great sound and picture, and works like a charm in general, and has no fuss programming functions as far as I was concerned. Perfect for the person who just wants to plug it in and play a video.

If you tape a lot of show, this VCR is frustrating to program.

1. It only has 2 speed:SP and SLP.

2. There is no program button on the remote! You have to use the menu button, then select programming on the screen.

3. Once you select programming you have to select: once, daily, weekly or review program. So you never see all your programming together! You have to go to review and look at it one at a time! Even my 7 years old Sharp has a prog button and you can see all 8 programs at once!

4. It's very awkward to change a program. You see numbers in a row (12345678)and you have to push on the number you want to add/delete program. I couldn't figure out how to change the program. I had to clear the program and start over!

Please, get a Panasonic. They make the best VCRs. Consumer Report says so 2 years in a row at least. I just wish we could have 2 Panasonics but we can't since the remote would work on both of them (you turn one on, they both turn on, etc!)

Setting this unit up was the easiest ever. The manual is not bad. The downsides are that the indicators for recording processes are to small on the face of the unit. When you are doing a timed recording and watching another show, there is no indicator of the channel that is being recorded. You do not know if you are recording the right program until you look at the results. The cost of the unit is ... cheaper at the local retail outlet.

We just got this VCR, so we haven't had a huge amount of experience with it. I wanted to comment on the great sound for such a low priced VCR. Important point - we had absolutely no problems setting up the VCR, setting the channels, programming, etc. It is pretty much the same as other VCRs - so if you can use any other VCR, don't be scared. The remote buttons light up red when in use, which I find cool, but not extremely useful. The display has a large clock on it, which I like, but displays that show a tape is in and whether the unit is on is too small to see 3-4 feet away.

I guess I pretty much believe most all VCRs are the same, they just look a little different. We have a 10 year old TV so picture quality isn't much of an issue. We wanted the MTS stereo sound because we run the sound of our TV from the VCR to our stereo, and this sounds great. Good luck.

The remote control is poorly designed and the console controls and indicators make this VCR difficult and confusing to operate.

The remote control is backlit only behind 6 buttons, the 6 buttons that are specially shaped (making them easy to find in the dark) and most commonly used. Less commonly used buttons are arranged poorly, such as the "slow" button a row above and to the right of the "slow speed" buttons, next to the VCR+ button, which pops up a blue screen to enter a VCR+ number and requires another key sequence to escape from.

The play/stop/rewind/fast-forward buttons are laid out in quadrants on the remote. On the console, the play/PAUSE/rewind/fast-forward buttons are laid out in the same manner. The stop/eject button is off to the side. The console has a Menu button, but since the remote control quardant is needed to program, the console buttons make programming difficult (Stop, the bottom button on the remote, is the "down-arrow" and is off to the left side on the console, while the bottom bottom button on the console, "pause", does nothing).

There is an eject button on the REMOTE! It is in a prominent location at the top, and is taller than many of the other buttons. I cannot tell you how many times we have accidentaly ejected a tape when trying to pause it.

The on-screen status display automatically turns off 10 seconds after you press any button, which is useless if you are rewinding or fast-forwarding a tape and want to stop it by watching the timer. If you press the "status" button on the remote, the display again times out after 10 seconds, so rewinding a tape to a specific point requires much dexterity and quick reflexes.

If rewinding when "memory mode" is turned on, the VCR will slow down to a near stop when 3 minutes from 0:00, and will not allow you to stop or play or even eject until it completes rewinding.

The only way to check a "program" is to review each and every program in sequence, without even being able to scroll backward in the list, only forward.

The current VCR mode ("PLAY", etc) replace the time display on the console for a few seconds whenever the mode changes. This is mostly useless, since the mode is also displayed onscreen. However, missing from the console display is the current channel, and if reception is not perfect, the on-screen status disappears, so you cannot see the current channel.

The remote control has many buttons that switch functions when in TV mode, but are completely useless with the TV. These include play/stop/etc, TV/VCR, pause, and more. The mode buttons for TV, VCR, and CABLE are directly below the MUTE button and the numeric pad, so are very easily pressed by accident. In addition, since the sequence to program the universal remote is MUTE-TV-NUMBER-NUMBER, or MUTE-VCR-NUMBER-NUMBER, it is EXTREMELY common to accidentally reprogram the remote, rendering it useless until reprogrammed correctly.

The picture and sound quality seem to be satisfactory.

Also, as another reviewer pointed out, it is extremely NOISY. This machine is in my bedroom and wakes my wife up when performing any action (rewinding, stopping, beginning to play, etc).