Customer Reviews

Toshiba W727 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I liked this VCR from the moment I got it. First, off I don't have cable TV and I use the antenna. When I plugged the wire into the VCR my reception actually got better. Second, I was able to program my VCR in less then a minute. The VCR is very good, makes FF and rewinding quick. There is even a commercial skip option. It was pricey, but I wanted a VCR that I would keep for awhile so it was worth it.

We thought this would be an ideal VCR. It has commercial skip, auto clock set, very fast rewind ... and it sets the cable box. This was the crucial feature for us -- program the VCR and it controls the cable and sets the channel as needed.

But there's a very major gotcha -- it only works with old fashioned cable boxes that expect two-digit channel numbers. If your system expects a three digit channel (003 rather than 03) you're out of luck. We were able to get the VCR to control the cable box, but you can see it sending only the first two digits. The cable box accepts them, but then when the third digit doesn't appear, it returns to the channel it was on. This was confirmed by the Toshiba technical supervisor we spoke to.

It's getting harder and harder to purchase the right piece of gear. All we really wanted was that these two pieces of gear (VCR and Cable box) work together. But that simple need just isn't so simple. This VCR was recommended by Consumer Reports, which indicated that it controls the cable box. They left out a small fact.

And more to the point, how can Toshiba sell something that is so modern in other respects and yet so thick-headed and old fashioned in this one critical area? What planet are they living on? Our whole cable system is being upgraded to digital. They won't even sell you analog anymore.

It came out of the box an hour ago. It's going back to the store today.

Aargh!

This is the second Toshiba W727 we have purchased at Amazon. We have never been disappointed on any Amazon purchase; all items have been excellent!

My wife is a movie/TV buff. She could be a network program critic in a flash. We have 6 VCR's, 5 cable boxes, and they are going practically all the time. Our older Toshiba M751 finally bit the dust after about 7 years of constant use. It was the main VCR that we use in our family room to view programs recorded on all the other VCR's ( 3 Sony, 2 Toshiba, and 1 JVC), so it REALLY got lots of use/abuse. We will see how this one holds up after f-fwd thru commercials, back-ups, etc. If it is anything like the M751, we will be very pleased. The other Toshiba W727 has been great so far, so we are confident the new one will also be as good. We needed C3 cable box control, and this is one that works. You will enjoy! If by chance you are not, Amazon stands behind every sale.

This VCR is top rated by Consumer Reports and lives up to it's billing. It performs very well and the price was excellent! I'd love to give it 5 stars however, as noted in another review, the directions are anything but easy to understand. In the end it was worth the effort, but it took me hours of trial and error to understand some of the programming features. Great machine, but be ready to "study" the directions.

Great machine for that price. The auto clock set is amazing. While using the VCR's tuner, it displays the channel identification (i.e. WNBC etc...)and the name of the TV show. My [expensive] HDTV can't even do that.

Playback & sound quality is on par with other Hi-Fi VCRs in the same price range.

My only complain is that there is no rewind or forward button on the VCR. You can only use the big round knob to FF & RW.

Great features, great price, looked fabulous but, it didn't work. Not long after it was plugged in my wife began to call it the possessed machine. If it was turned on with a tape in, the machine would cycle through rewinding for 2 seconds then fast forwarding for 2 seconds. It would keep doing this until we turned the VCR off.

When you inserted a tape recorded on one of our other VCRs it would adjust the tracking until the picture was a diagonal smear. When it played back a tape it made, it would fast forward for ½ second every 20 seconds. This made it impossible to watch a tape recoded on this VCR. If all this wasn't enough it stopped rewinding, pressing the rewind or fast forward button would cause the tape to fast forward.

I am very dedicated to Toshiba. I own a 32" Television, DVD and VCR from Toshiba and I am very happy with all of them. I replaced an older Toshiba VCR with this one and it is a very good VCR. Postives include: VCR Plus(makes programming a snap), Very Quick Rewind, Auto Clock Set and Channel Programming,Front A/V inputs for your camcorder make transferring to VHS tape very easy, Excellent Picture and Sound. The negatives(which are minor) include: Commercial Skip is poor - you have to press the button 1 time for every 30 seconds you want to fast forward, up to 6 times for a 3 minute max. It's easier to just press fast forward and then play when the commercial is over. The remote is full and the buttons are small. The wheel on the remote is for fast forward or rewind in small increments or used for frame by frame in the pause mode. Personally I will never use this funtion. On the VCR itself there are no forward or rewind buttons you have to turn the knob on the right. As for others who say the instructions are hard to understand, I didn't find that at all.

The first thing I noticed about the Toshiba W727 was that it doesn't have a power led. You have to pay attention to slight changes to the clock display to see if it's on or off. This is a minor point but it shows that Toshiba is cutting corners and makes you wonder what else they are cutting. This unit has the fastest rewind I've ever seen but it sounds like a jet at take-off when it goes. The auto tracking works okay and I'm glad that you can manually adjust tracking if you want. As far as the picture quality goes I think it's as good as any I've seen. Overall, I guess that I expected "Top notch" everything and got "just okay" everything.

I am quite happy with the Toshiba W727. Yes, the manual is a little hard to understand since it was obviously written by a non-native English speaker. However I had no trouble figuring out all the features. My one negative comment is in the ability to control a cable box. It can, in fact control my cable box, changing the cable box as needed for timer recordings. However, it cannot set a cable box channel higher that 125 and most of my premium channels are above 200.

to electronics fan from venice ca.
I dont know what adviser you talked to, but all you have to do for channels over 100 is first push the over 100 button,then the next two digits-example 127- push over 100 button,then 2, then 7