"UCLAN" wrote in message
...
William Sommerwerck wrote:

The most annoying thing I've found is in the user interface for
programming them. Is it just me or are they always extremely
badly designed?

Both. The Sony SL-HF900 had a superbly simple system that I won't
waste time describing. I've seen other VCRs whose programming system
is so difficult to follow that even an instruction book isn't of much
use.

The timer programming on the HS-U4xx, HS-U7xx, and HS-HD2000U
is a snap. The HS-HD2000U even lets the user enter all of the info
(on time/off time/channel, etc.) into the remote, then press "transmit",
and all of the info is sent to the VCR. Nifty.

My Hi8 Sony Hi8 VCR has such a system. But I'd be willing to bet that most
people couldn't use it, because the utterly trivial and obvious concept that
you have to enter the channel, day, and start/stop times is completely
beyond their comprehension. Most people act by rote, not by understanding.

The Sony SL-HF900 was about as simple as you could get. You pressed a big
bar, and the setting you were to change blinked. You spun a big knob to
change it, then pressed the bar again. This was repeated until everything
was set.