Is there an easy to use vcr?

Bob, my partner at work ( Dan ) also has an S-VHS machine. From what i can recall, he's pretty happy with his. I'll try to find out the specifics and let you know.

As far as the JVC goes, not only is the programming less than fun and the manual not very easy to follow, it also uses some funky "remote sensor" that you have to put in front of the cable box / satellite receiver in order to do auto turn-on, etc... I don't remember the specifics as i gave up on trying to get it to work. It was / is a total joke. Sean
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It is as I feared. The present generation of designers cannot achieve an easy-to-use vcr. They probably also work on gps systems for cars and may have had something to do with Windows 98. The 10 year old Sony, formerly owned by Rphsvc, was apparently the peak and it is no more. Anyway, thanks for all the comments.

Hi there. Maybe I should add my two cents worth, given the fact that I own a commercial video editing and media duplication company. As several have already mentioned - most VCRs are less than "user friendly" when it comes to programming them. I've owned several dozen models since the early 1980s, and for pure simplicity the "VCR+" models seem to be the easiest to operate.
If you can find one, get a model that has S-VHS recording capability. The top of the line Sony models are generally pretty good - though quite expensive. Most of the current crop of stuff from JVC & Panasonic are just junk. In fact, in the televison industry we call JVC the "Junky Video Company" since many of their professional products are lacking - just as their consumer lines are.
Another idea you might want to seriosly look into, is to buy a home DVD recorder. Most of them have a built in tuner;
and the video quality is superb - much better than even digital video tape. And I think I can say that with some confidence, given the fact that my company has equipment for all but two of the broadcast high deffinition formats.

No, this is not.

Tok2000's comment is a bit flippant, but it's dead on the money. Getting a Tivo to record your soaps is 999999999x easier than doing it with a VCR. (OK, so the VCR is .000000001 and very hard, so even Tivo isn't so easy, but hopefully you see my point...) If you really, really must put the stuff on tape, I'd suggest a Tivo and a dirt-cheap VCR. But you don't have to program the VCR - just tell Tivo to dump to tape, then press the record button on the VCR. If you botch it up, tell Tivo to play again and start over.

Of true VCRs, I have had a couple of Sonys (1992 and 1996), an old JVC (1986), a mid-range 1995 Mitsubishi, and a pretty new JVC S-VHS unit (HR-9600U, got it in 2000). The 1996 Sony is the easiest to program; the current Sonys are almost the same user interface, so should be the least bad of the lot. The HR-9600U is not nearly as a bad as the Mit or the old JVC. But again, none of these hold a candle to changing the paradigm and using Tivo or Replay.