Greg's experiences with the with the Sonwa SV600 video recorder

In early 2004 a couple of things became clear to me:

• Our video (tape) recorders, only a few years old, were becoming unreliable and would need expert attention.
• Video recorders are becoming cheaper. Expert attention is not.
• Video tape recorders are obsolescent.

After an abortive attempt to have our recorders repaired on the cheap, we saw a special offer in the flyer from Coles, an Australian supermarket chain: a Sonwa 6-head video recorder for AUD 129. Considering that overhauling our other recorders would probably cost $100 each, after which we'd still have second-hand video recorders, it sounded like a bargain. We bought one.

The good news: it works. The firmware, and probably the design, is several years old. The firmware is almost identical to the AIWA machine we bought six years ago. It works (a whole lot better than the Digitrex DVD recorder, but that's not saying much), and setup was a breeze, including automatic (and correct!) setup of the tuner.

So what's the down side? Not much, really. We were so happy with it that we bought a second one a few weeks later, by which time Coles had lowered the price to $99. About the only complaints we have are:

• Since the price is so low that you might easily buy two (or even more) of them, it's a pity that the remote control doesn't handle more than one video recorder. When using the control, you need to cover the window of the recorder you don't want to talk to. This is hardly an unusual situation, of course, and one reason we used to buy video recorders of different manufacturers.
• The display on the recorder can't be set up to display the tape time. There is an on-screen display, but it doesn't work some of the time (during search operations, if I remember correctly).
• Coles doesn't really have a support organization. One of the remote controls developed a sticky key (not really an issue, since we had two of them), but since it was under guarantee we thought we might as well get it changed. Coles don't repair, they just exchange, and they insisted on the return of the entire unit, cables and all. Well, they did until I suggested that we should discuss the matter with the South Australian Office of Consumer and Business Affairs, after which they realized that they could simply remove the remote control and send back the rest.