Is NEC N925C a better than average consumer VCR?
 

I have an NEC N925 (or N925C in Canada) sold in 1986. I found an old newspaper ad from Calgary that shows the sale price as C$700 (which would have been $500 US at the time). The VCR is very heavy and I assume was top of the line for consumers in 1986. It is also the only VCR I have that still works.

(The RCA VR694HF turns on and accepts the tape, but won't play. The Mitsubishi HS-U36 won't eject my tape or play it.)

I can't find info online on the NEC N925. Is this considered a decent consumer VCR or is it as good as it gets for a consumer model?

What's considered decent for capturing tapes now is different from back then, Editing, flying erase head and recording capabilities are not important now, what's important is Line TBC, DNR, S-Video out. If it's got one of those features it is good a good VCR if not then it is as good as the worst Funai machines except maybe for the mechanism, but at its age its probably that worst.

Understood. I'm in the market for an SVHS but this is what I have for now. I discovered that the NEC N925C has sliders called:
- Slow tracking
- Play tracking
- Sharpness

The play tracking definitely adjusts the picture if there is too much horizontal snow. The sharpness also works, but I wonder if it is worth using? Is this something found on the TBC machines, too?

VCR technology in its span time advanced from ancient knobs, multiple analog boards and manual adjustment to digital processing, auto adjustment and multiple micro processors. So it depends which generation of S-VHS machine you are talking about.