The remote is very well laid out. I don't miss a jog shuttle wheel, on either remote or deck; I prefer button controls to jog shuttle wheels, anyway. I have *not* had any problem as another user reported here playing commercially prerecorded videos, and I use this VCR a lot for that. This same reviewer complained that when editing videotape from a camcorder, there is a delay in this VCR coming off pause into record mode. In my experience, this delay is between one-half a second and one second, normal and consistent enough that one can learn to compensate for it. (My understanding is that this delay is a function generally of the VHS design of tape transport, unlike the faster-responding-off-record-pause Beta VCRs. My camcorder-tape-editing Sony VHS VCR did the same thing.) I've also never had a problem loading a videocassette, or with jitter in pause, as another reviewer here reported. I've not had any problems requiring service at all. My nits to pick: programming this VCR to record a tape at a later time could be more intuitive (so what else is new?); once you figure it out and practice it a few times, though, it's easy and quick enough. I also miss the (hardly ever seen, anymore) option of being able to manually set uncompressed sound levels on videotape, a pitfall when recording music or dialogue with a wide dynamic range. And this VCR and its remote will not operate the digital-cable-TV decoder (General Instruments Starfone) used here for AT&T digital cable, so this cable box has to be left on with one correct channel, manually set, when I program this VCR to record cable TV; the manual says this VCR operates other (older?) GI cable boxes. But these are minor nits. I would buy this VCR again.