Tech Reviews -- Smart Vcrs Make Life Easier For Couch Potatoes

Life just keeps getting better for the true couch potato.

First, remote controls freed us from having to walk across the room to change channels.

Then, videocassette recorders made it possible to watch taped programs and movies that could be stopped and started at will.

Now, our overworked thumbs are getting a break with a new generation of smart VCRs that can automatically skip through commercials and movie previews.

This pair of technology breakthroughs goes under the names "Commercial Advance" and "Movie Advance." Commercial Advance was introduced two years ago; the first VCRs with Movie Advance arrived earlier this year; and RCA in July shipped the first models with both features.

I just spent almost an entire day - at company expense, of course - flopped on my family-room sofa checking out both Commercial Advance and Movie Advance on a new RCA VR691HF VCR, which sells for about $350. I'm pleased to report both of them actually work.

Thomson Consumer Electronics, which sells TVs and VCRs under the GE, RCA and ProScan names, has a number of models with Commercial Advance and/or Movie Advance, some for as little as $250. The twin technologies are also available in a smattering of models from Hitachi, Panasonic and Samsung, with additional units expected soon from JVC and Mitsubishi. For more information on the RCA models, call 800-336-1900.

Commercial Advance, I discovered, is completely hands-off. The VCR goes to work as soon as it finishes taping a program, with the tape rewinding as the letters "CA" flash on the VCR's display. The VCR then fast-forwards through the recorded program, looking for and marking the tell-tale quarter-second to half-second of black screen that denotes the beginning and end of commercial breaks - a gap so short that viewers don't usually see it.

Next, the VCR goes through the tape again and measures the length between each of these marks. Any interval measuring 30, 60, 90, 120 or 180 seconds is identified as a commercial break. This process takes 10 to 20 minutes, by the way, so you can't view recorded programs immediately after taping ends.

When you're ready to watch, you just rewind the tape as usual and hit "Play." At the split second a commercial begins - voila! - the VCR goes into fast-forward, then stops just a second or two before the program resumes.

I put Commercial Advance through the most rugged challenge I could think of: commercial-laden back-to-back showings of "The Flintstones" and "The Simpsons," as well a four-hour installment of "The Godfather Saga" on the USA cable network.

My thumb stayed off the remote control for almost the entire six hours. The only mistakes: Commercial Advance fast-forwarded through the closing credits of "The Flintstones," and failed to zip through one commercial break each in "The Simpsons" and "The Godfather Saga."

You can choose not to watch commercials zooming along at hyperspeed and instead have the TV screen go to solid blue during the breaks, but I found the sudden emptiness disconcerting.

Movie Advance requires only slightly more effort. After inserting a prerecorded movie into the VCR, you hit the "Search" button on the remote. A message pops onto the screen asking if you want to go directly to the start of the movie, or stop at the first preview.

If you select the first option, the VCR fast-forwards several minutes past the start of the movie - enough to be sure it's not yet another preview - and then rewinds to the exact starting point. The process is the same, although quicker, for previews. If you don't like the preview you're watching, you can hit the Search button again to skip ahead to the next preview.

I rented three new releases - "The Mirror Has Two Faces," "The People vs. Larry Flynt" and "Ransom" - to check out Movie Advance, and the performance on each tape was flawless.

I also realized how much fluff is now packed onto the beginning of movies on tape; my three choices had seven to 11 minutes of previews, ads and pitches of movie soundtracks.

In short, Commercial Advance and Movie Advance actually make life a tiny bit easier. This clearly isn't a cure for cancer or a guarantee of world peace, but I like these features enough - especially Commercial Advance - that I'll be looking for them the next time I buy a VCR.