Picked up this at a garage sale. No instructions, but found a youtube video explaining how to set it up. Small buttons on the top of it are to set the day and time. The big dials set, in ten minute intervals the time to start recording, and when to stop recording. You need to have the cable box powered on and desired channel selected, and the VCR also powered on and tuned to the cable box. TV need not be on. When it's time to start recording, this thing steps thru many record button IR codes, one of which hopefully your VCR will respond to. It doesn't know which code works your VCR; it just plays all 77 or so different popular codes. It takes about a minute to get thru them all. Same thing for stop. It essentially is equivalent to the user pressing record on the VCR's remote, and later the user pressing stop on the VCR's remote.
If you have multiple VCRs in the room, they all will be told to record and to stop at about the same time.
We have a VCR that often forgets its own programming, so this thing could come in handy in using that VCR.