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Review 2 of 2
, from Austin, TX Summary:
In keeping with the industry trend towards "disposable" VCRs, this unit's physical construction leaves a lot to be desired. It is very light weight and quite "plasticy." The construction quality of the remote is also poor, using very cheap plastic. Even though the remote is illuminated, the light is so weak you can hardly tell. I use a Marantz R2000 universal remote so it does not really matter to me anyhow. Moreover, one can't expect too much from a top-of-the-line model that was purchased for just $199 (Supreme Video).
The strong point of this VCR is the terrific picture during tape playback. The picture has good resolution (for plain VHS) and very low noise. Other nice features include the commercial advance (which so far has worked perfectly - much to my surprise), the large display which is readable from across the room, and the reasonably fast tape drive mechanism.
In my mind, the weakest part of this unit is the tuner. It has substantially worse performance than the tuner in my circa-1992 Sony XBR television. Specifically, the video frequency response is obviously poor, resulting in a soft picture with little detail. Furthermore, the colors (especially reds) appear to be overly saturated and the skin tones are abnormal compared to the tuner in the XBR or the tuner in my Sony VCR. Please note that I do not have cable or satellite but instead rely on broadcast signals via rabbit ears. Since I live in the city however, the signal strengths are quite good and I usually get crisp noise-free pictures using the tuner in my TV or other VCR.
The on screen display is good; however, in my opinion the OSD in recent Sony VCRs is better.
Overall a decent value; however, since I do a lot of time-shifting I will probably buy another VCR with a better tuner and SVHS-ET and relegate the Panasonic to dubbing duty. Strengths:
Terrific tape playback. Weaknesses:
Poor tuner.
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