Price Paid:  $299.00 from etronics

Summary:
I've owned this unit for more than a year and last night I used the advanced features for the first time. I set the recorder to record from cable with the commercial advance function. It recorded flawlessly and the commercial advance was atleast 90 percent accurate. The picture quality is excellent, even in the extended long play mode. Very natural colors and good detail. Setup is very easy and straight forward. I don't use the vcr very often but so far I am very happy with this vcr.

Strengths:
Great picture quality. Natural lifelike colors. Commercial and Movie preview advance. SVHS and SVHS-ET. Great sound quality.

Weaknesses:
Crappy remote unit, noisy fast forward and rewind.

Similar Products Used:
JVC, NEC

Price Paid:  $149.00

Summary:
i tried to tape some dvd using svhs in from dvd and svhs out to tv, with no success, any suggestion?

Similar Products Used:
pansonic vhs & svhs

Price Paid:  $210.00 from iNTERNET

Summary:
I have used at leat 6 VCR's in the past, none of them had a problem like this. Within a month, the load/unload mechanism failed intermittenly. Either I can not load the tape, or can not eject it. I send for factory repair, it works again, but only for two more months, and I don't even use it often. Now warranty period is over, another problem pops out, it keep ejecting and powering off by itself every couple of minutes. I gave up and bought JVC 4800, hoping for better luck.

Strengths:
Work with DBS

Weaknesses:
Poor load/unload mechanism, commercial advance works only sometimes, RIP after six month.

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic, ,Magnovax, GE, Toshiba

Summary:
Many of the positive reviews touch on the many useful features this VCR has to offer, and I am in agreement with them all. Many people reviewing VCR's do so just after purchase, and I wanted to add my two cents from the perspective of someone who has used the VCR heavily for just about a year.

I time shift all of my television viewing, mostly to spite commercials, and I have a network of VCR's that tape a range of programming. Among them, I have five different Panasonic units with the 4820 being the top of the line model for me.

I have noticed a longevity problem with Panasonic VCR's manufactured after 1999. In the last three years, I have had to retire two Panasonic units just after their first birthday. The reality of today's VCR market is that units are designed to be disposable, and repairing them is usually not worth the expense if it involves any circuit board work or mechanism replacement. It falters, you trash it and buy a new VCR.

Unfortunately, Panasonic's legendary limited warranty is a testament to their lack of confidence in the longevity of their product. At just 90 days labor/1 year parts, Panasonic's warranty is designed to catch manufacturing faults more than problems related to long term use of their VCR's. Labor often costs far more than the parts anyway.

I am rarely a believer in extended warranties, particularly on disposable electronics products, but heavy VCR users who can find a good one at a very low price might want to consider it for Panasonic's higher end product line. There seems to be little difference in the quality of parts between their higher end models and the budget units, and my own experience has shown me that low end or high end, the failure rate seems the same. The only factor is the price of your investment in the VCR. At more than $200 for the 4820, this is definitely high end in a marketplace where most general purpose home units sell for $130 or less. It might be worth consideration.

As to my intentions, I'll take the 4820 to a VCR repair shop offering a free estimate, but my past experience has shown that the chances of that estimate exceeding $90 is high, making its repair worthiness questionable.

If your primary use of a VCR is to watch time shifted programs or rental tapes, you can do better with a non SVHS deck that offers commercial advance and high speed fast forward and rewind. Panasonic offers several in the $120 range, which might be a better choice considering the potential longevity of the unit.

If you want SVHS, Panasonic has a new lower cost deck, the 4821 worth considering.

Strengths:
Good features at a reasonable price for a Super VHS VCR. Commercial advance useful. Has rapid fast forward and rewind.

Weaknesses:
Quality control and longevity of Panasonic VCR's at issue.

Similar Products Used:
Running five Panasonic VCR's, one Sony, one Toshiba

Price Paid:  $199.00 from amazon

Summary:
yes, i almost tried all. and none of those performs as good as the panasonic, 4820 is the only one which could produce a sharp, stable, minized in noise picture in both pre-recorded and it's own svhs-et. Color is lacking compare to my old mit 580 4 years ago. But panasonic is sharper. The machine motor is quiet during playerback. setup is easy. and best of all, this machine is actualy made with some kind of digital noise reduction and some picture enchancment circuity build in. Unlike the jvc, you have the choice of turning those fucntion on or off. These specs weren't advisted so makes people think twice before buying it. I had to try it cause it was pretty much the last option i head before the Sharp. Anyway i made the right choice. BTW, i have a 53 inche tv. if a tape look good with this vcr, it would definietly look better with a smaller tv.

Strengths:
good stable picture with svhs-et and pre-recorded

Weaknesses:
bad romte design, may feel lack of color

Similar Products Used:
jvc 7800, mit 746, philips 996, toshiba 808w