Work with DBS

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

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.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic, ,Magnovax, GE, Toshiba

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

good stable picture with svhs-et and pre-recorded

bad romte design, may feel lack of color

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.

Similar Products Used:

jvc 7800, mit 746, philips 996, toshiba 808w

Cheap SVHS

Playback limitations, remote

I was so disappointed with this VCR that I ended up returning at and sacrificing my shipping fees. Since it has received so many other great reviews I must have gotten a defective unit. However, based on my experience with it I was uninterested in an exchange. It was unable to play any tapes previously recorded on other machines in EP mode -resulted in message stating "heads need cleaning". Playback of commercially recorded tapes was OK but colors not as vivid as on my older Toshiba M633. Had to press pause twice, and then manually adjust tracking to get clear stills. Unable to get clear slow motion even with manual tracking adjustments. Lighted remote buttons where limited to only the four tape movement controls. Use of the shuttle dial, or inadvertantly touching it while handling the remote, results in pausing the tape and having to hit the play button to continue. A new Toshiba has been ordered.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, Fisher

Inexpensive, Made in Japan, Metal shell, remote has an eject button

Remote slightly annoying but easy to learn, can't program by punching in #'s

While I haven't had this unit long enough to see if it has serious long term problems, it's survived the abuse of living in a college dorm for a couple semesters and proofing home-done subtitle tapes. I got this to replace my tape-eating 3800's and I am extremely impressed and happy with the unit.

My only real gripe is the lack of serious control while FF/REW and shuttling. I love the fast FF/REW when I'm done with a tape, but when I'm trying to find something it can be a pain. The shuttle wheel on the remote isn't the most sensitive either, and it gets hard to find an exact point (annoying when I have to create a timecoded list of comments or synch something up)

Still, despite this I am very happy with this model. I don't think Onecall sells this one anymore (they sell the one a model down from this) and that I got it on special, but if you can hunt this model down it's worth the price. I expect nothing but good things to happen with this model.

Similar Products Used:

JVC HR-S3800 (YUK!)

Great VCR! Returned a JVC 3800 because it was too noisy and got this. This baby is quiet...picture quality is a tad nicer than the JVC in all speeds and SVHS and SVHS-ET mode.Colors are more natural and there is less video noise. SVHS taped from DSS looks pretty darn good. Commercial Advance has worked perfectly so far. And its not black! Remote sucks, but what do you expect? I do like being able to tweak tracking with it, though.All in all, I highly reccomend it! Getcha one!

SVHS Picture
Great Tape Indexing

Cluttered remote with small buttons... but avarage for the industry

This was my second S-VHS VCR purchase in a year as I decided to install another unit upstairs for the wife. Originally I sought to get an additional JVC HR-S7600U, but found that only the newer HR-S7800U model was available. Foolishly instead of adding features JVC had decided to remove some from this "high end" model and the HR-S7800U no longer had the desired Commercial Advance capability. Ultimately this led me to consider Panasonic and the PV-VS4820, a VCR that beats my S-VHS JVC unit hands down in almost every way.

Both units display Super VHS images with the expected high line resolution. However, my impression is that the JVC picture is noticeably more grainy and bleeds some of its orange colors over the edge. In contrast, the Panasonic yields a slightly softer image that most will find preferable. Audio features between both units are comparable.

Where the PC-VS4820 truly shines is in its intelligent tape indexing. You can quickly find taped programs by accessing a simple menu that lists the dates, times, and genre of each program recorded on the current tape. Simply select the program and the VCR takes you right to the start. When you have several shows on a six hour tape and you want to find one hidden somewhere in the middle of it, this is incredibly convenient... no more guessing!

You can also scan automatically backwards and forwards through the index points of a tape (where a new show started to record) and the VCR will display an on-screen message with the DATE, TIME, and NAME of that show. This unique show name (e.g., Law & Order) can be entered during programming to make the recording easier to recognize later. It is also possible to scan for the end of a taped show should you want to set the VCR to continue taping from that point forward. Very intelligent, very handy. On my JVC I can basically only scan backwards for "mystery" index points. When the VCR reaches them I have to manually figure out if that is the show I wanted by watching it for several minutes.

Finally, Panasonic implemented Commercial Advance much better than JVC did. Not only is it more accurate (90% versus about 60%), it is also much smarter. On the PV-VS4820 it automatically marks commercials after taping; only then does it shut itself off. As a result it is ready to play back immediately after powering on. In contrast, the JVC unit waits to mark commercials until the next time it is turned on. Consequently you have to wait about 8 minutes for each half hour recorded in order for commercial marking to be done. This can be a serious irritant when you just want to watch a program without planning ahead for this delay.

My JVC also displays a blue screen during Commercial Advance and sometimes it fast forwards over the stopping point. There is no way to see this as the screen is blank, of course, and when it finally does stop the tape must be backed up manually to view the parts skipped. On the PV-VS4820 the image stays viewable as it is fast forwarded... much more comforting. Though it rarely misses the mark, it does not hurt to verify no program portions are being skipped.

For me the PV-VS4820 is the highest evolution of the S-VHS VCR. At $228 it delivers excellent images with convenient recording, indexing, and playback.

Similar Products Used:

JVC HR-S7600U

Picture and sound quality -- noticably better than standard VHS. Automatic time setting function. S-Video connection.

Lightweight chassis -- they used ALOT of plastic. Clunky remote.

After throwing out my second Sony VCR in eight years, I figured it was time for a change. I really like some of my other Panasonic appliances (like a portable CD player and a cordless phone), so I decided to give their VCRs a try.

The buyer's remorse was initially quite strong as I popped in my first tape. The S-Video connection to my 27" Toshiba TV was only passing a B&W signal! This connection (and the S-VHS features) were the whole reason I spent over twice as much as I needed to on a HI-FI VCR. I coulda had any of a dozen decent machines at prices between $99 and $150, but I paid $250 for the Panasonic because I wanted a higher-performance level out of my VCR. Now, as I looked at the "performance" I was getting, I was starting to fume.

I ending up disconnecting everything and reconnecting the TV to the VCR using ONLY the S-video connection, L/R audio, and coax cable. After reseating the tricky S-Video plug (think PS/2 mouse port), the picture morphed right before my eyes into a clear, sharp, well-saturated image -- the best I'd ever seen from VHS. What I really liked was the way the colors stayed "inside the lines." I watched three rental tapes that night and I'm heading out to the store to get more in just a minute. If you're like me and haven't switched over to DVD yet (for whatever reason) yet demand the best picture and sound VCRs are capable of, this machine is hard to beat.

Signed,
A satisfied customer.

Similar Products Used:

Sony (x2), Sharp, JVC, RCA.

Commerical Advance, Satelite Box Control

Manual, picture still a little grainy

I purchased this unit mainly because I wanted S-video inputs and the ability to control a digital satelite box.
This S-VCR serves both purposes. The box control and the commercial advance feature work beautifully. The picture is fine, however still lacking sorely compared to DVD and noticably inferior to the original satelite broadcast. I have not had the chance to record on a real S-VHS tape yet which I hope can reproduce the original more closely. Picture quality for pre-recorded VHS tapes was not any better than on my 10 year old Sanyo VCR. Sound quality is excellent.

The manual is atrocious - and surprising because the Panasonic RV30 DVD player comes with such a clear manual. Setup, especially with satelite box, is difficult. Once the setup is complete the unit functions well and plays quietly. FF and RW are extremely fast but on the loud side.
I can only give 4 stars because of the terrible manual and a picture that's slightly better than VHS but not up to my expectations. The unit is more than twice as expensive as a comparable standard VHS VCR so I can't justify 5 stars on value rating either.