Rating: 
Summary: Amazing value
Review: I've now owned this VCR for a number of months & am very impressesd. I bought it... new. it has great features, is easy to understand, and the manual's pretty good. others' reviews say it is light, which it is, but who cares - it just sits on a shelf. unless you're driving your tv cart down hills, the light case shouldn't make a difference.as light criticisms, I *do* wish the remote had a slightly different button orientation - 'pause' *is* in a weird place.
I also wish Commercial Skip functioned a little differently - you basically fast-forward a minute at a time, rather than some kind of sensor.
HOWEVER, having that feature at all is great, as is 'tape placement', end-of-program-search, VCR Plus features, and a self-setting clock. For the price, i think it's an amazing find...
Rating: 
Summary: Unique LP Recording Speed, But Flawed
Review: I've owned/tried many VCR brands, like Magnavox, Sony, Mitsubishi, Sanyo, Toshiba, and JVC. Currently I own a Sony SLV-N71 in addition to this Panasonic. The reason I bought it was, and it is its only strength, that Panasonic is about the last VCR maker that gives you three recording speeds: SP, LP, and EP. I wanted a second VCR to copy/edit home videos and being able to record in LP speed gives me more options and flexibility to fit different clips onto one tape. I noticed the recorded video quality, compared to my Sony and other brands I had before, is subpar. It looks a bit fuzzy and grainy, at all speeds. Comparing the LP recording to EP made by my Sony(which doesn't have LP), the colors look richer but the entire screen looks somewhat grainier, like the video was shot thru a bug sreen. It's not significantly worse, but definitely noticeable. It looked even worse if played back on the Panasonic, and that I found out was due to tracking. Even though the Panasonic manual claimed it has auto tracking, I found most of time it didn't work as it should. But another more serious problem, which is reason I gave it only two stars, is that hi-fi audio keeps switching back and forth to mono. I found that out by feeding the audio to my A/V receiver, then listening thru stereo headphones. While watching MTV, VH1, CMT, GAC, etc., the stereo music shows good, consistent stereo imaging on my Sony, but on the Panasonic it flips back to mono once in a few minutes, like the TV signal is not strong enough. Very bad for taping music videos. This is not the problem if the Panasonic is recording from the Line-In jacks. So apparently a bad TV tuner is to be blamed. This tuner problem is not unique, as I exchanged three times from the store, all three machines acted exactly the same. For copying video tapes, this VCR fits my requirement. So I'll keep it. Just have to remember to use the Sony to tape music videos on TV. Last, the case has 17" width, like the Sony, it looks good when stacked up on top of other stereo components. Only the top of the case is made of metal. The machine weighs very light. The remote is a little bulky, with many small buttons, and not all of them are backlit.
Rating:
Summary: Unique LP Recording Speed, But Flawed
Review: I've owned/tried many VCR brands, like Magnavox, Sony, Mitsubishi, Sanyo, Toshiba, and JVC. Currently I own a Sony SLV-N71 in addition to this Panasonic. The reason I bought it was, and it is its only strength, that Panasonic is about the last VCR maker that gives you three recording speeds: SP, LP, and EP. I wanted a second VCR to copy/edit home videos and being able to record in LP speed gives me more options and flexibility to fit different clips onto one tape. I noticed the recorded video quality, compared to my Sony and other brands I had before, is subpar. It looks a bit fuzzy and grainy, at all speeds. Comparing the LP recording to EP made by my Sony(which doesn't have LP), the colors look richer but the entire screen looks somewhat grainier, like the video was shot thru a bug sreen. It's not significantly worse, but definitely noticeable. It looked even worse if played back on the Panasonic, and that I found out was due to tracking. Even though the Panasonic manual claimed it has auto tracking, I found most of time it didn't work as it should. But another more serious problem, which is reason I gave it only two stars, is that hi-fi audio keeps switching back and forth to mono. I found that out by feeding the audio to my A/V receiver, then listening thru stereo headphones. While watching MTV, VH1, CMT, GAC, etc., the stereo music shows good, consistent stereo imaging on my Sony, but on the Panasonic it flips back to mono once in a few minutes, like the TV signal is not strong enough. Very bad for taping music videos. This is not the problem if the Panasonic is recording from the Line-In jacks. So apparently a bad TV tuner is to be blamed. This tuner problem is not unique, as I exchanged three times from the store, all three machines acted exactly the same. For copying video tapes, this VCR fits my requirement. So I'll keep it. Just have to remember to use the Sony to tape music videos on TV. Last, the case has 17" width, like the Sony, it looks good when stacked up on top of other stereo components. Only the top of the case is made of metal. The machine weighs very light. The remote is a little bulky, with many small buttons, and not all of them are backlit.
Rating: 
Summary: works great!
Review: If you are looking for a great VCR for a great price, this is the one. I have a lot of tapes and I for a while I wasn't able to watch anything because my VCR was horrible. I thought I was taking a risk on this buy, but it was well worth it. It comes with remote, and there are a ton of programmable things to do with this VCR. Why spend more money?
Rating:
Summary: Great item, great price
Review: If you are looking for a great VCR for a great price, this is the one. I have a lot of tapes and I for a while I wasn't able to watch anything because my VCR was horrible. I thought I was taking a risk on this buy, but it was well worth it. It comes with remote, and there are a ton of programmable things to do with this VCR. Why spend more money?
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of Money and Time
Review: If you have enough money and you want to waste it then buy this VCR. If you have also a lot of free time that you like to spend it try to set this VCR and visiting Panasonic Service Centers then again buy this VCR.
Dont make the same mistake. I just bought this VCR and I spend all night trying to set it up with not success. I called Panasonic to help me and again with no success. They told me also to put a tape in and push play but even this was not working. The VCR was completely broken. Its such a shame for Panasonic to sell such product to the market.
The result was to return this VCR and pay the shipping because I really had enough.
Rating:
Summary: Name brand for a low price
Review: My old generic brand VCR recently bit the dust just after the 1-year warranty expired. I decided to invest a little more money into a name brand unit this time and I've always heard that Panasonic makes pretty good VCRs. I have not had any trouble with this unit after 3 weeks of heavy usage. The picture and sound are of good quality on recorded material. I was not able to set up the auto-clock feature, perhaps because my local PBS station is junk anyway. In any case, what's so hard about setting the clock yourself anyway? The only complaints I have is the fact that the front of the unit seems a little weak as the plastic feels somewhat cheap, especially the buttons, although I hardly use them as I use the remote more often. Another complaint is the remote. There are far too many small buttons and I often have a hard time to figure out which one to press at night, even if it is lighted, this can be remedied with a good third-party universal remote. Overall I am so far satisfied with my purchase, assuming it lasts more than the 13 months that my last generic VCR lasted.
Rating: 
Summary: All depends on what you want to use it for
Review: The vcr seems like it works fairly well, plays rental tapes and things recorded on it just fine...has a fair amount of features for the price as well. I do have one major disappointment, tapes recorded on it cannot be viewed on other vcrs, and tapes recorded on other vcrs cant be viewed on it either...I have tried it with Phillips and Magnavox VCRs, and had no success. Since my situation is that I need to record things in one room during the day to be watched at night when my family sleeps in another, this doesnt work for me. If it was your sole VCR, I think it would be a perfectly adequate choice.
Rating:
Summary: Setup Headaches, But Good Value
Review: This is a really light, inexpensive, and easy machine to connect. The instructions are easily understood and have good illustrations. Picture delivered is clear. Took me about 10 minutes to put in use. My only problems came during initial setup. As usual, so many small buttons on the remote make it difficult to see what your doing. The commands come up quick, so if you're not watching or miss something, you're kinda stuck. I managed to accidentally lock in French (I think) instead of English to the commands on the set, but nonetheless was able to work around this error. Good value for the price. I'd definately buy it again.
Rating:
Summary: Good for the price, but...
Review: This unit makes a groaning noise when showing a tape. It's much softer than the whine on rewinding or forwarding, but more distracting since you're trying to watch a movie. The picture quality in recording is inferior to that of the VCRs made some years ago. Still, this is pretty good for the price.
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