Panasonic AG-3200 S-VHS VCR

I wanted to purchase a solid S-VHS deck to transfer over my library of S-VHS and VHS tapes from tape to DVD. From mixed results I have had with top of the line JVC S-VHS decks (I have owned three JVC SVHS editing decks over a combined total of 11 years) and absolutely horrid results from JVC's HDTV D-VHS deck (I owned a returned one HMDH30000U which had major problems with dropouts), I was ready to try another brand. So I went with this unit which is auspiciously a Panasonic "Professional" unit.

I used to use VCRs for heavy duty time-shifting and dubbing, but these days I use a DVD/Hard Drive recorder for that, so this deck is only really used for "overflow" recordings (when I need to tape two shows at once) and for playback of my existing tape library.

As soon as I got this puppy up and running, it became obvious that it's a consumer JVC VCR OEM'ed for Panasonic with the Panasonic badge stuck on the faceplate. The "MBR" remote is like a shrunken version of my old JVC HRS-9400U's remote - exact same shape and layout, just a little smaller. And the menus are exact duplicates of the menus from my JVC HRS-9500U which is about 3 years old. And yes, my JVC remote operates this "Panasonic" VCR perfectly -- So much for trying a new brand.

Initial set-up was pretty simple. Although it took around 10 minutes for the deck to lock to my PBS station to set clock and local channels, once it locked, it completed automatic set-up in about 5 minutes. The LED display is very limited, with no counter, and no indication of rewind, fast forward, play - just a little red light to indicate when the unit is in record mode. I expected more from a so-called "pro" line VCR with editing features.

You can get a counter on screen by hitting the OSD button on the remote, but this is only marginally useful when you're using the JVC as the playback deck, since you need to defeat the OSD to keep the counter and other visual indications from intruding on the actual picture during playback.

Fast Forward and Rewind are reasonably fast - 1:50 to fast forward a T120 tape, 1:40 to rewind it - but no match for my Toshiba S-VHS deck, which rewinds a T120 tape in less than a minute. The jog/shuttle wheel built into the faceplate of the unit is very useful for cuing up specific scenes, but awkward to use for changing channels (you need to simultaneously press the wheel in and turn to change the channel), but you can always use the remote for that.

On my 38" HDTV-capable 16:9 direct view monitor (Loewe Aconda 9383), overall picture quality is very good on S-VHS recordings. By "very good," I mean that SP recordings made on a Fuji Pro SVHS tape looked nearly indistinguishable from the source - a high quality taped local broadcast on a major network, tuned via the VCR's on-board tuner. There was only a slight loss of detail and muting of colors present in the recorded version, but it easily could have passed for a "live" broadcast without close scrutiny.

Speaking of the on-board tuner, like other JVC VCRs, this unit's tuner is excellent. Great reception from my roof antenna (only two miles from the Empire State Building where most of these broadcasts originate) and clean clear images and sound, almost completely free from ghosting and multi-path distortion even from some of the weaker UHF channels in the neighborhood. The tuner is certainly better than the ones I have seen on more expensive decks from Sony and Toshiba.

Getting back to video playback quality, the playback was quite stable, and there was only barely perceptible color shift even on older SVHS recordings made on other decks in EP mode, like a trio of Clint Eastwood movies I dubbed from laserdisc several years ago and a copy of "The Stand" mini-series, also dubbed from laserdisc in EP mode. When I zoomed the widescreen Client Eastwood movies to fill the width of my widescreen display, there were obvious limitations in resolution (it got a bit fuzzy) and in color saturation and hue errors in skin tones, but frankly, this is to be expected on any analog VCR in EP mode. Audio quality was uniformly good. I have not yet noticed any flutter or obvious glitches in the Hifi audio track on SP or EP tapes.

The "S-VHS ET" feature (which records in SVHS mode onto regular VHS tapes) is fairly useless so I disabled it - most regular grade VHS tapes simply can't handle the higher bandwidth of an SVHS recording - SVHS ET recordings look OK in SP mode (some additional grain, but not too objectionable, reasonable color accuracy) but they look pretty awful in EP mode. In EP mode, the extra detail of SVHS ET is more than offset by the additional noise and grain. If you want S-VHS quality, spring for real S-VHS tapes.

Overall, the deck gets the important things - video and audio quality - right, but the lack of a useful LED or LCD display on the unit itself is a major drawback as far as I'm concerned. And frankly, if I had wanted a consumer JVC deck, I would have bought a consumer JVC deck and gotten more features, like a useful display screen and Commercial Advance, neither of which is available on this unit.

It looks like JVC is really the only game left in town for S-VHS, and they're OEMing this deck for Panasonic just to keep the illusion alive that it's a viable format. My recommendation? Don't bother. Spend a little less (or even a little more) for a consumer JVC deck - you'll get more features for less money, and in all likelihood, the picture quality and mechanical construction will be comparable, if not identical.