Panasonic PV-V4520 VHS VCR

I live right near a Wal-Mart, and when my VCR died, I ran up one night, and bought one for around $80. I brought it home only to find it was a two-speed VCR, which means you can only record on SP (Standard Play), which gives you two hours of recording time on a standard VHS tape, or SLP (Super Long Play), which gives you six hours of recording time, but a lower quality picture.

I was bummed. I record tons of movies and TV shows, and don't want to use one whole tape for just one movie, nor do I want the lower quality picture. So I took the VCR back, and proceeded to shop elsewhere.

Checking out the Internet, I found it hard to find a description of a VCR that listed the taping speeds. If I did find one, it only had two speeds.
So I went to Circuit City. They have nearly sixty VCRs, maybe more, that you can choose from. NONE OF THEM were three speeds. So I called over the clerk, and she finally found ONE. It's the Panasonic Omnivision - PV-V4520. I snatched it right up.

If you do alot of recording, this is the VCR. If you don't, then the whole world of VCRs awaits you.

THE FEATURES:

VCR Plus, which allows you to enter program codes, instead of doing it "manually".

A front panel clock, which may not seem like much, but I can't stand looking at a VCR that doesn't display the time.

Commercial skip capability (though I just fast forward).

It's trilingual - English, Spanish, or French.

Clock automatically adjusts to Daylight Savings Time.

Three speeds to record on. (Thank you God!)

Dubbing capabilities (tape transfer).

Timer recording that's easy to understand, once you understand the remote.

Multi-brand remote - meaning you can program your television and VCR onto one remote - very helpful feature.

A search system that allows you to find the end of a movie or tape that you recorded. Kind of like the "Seek" feature of tape players for cars.
This is also a wonderful feature.

An index search that's complementary to the search feature just mentioned above. If you've recorded six programs, and you're watching the fourth program, and you now want to watch program number six, it will find it for you. Amazing.

A repeat Play feature that allows you to playback a certain recording over and over. Nice feature if you have kids, and want to set them up with a movie, or maybe you want to set up a workout tape in this function.

A Zero search, which will take you back to where you last reset the counter.

A tape position display feature, that lets you know how far into the tape you are. Invaluable for those times when you're rushing out the door, then remember "ER" is on, and you go and grab a tape, look at it and wonder if it's got enough time on it. This will tell you. You can mark it on a post-it note, stick it on the tape, and you won't ever miss the ending of a show or a movie because you miscalculated the tape time left.

A VCR lock feature, that is great for people with children. It keeps them from erasing over a tape accidentally, as well as any other activity besides tape eject, and timer recording.

Remote warning, which displays a warning if an invalid key is pressed in TV, Cable, or DSS mode. (Though I don't know what would happen if you pressed an invalid key. Are there bells and whistles and such? I don't know, I have mine off. But if you know what this means, then it could be important to have.)

Auto Shut-Off Feature which will turn off the VCR after five minutes if a blank portion of a tape comes on, or no signal is detected.

Video Head Clog Sensor - great feature. A message will appear on the TV screen during playback, telling you the video heads may need cleaning.

Digital Auto Tracking, and Auto Picture. You can also track manually.

Tape Counter Display to let you know how far you are into a movie or show.

Tape stops after a five minute pause instead of running the movie without you! So many times with the other VCR I would get interrupted, put it on pause and leave the room. A half hour later, I'd come back in and the movie was on! So I'd have to rewind it to where I was before, so this is a very nice feature.


SOME FEATURES I WOULD IMPROVE ON, OR ADD (very small things):

There is no super rewind, or super fast forward. No biggie, it's just nice to have.

When you hit Pause, you can't display the counter. In other words, you have to hit Play, or Stop to see how much time is left in the movie. Again, no biggie, it's just nice to have, as I just said a second ago!

Overall, this VCR is one I'm very pleased with. The Freeze Frame/Slow Motion feature is excellent. The picture quality is pretty close to perfect, and I have a big screen TV. I love the three speeds, the counter, the clock display, and setting the timer record is very simple.

If I didn't say it before, this is a 4-Head Stereo VCR. The volume controls are on the remote, and though the remote is somewhat complicated, it's worth learning to use. There are still some things I'm learning, and some features I don't use, but for any price, the quality can't be beat, in my opinion.

As I said, this was purchased at Circuit City. The price was a very cool $99.00. I would have paid more just to get the three speed feature.

But would someone explain this: the girl said they're going to stop making the three speeds eventually, yet they still sell three speed tapes. How much sense does that make? If anyone can enlighten me, please feel free.

As for now, they're still making them, and I'm a happy camper. Thank you Panasonic!!