PANASONIC AG-3200 S-VHS PROLINE Hi-Fi Stereo VCR
What about the rest of the performance?
Unfortunately, I am not writing this review to provide information about this VCR, but rather to ask questions -- and to make a suggestion. The only other review (as of this moment) complains that this deck spits out \\"old\\" videotapes and will not go into play or record mode with them. Frankly, as somebody who knows a little about video recording, I find such a situation hard to believe -- and I think that explains Panasonic's attitude when faced with the other reviewer's complaint. <br /> <br />Sure, maybe it happened as reported -- but the first thing that came to mind is that the only time I've ever had VCRs \\"spit out\\" tapes is in one or the other of two situations, and I am guessing about a possible third: <br /> <br />1) If you try to go into Record mode on a tape that is missing its \\"record protection\\" tab (lower left corner of every VHS cassette ever made), the tape deck WILL NOT record (that's the point of having the protection!) and most decks will eject the cassette. If you want to record on such a tape, all you need to do is put a bit of sticky tape over the hole where the write-protect tab *used* to be. One must make sure that the tape is applied tightly and does not \\"give\\" a lot when pressed on, because that is what the VCR checks for. (I usually use cellophane tape, because duct tape really is too thick and sticky).  <br /> <br />2) If the tape happens to be fully \\"wound\\" -- that is, if you are at end of the 120th minute of a 120-minute tape -- the deck can't possibly go forward, now can it? So it will stop whatever you're trying to do, and some models may well eject the tape. Most of the decks I've ever owned give me an error message instead, but ejection could be a possibility. <br /> <br />3) If a tape is so old that its reels and other internal parts jam up, and stop the tape from moving, the VCR might well go into stop mode and eject it -- mostly to prevent damage to the tape or to itself. Frankly, IF the deck does such a thing, that's a heck of agreat feature. No more tapes unspooling inside the deck or jamming the eject mechanism. But this scenario is purely a guess. It's one of the three \\"sensible\\" reasons why a deck might refuse to playback ANY regular VHS tape. <br /> <br />WHY would I go to the trouble of looking for alternative explanations? Because the reviewer said, quite clearly, that the deck was tested fully as soon as it was brought home. Well, if it passed those tests in October, there is no explanation I can think of that would explain the anomalies that were reported in December! If the deck started ejecting ALL tapes, that's one thing, and it would require repair -- but that is *not* what the reviewer reported. <br /> <br />Again, there is no functional difference between tapes manufactured in 1985 and those from 2005. The later tapes should -- in general -- be somewhat better, and of course they won't suffer as much from dropout or problems with transport.  <br /> <br />But I've owned 5 or 6 different VCRs, and although some may not play back older tapes as well as others, there simply is no mechanism I know of for ejecting tapes based on their age. There is no REASON for a tape deck to do such a thing, and perhaps most importantly, there is no way for any VCR to tell that a tape is \\"old\\" or \\"new!\\" The standard for regular VHS tapes has not changed in all these years, especially for playback. <br /> <br />So it would be nice if somebody with knowledge of this deck would write a review to explain what's going on. Hope this information is helpful, in the meantime.