Panasonic PV-V4525S 4-Head VCR, Silver
There are better VCRs for the money
On the most part I am very satisfied with this VCR, but there is one major drawback which, by itself, drops my review for a 5-star to a 3-star rating.  While fast forwarding or reversing, even while scanning the picture, the tape doesn't stop when you tell it to stop.  It continues coasting for a couple of seconds before it finally stops, so if you are trying to advance it, say 30-seconds to find the starting point after a commercial, it may coast about two minutes from where to pressed the stop button.  The Commercial advance only works to a limited extent - it only advances in 1-minute intervals, which usually is not exactly where the commercials end.  It's forward and reverse scan is way to fast - it is hard to understand what you are watching as it zips from scene to scene.  Although the fast rewind feature is super-fast, and is a positive feature, the fast forward and fast rewind are even more difficult to stop where you want it to.  It coasts many minutes past where you press the stop button, especially if the tape is using extended-play mode.  I also had one isolated instance where the tape jammed inside the unit making it difficult to remove without breaking the tape.  (Difficult, but not impossible... I managed to fabricate a tool to release the reel lock on the cassette, allowing me to pull the tape out far enough to un-jam the tape.)   <br /> <br />All the other features are quite satisfactory.  The stereo sound quality is good.  The picture is sharp, clear, and jitter free, and us almost as good in extended-play mode.  The remote control is laid out nicely and is easy to program a record list.  The digital clock is a nice feature, which is easily viewable from across the room.  The front audio/video input is a useful feature (I often connect it to my computer to record videos) and the auto clock set works great when there are power glitches.   <br /> <br />If you seldom want to skip to precise spots on the tape then this is a fine machine for you.  However, if you are like me, and like to skip over commercials, it takes some skill and several back and forth cycles to get it to stop within 30-seconds from where you want it to start playing.  Getting it to within a couple of seconds is only a lucky chance occurance.