Panasonic PV-V4523S 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR (2003 Model)
Good while it lasted
This is a very good VCR for the money and picture quality is very decent...for the first 8 months that is.<br />We purchased this VCR in Oct. of 2003...and as of June 2004 it appears to be nearing the end of its usable life. We use it to record about 2 hrs of programming a night, apparently this is too much for this VCR to handle over long periods. <br />When we bought it picture quality was amazing, as was sound quality. SLP recording quality is fair but not impressive. LP and SP modes are very good.<br />At about 7 months of age, it began fast-fowarding without notice. Taking batteries out of remote, thinking that was the problem, made no difference. We had to fight with the thing to get it to respond at times. When it started fast-forwarding, nothing would make it respond, not even hitting the power button on the unit itself. Only unplugging it and re-plugging it back in would stop it long enough for you to remove the cassette from inside. After that we would get a &quot;No Cassette&quot; message all day as the VCR repeatedly attempted to fast-forward.<br />When that began to go away, the picture quality began to decline. Recording on tapes, the bottom of the screen began to get distorted and, later on, lines began to run through the picture. Now, sound will periodically drop out for 1/2 a second while recording at various intervals, which is highly annoying on playback.<br />We have cleaned it numerous times with a head cleaner to no avail. It appears that this VCR encounters serious problems if you use it repeatedly for long periods of time. It's really sad because we love this VCR, it has worked great and had a fantastic picture(except for SLP), for a long time now. It's a shame that it is giving up after only 8 months.<br />Perhaps you will fare better. I give this VCR 4 stars based on its performance before it began acting up. I would recommend it because we were very happy with it. But be cautious that this VCR may not last very long. Or maybe it was just us. This puts us in the unfortunate position of having to replace it with another VCR....none of which have good reviews on amazon.com.