Panasonic PV-V4522 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR
I'd pass on this VCR
I purchased this as a secondary VCR to my Sony SLV-N51. During the first few months I had no problems at all. The remote is pretty decent and has well layed out buttons. The image quality and sound isn't very good at all and is of much lower quality than that of my equally priced Sony SLV-N51. The Sony has it's problems and it's the best VCR but I would easily say it's better than this one. This is most likely the worst VCR I've owned. Just recently the image quality has been getting worse and worse. I play certain tapes and the picture is all fuzzy. Tapes recorded on another VCR in EP/SLP are nearly unviewable. What's strange about this VCR is that it now seems to pick up more of a fuzzy picture than when playing it in my other new VCRs. Dirty HEADS you ask? Cleaned them as usual (not with a TAPE CLEANER) and still the same. Cleaned every part that can cause problems and still the same. I also have to mention that 2 months ago all my tapes started to get a faint horizontal blue line (with what looked like fuzzy &quot;noise&quot; in it) in them. About 10 of them that were played. Now I have a bunch of tapes that are bad. Turns out that when I opened up my VCR there was a bunch of gunk on a roller guide? causing this line. I find it strange that this would so easily happen after just 4 months of use. I guess I must play a lot of rented tapes. To bad there isn't a VCR out there that wouldn't pick up this garbage so easily. Auto Head Cleaners are useless I think. BTW you might like to know that the most reliable VCR i've ever had was, err IS a Philco 2 head mono VCR. Purchased it in 1991 and it's STILL going!! Just cleaned the heads for the first time and it still plays perfectly fine! Next best would be an old RCA Home Theater 4 HEAD Hi-FI VCR which they don't make anymore. Best picture quality i've seen in a VCR actually! To bad the poor thing died in just under a year!