Panasonic PV-V4620 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR
Great VCR but with one flaw
I have purchased 4 of these VCRs for a special project and subject them to over 20 recording sessions per week.  The VCR is packed with features. It is one of only a few VCRs that you can program a timed recording all from  the front of the VCR. That is important if you have a deck of these VCRs in  the same rack.  Has many features I will probably never use. The on-screen  menus are user friendly.  There is one possible flaw of which I have not  been able to resolve with these VCR's. This undesireable incident has  occurred on all of the VCRs I have purchased.  Out of over 20 recordings  done during the week, perhaps one or two of the programmed sessons will  terminate prematurely before the programmed end time.  Most recordings I do  are longer than 4 hours. Some of these recording terminations have caused a  loss of 20 to 60 minutes.  User error has been checked over and over.   Times have been double-checked and documented.  I even have put the rack of  VCRs on a Power backup supply to avoid power line loss. Nothing seems to  indicate what is causing the problem.  I suspect either there might be a  firmware or sensor problem, or a very sensitive tape transport that haults  on an imperfect tape, or a really faulty VHS tape.  Panasonic did not own  up on the problem and recommended that I take the decks to their service  shop. Other than this technical mystery, the deck is a fine machine.