Panasonic V4520: Our 1987 VCR Was Better (Helping Hands w/o)
Written: Jul 13 '01
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Pros: Tape progress display, easy to program
Cons: One area of screen flickery not matter how I adjust, poor sound and picture quality
The Bottom Line: Invest a little more money and get a VCR of better quality.
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| jenninca's Full Review: Panasonic PV-V4520 VHS VCR |
Our old Magnavox VCR purchased in 1987 was quite a trooper. It survived multiple televisions, from the ancient to the big screen. It survived kids learning to program it, and, perhaps more importantly, parents learning to program it. It survived tape after tape after tape. But about eight months ago, I came downstairs for breakfast and thought I smelled smoke. When I went to investigate, there was a flash of light and a puff of smoke that came from the VCR. Thank goodness nothing caught on fire! Ding, dong, the VCR was dead.
My dad and I were elected to choose the new one. We shopped at Best Buy using a very unscientific process--wandering the lonely VCR aisle (everyone else was checking out DVDs) until something caught our eye. It wasn't until we got home that I checked Epinions (I need to remember to reverse that process) and found that, at that time, the VCR we chose was the highest-rated VCR. Yea for us!
Set Up
And then we tried to set it up. Now, mind you, I pride myself on being the family's electronics guru in the absence of my brother. Surely I could set up something as simple as a VCR. Think again! I set up everything the way it looked like it should be, and we got nothing: no sound, no picture.
I referred to the manual, only to find that our configuration was not pictured. It's not like we have a difficult or unusual setup, but ours just wasn't there. I fiddled with every possible permutation of cord connections for about an hour before achieving partial success. My dad and I finally tag teamed it and ended up going on a search of the house for more and different cables before it finally worked.
Setting the time and such was fairly standard. You do it all on-screen, using the arrow keys on the remote to scroll through the various settings. The timer setting even allows you to specify if you use daylight savings time, so that's one clock you don't have to figure out how to reset twice a year.
Programming the VCR to tape something is done in a similar manner--definitely easy enough for me. Programming can be done up to one month in advance and you can set it to do daily or weekly recording. I tried setting a program using the directions in the manual (to see if my mother could handle doing it) and found that they were descriptive enough to get the job done. I also found that if you knew how to get into the program menu, the directions on the screen were specific enough to guide a novice through the process. (Note: I asked my mom if she would try to program something so I could see if she could figure it out, but she wouldn't.)
Picture and Sound
I'm not one who gets into surround sound or crystal clear pictures or anything, so I'm probably not the best judge of this. However, even I can tell that the sound and picture on this VCR are not great. The sound seems fine at lower volumes, but it sounds pretty tinny and treble-ish at higher volumes. The picture quality during video playback is pretty poor. I don't really know how to describe it, but it seems like the picture is drawn with half the amount of lines as it's usually drawn with, making each line twice as wide. This means that you never really get a clear picture.
The VCR also has self-adjusting tracking, but there's an area of the screen that never gets resolved. I'd say that the top 1/6 of the screen just can't get tracked. No matter how I fool with the manual tracking, the top 1/6 of the screen just wiggles back and forth. This isn't that big a deal when it's just background in that top 1/6, but it gets really annoying when there's faces there.
The picture quality is somewhat better when watching TV through the VCR. The lines are still larger than I think they should be, but the picture is a lot more clear than when watching a video.
Other Features, Good and Bad
One feature I like is a tape position indicator. If you press the right button on the remote, it will show approximately how far through the tape you are. This is nice when doing exercise videos or when watching long, boring movies that the person you're watching with loves.
One feature I don't like is that while a video is playing, you can't see the time. That's bad for when you're watching something and need to keep an eye on the time, or are even just curious about what time it is. I can't tell you the number of times I've glanced absently at the VCR to find out what time it is only to find it's not there. You don't even get to look at the tape counter. Instead, you get the thrilling "stop" and "play."
Helping Hands Write-off
This review is posted as a part of bgoodday's second (annual?) Helping Hands Write-off. The premise behind this write-off is that all participants review a product of their choice, then donate all proceeds from the review to a charitable cause.
I'm planning to match my earnings and donate the money to some sort of education-related charity, probably one that gives school supplies to underpriveliged children. I haven't selected one yet because I'm moving (starting today!) and would like to find one in my new area.
Why did I choose to review a VCR to benefit an educational charity? To be honest, it's because I usually review books, and I'm surprised if they ever make more than two bucks. Not a big donation. Electronics seem to rake in a little more, thus, a bigger donation.
Please check out the other participants in this write-off: adjensen, adnetim, Ainsleyjo, Alwaysstubborn, Awoolcott, amysmum, Andj333, AshleyA, Bgoodday, bluehawq, bmcnichol, bops_mom, CANS4US, Char.mike, Cartman_2k, cntaur5, dearladyb, disartain, ed_grover, eplovejoy, fallyn96, Fostrmom2mny, FraggleMom, Frazzledspice, ggrimes1221, jankp, jdhauer, jenninca, jo.com, kelly60, kminer, latchon2me, lildev, MariaEkaterina, nwinston, mimi369, mom2girlz, mridula, mspooh5, PacBayStat, rbradford, rosalyce, rugged14, shanny21, shantel575, Stephen_Murray, Sunkah, Suzer, Viper1963, Vormancian, Wanbli_Gleska, willeftk.
In Conclusion
So overall, I'd have to say that I don't recommend this VCR. What do I recommend? Obviously, the 1987 one is out of the picture. The VCR I do love, however, is my own Sanyo one, which I have been unable to find on Epinions. Easy setup, good picture, good sound, good remote, easily reprogrammable each time I move--yep, Sanyo's what I recommend; leave the Panasonic V4520 at the store.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 80
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jenninca
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Member: Cindy
Location: Dallas, TX
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