Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic PV-V4540 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR

Picture and sound quality are excellent, and the styling is attractively different (for instance, the front A/V inputs are not color-coded, as is usually the case, but are black, so that they don't stand out jarringly against the black case). The remote, though full-functioned, is poorly laid out, with tiny buttons for some important functions. Pressing the REW or FF buttons when the VCR is already in that mode does not, as on most other machines, initiate the fast rewind or fast-forward modes; to access those you have to press STOP then REW or FF. Most annoying of all, the VCR lacks a precise hour and minute timer for tape position; it has only a scale (that shows up on your TV image) that indicates roughly where the tape is positioned, between beginning and end. If you need to know precisely where you are on a tape, you'll want a different VCR.

No major annoyances. Little ones: you cannot use the number buttons to enter channels when you program the timer; for timer programming you need to first deselect VCR plus (which I find useless) and then start; when you start play the timer counter is not automatically displayed for a few seconds. Good things about it: the remote seems to work even behind the coffee table; you can stop a recording using the remote (power+stop). These are things I couldn't do with my old Phillips Magnavox (pretty crappy). I disagree with some of the other reviewers: I don't know of any VCR that can play European tapes; I find the commercial skip button pretty useless...[and] that some important buttons are too small (especially the channel-changing buttons).

This panasonic vcr has so many great features. The best one is the commercial skip. I always wanted a vcr with this feature, and finally I got one. It has one of the best recording system. Recoreded movies sounds just like the original one. Its remote is handy and has eject function. This is all you need.

...[The] remote is really nice, illuminates and stands up. Allthe functions are on it but some of the buttons are a little small but its fine. Picture and Sound quality are great! The one time setup in the beginning is almost automated, it tracks all the channels and the time, I just chose my language (which the vcr comes in 3 languages, english, spanish and another one i forgot) and it did everything by itself. Also the fact that the inputs on the front makes it look very attractive instead of having some color coming out of nowhere. A Great Buy!

This VCR has all the essential features like indexing and labeling so you can find different recordings on your tapes later on as well as a "tape-position-on-screen-graphic" that helps one zero in on areas of the tape like the old music search feature on some cassette decks. Hey this is about as good as you're going to get for tapes! This is not DVD with instant access! Yes the buttons are small and the light feature only illuminates the bigger buttons in the dark like "play, rewind, fast forward and stop". The other buttons like "tape position" you can't see. You might want to have a mini flash light by your table so you can see the other buttons in the dark. Yes these are inconveniences but the price is so cheap that it doesn't seem to matter much to me. If these things are really important to you however, then you should spend the extra money and get those features. WARNING DO NOT BUY A VCR WITH CABLE BOX CONTROLLER WITHOUT FIRST CALLING YOUR LOCAL CABLE COMPANY TO SEE IF THEY'RE CABLE BOX CAN BE CONTROLLED BY THIS FEATURE ON THE VCR. MY DIGITAL CABLE BOX WAS INCAPABLE OF BEING CONTOLLED BY A VCR REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE VCR MANUFACTURER SAID. I purchased my last VCR with this feature but it was completely useless in that regard and was a big waste of money. This VCR doesn't have a cable box controller and is fine for me since the digital cable box I had would only program-record one channel at a time no matter what.