Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic PV-VS4821 4-Head S-VHS Hi-Fi VCR

I bought and returned this product...The PVVS4821 is made of...thin plastic - mine weighed in at just over four pounds!! It was so light that when you inserted a tape, you had to hold the macine or it would be pushed back from the "force" of inserting the tape!

The writing on the rear panel is not painted, so you can't read what the jacks are for...When you try to push in the S-Video, the whole panel bulges back; again it's the...thin plastic and incredibly skimpy construction.

Note that [this] Panasonic [model was made in] China for this new model...you'd be better getting last year's 4820 instead if you can!

The remote is terrible. Tiny buttons that are almost useless for essentials like volume, channel. And really bad layout has you fumbling all over the remote.

The picture is not as good as previous units because they substituted dynamorphous heads with...vanilla video heads. It doesn't even have 19-micron, so slow speed picture is noisy. Think circa 1984 video head technology.

The good thing about this unit is the commercial advance, which usually works. Too bad that some other manufacturers...don't have this feature. Also, the VCR Gold Plus works well, if you're too lazy...to set up your own machine once. Instead, I'd rather have adequate power-backup so I don''t lose my programming if the power goes off for long.

Anyway, what a disappointment. It's really hard to find a decent VCR these days, but I think that you'd do better with a good Mitsu or Toshiba - asd I've checked SVHS from 4 manufacturers side-by-side. Also tested the rather poor sony slnv81. This Panasonice ranks dead last by a long shot. I'm writing this because I'm peeved at how their poor product wasted my time and lost me shipping...!

To all readers: Please don't let be fooled by all these negative reviews. This is a great product. Let me explain why.

I'll just get to the point: Why would you buy a S-VHS VCR in the first place? Because of the enhanced picture quality, the superiority of S-video over standard composite. And this is just what this product delivers. All recordings I have made so far in S-VHS mode (using a true S-VHS tape)look wonderful, maybe not exactly like DVD, but VERY close. The quality is way, way higher than you can get on any other "standard" VCR. Normal VHS recordings look very good too, and are of the best I've seen. This unit also lets you record in "S-VHS ET" mode, which is basically making a S-VHS recording in a standard VHS tape, which looks close to true S-VHS.

Playback quality is simply EXCELLENT. Both original tapes and recordings look awesome. Even some recordings that I made with my old Sharp VCR looked remarkably well when I played them on my new Panasonic, I was really impressed.

The only weakness I've found is that recordings made in SLP mode (VHS mode) are somewhat poor, not as sharp and beautiful like those made in SP mode. They look acceptable, in my opinion. S-VHS in SLP mode is better. LP mode is very good, both in VHS and S-VHS.

It also has its bells and whistles, like commercial and movie advance, lighted remote control, etc., which is all useless, in my opinion, but most people seem to like that kind of stuff.

I'm very satisfied with the picture quality of this VCR, which is what matters the most. Don't be fooled by perfectionists that complain about the remote, or the color(of the unit), or the lack of some useless feature.
You want a perfect VCR? then go spend.... If you are just looking for a VCR that delivers great picture quality in both recording and playback, look no further. And at this price, you can't go wrong.

When recording in S-VHS or VHS-ET the picture quality is poor. The picture is grainy and the detail isn't there. Recording in SLP is extrememly poor. Automatic tracking is useless, you practically have to track manually each tape. Playback of store-bought tapes is decent, though. No complaints about the features or the remote. The unit is indeed very light, as another reviewer said, but these days all VCRs are much lighter than they used to, so you shouldn't judge it by that. I returned it to the store, needless to say and wouldn't recommend this VCR to anyone. I guess Panasonic isn't what it used to be.

I purchased this VCR with the intent of enjoying the bells and whistles that came along with this unit, but much to my disapointment, this unit would shut off after 10-15 minutes of playing and for several minutes after the shut down, I could not turn it back on. After cooling for a few moments, it would turn on, but after another 10-15 minutes, it would shut off just as before. Needless to say, it doesn't matter how many bells and whistles this unit has, if it's going to shut down as often as it does, it's not worth keeping, so I'm sending it back and I'm going to buy a VCR that works.

Had the previous model of this VCR with Commercial Advance. (This function keeps you from being interrupted by commercials between show segments.) Now the advances are faster and soundless. Maybe the next update will include voice activated programming which would be awesome.

This VCR model is smaller & lighter than ever. Would be nice if it was also available in black as silver might not work for everyone's color scheme.