Home > Consumer Reviews > PANASONIC AG-3200 S-VHS PROLINE Hi-Fi Stereo VCR

Unfortunately, I am not writing this review to provide information about this VCR, but rather to ask questions -- and to make a suggestion. The only other review (as of this moment) complains that this deck spits out "old" videotapes and will not go into play or record mode with them. Frankly, as somebody who knows a little about video recording, I find such a situation hard to believe -- and I think that explains Panasonic's attitude when faced with the other reviewer's complaint.

Sure, maybe it happened as reported -- but the first thing that came to mind is that the only time I've ever had VCRs "spit out" tapes is in one or the other of two situations, and I am guessing about a possible third:

1) If you try to go into Record mode on a tape that is missing its "record protection" tab (lower left corner of every VHS cassette ever made), the tape deck WILL NOT record (that's the point of having the protection!) and most decks will eject the cassette. If you want to record on such a tape, all you need to do is put a bit of sticky tape over the hole where the write-protect tab *used* to be. One must make sure that the tape is applied tightly and does not "give" a lot when pressed on, because that is what the VCR checks for. (I usually use cellophane tape, because duct tape really is too thick and sticky).

2) If the tape happens to be fully "wound" -- that is, if you are at end of the 120th minute of a 120-minute tape -- the deck can't possibly go forward, now can it? So it will stop whatever you're trying to do, and some models may well eject the tape. Most of the decks I've ever owned give me an error message instead, but ejection could be a possibility.

3) If a tape is so old that its reels and other internal parts jam up, and stop the tape from moving, the VCR might well go into stop mode and eject it -- mostly to prevent damage to the tape or to itself. Frankly, IF the deck does such a thing, that's a heck of a great feature. No more tapes unspooling inside the deck or jamming the eject mechanism. But this scenario is purely a guess. It's one of the three "sensible" reasons why a deck might refuse to playback ANY regular VHS tape.

WHY would I go to the trouble of looking for alternative explanations? Because the reviewer said, quite clearly, that the deck was tested fully as soon as it was brought home. Well, if it passed those tests in October, there is no explanation I can think of that would explain the anomalies that were reported in December! If the deck started ejecting ALL tapes, that's one thing, and it would require repair -- but that is *not* what the reviewer reported.

Again, there is no functional difference between tapes manufactured in 1985 and those from 2005. The later tapes should -- in general -- be somewhat better, and of course they won't suffer as much from dropout or problems with transport.

But I've owned 5 or 6 different VCRs, and although some may not play back older tapes as well as others, there simply is no mechanism I know of for ejecting tapes based on their age. There is no REASON for a tape deck to do such a thing, and perhaps most importantly, there is no way for any VCR to tell that a tape is "old" or "new!" The standard for regular VHS tapes has not changed in all these years, especially for playback.

So it would be nice if somebody with knowledge of this deck would write a review to explain what's going on. Hope this information is helpful, in the meantime.

On October 12, 2002, we bought a Panasonic PV-V4612S VCR from Circuit City to replace an old VCR. We took the VCR home, hooked it up, and tested it to make sure it worked. We have two VCRs and don't use either one very often, so it wasn't until December that we realized that the new Panasonic VCR would not play or record on older video tapes but instead would spit these tapes out immediately. Our other VCR (and the VCR that the Panasonic was purchased to replace) never had this problem.
I called Panasonic's 800 number and discussed the problem with a Panasonic representative because I thought maybe the VCR was supposed to reject older tapes for some reason unknown to me. The Panasonic representative assured me that the VCR was not supposed to reject older tapes and told me to take it to an authorized Panasonic service center, which in this case was Consumer Electronic Service. I dropped off the VCR at Consumer Electronic Service. However, Consumer Electronic Service (CES) told me there was nothing wrong with the VCR. I brought in one of our older tapes and showed them that the VCR rejected the tape. The CES representative told me that it worked fine with his sample tapes (which appeared to be brand new) and that there wasn't a problem if there was only one tape that the VCR wouldn't work with. I told him it was many tapes, that our other VCRs had no problem with these tapes, and offered to bring in more tapes to show him the problem. He refused, insisting that if he could get the VCR to work with his sample tapes that there was no problem with the VCR. I appealed to Panasonic, but this time a different Panasonic representative told me that Panasonic would have to accept the service center's diagnosis. They said that I could not get a refund or exchange the VCR for a new one. The only option Panasonic now offered was for me to return the VCR to Panasonic in exchange for a "reconditionedE(i.e., used) machine. Of course, by the time I got the used VCR back, the product would be out of warranty.
I am amazed that Panasonic and their certified service provider both refuse to admit that the inability of a VCR to play some videotapes is a defect. I am also very disappointed that the only option offered by Panasonic was to exchange this VCR for another, used VCR which might have had the same problem, at which point the product would have been out of warranty. I am sure that most consumers expect to be able to play their entire video tape collection on a VCR that they purchase. Because this VCR could not play the majority of our videotapes, I believe that this problem certainly does constitute a breach of warranty and consumers who purchase such a machine should have the option of returning the VCR to the manufacturer for a refund. It certainly seems that here, Panasonic used its certified service provider to create the illusion of independent evaluation while actually the certified service provider must be collaborating with Panasonic to declare defective merchandise "non-defective,Ethereby sticking the consumer with merchandise that does not work for its intended purpose. I will not be doing business with either Panasonic or Consumer Electronic Service of Cary in the future.