Panasonic PV-V4623S VHS VCR

Pros: It's a 4-head stereo machine.
Cons: See above

I'm surprised no one else has rated this product. I bought this VCR because I was intrigued by its unique feature: Commercial Advance. Unlike most VCRs where you hit the fast forward button when you want to skip a commercial, this VCR has the ability to ...

Pros: Good recording quality at SLP, very good at SP.
Cons: Drive mechanism weakens as unit ages so can't record from beginning of tape.

I bought 2 of these VCRs. The first was purchased on 27 April 2003. It worked fine for 6 months so I purchased a 2nd unit on 20 Nov 2003. Both units started experiencing the same problem at about the 18 month point. When I try to record at any speed, the ...

Pros: Price, Ease of Operation, Brand Name
Cons: Owners Manual and Remote

Overall, I'm very satisfied with this VCR. This was a replacement for a Panasonic I wore out. The ...

Pros: Commercial advance feature
Cons: None so far.

I have had this VCR for a couple of years, and it works great! I love the commercial advance feature!

Pros: Commercial Skip and Advance are great.
Cons: Hardware lasted slightly over 6 months.

I purchased this VCR for its commercial skip and ability to forward through the movie trailers when we rent movies. These features are fantastic and I would recommend them highly.

However, I purchased the unit 10/2/2003 and it was used about 3-5 hours per week. The heads gave out 4/6/2004. Since it was a $70 unit and out of "Labor" warranty (90 days) and the nearest repair facility to Madison WI is over 60 miles away, the cost to repair the unit (shipping labor) would cost almost as much as the unit itself. As is standard practice these days, Panasonic would not stand behind its product and I was told by their customer rep that it was "not worth it to repair". It was offered that I could mail my unit to their McAllen TX repair facility and they would send me a refurbished unit for only $55...

The Rewind speed leaves a lot to be desired.

Stereo sound has a tendency to degrade near the end of tapes.

Careful when purchasing these.