Panasonic PV-V4621 4-Head Hi-Fi Stereo VCR With Silver Finish
Written: Apr 30 '01 (Updated Dec 07 '01)
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Pros: Picture and sound quality, reliability, ease of use, looks, features
Cons: It would be nice to have buttons to control menus on the front panel
The Bottom Line: The PV-V4621 is an excellent choice. Excellent picture and sound quality, reliability and ease of use… And the silver finish looks cool.
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| dkozin's Full Review: Panasonic PV-V4621 VHS VCR |
The Panasonic PV-V4621 is a 4-head Hi-Fi VCR that comes in silver color. The VCR has the same width as other stereo components, so you can stack them up, and the silver color matches the finish of hi-end TVs and some Panasonic’s DVD players (like my Panasonic RV31S).
It also adds VCR+ Gold and satellite controller to the impressive list of features of V4611.
Reliability
VCRs from Panasonic have very high ratings for reliability, according to "Consumer Reports" magazine. Reliability wise they hold top position among other brands. I mean first place – Panasonic and Quasar brands of Matsusita Electric hold two top spots in ”Consumer Reports” Magazine reliability survey.
I myself have been using Panasonic VCRs for more than 15 years and never had any problems. For several years I have heavily used my Panasonic SD-11 for video replication and it survived this kind of abuse. And the picture quality always was excellent.
Features
Some other manufacturers (notably Sony) brag about “Reality Regenerators”, “Adaptive Picture Controls”, “Digital Auto Tracking”, etc. Toshiba in its brochure says that they invented helical scanning system (although I have read that it was invented by RCA) and only they have VCRs of the same width as audio components (which is not true, as you see).
Panasonic doesn’t rely on [unfair] marketing this much. And having dealt with majority of brands of VCRs, I truly believe that Panasonic VCRs are the best. In picture quality, ease of use, reliability and features.
The VCR has four video heads that allow you to have noiseless slow motion and still modes, and be able to use three speeds: SP – standard play (fits 2 hours of recording on a standard T-120 tape), LP – long play (4 hours) and SLP/EP – super long play/extended play (6 hours).
As the amount of time you can fit on one tape increases, the image quality decreases (the picture becomes more noisy), so use SLP for programs that do not require the best possible quality. SLP allows me to fit 6 hours of Formula One racing on one T-120 tape (4-5 grand prix).
Although majority of VCRs on the market do not support the recording in the “medium” LP speed (only playback), Panasonic VCRs do – a definite plus. You have more flexibility – instead of having to choice between 2 or 6 hours you also have the ability to record 4 hours on a T-120 tape.
Unlike some JVC and SONY VCRs I had experience with, the auto tracking works as it should. Four heads help to create stable and crisp still and slow motion modes. The VCR has a V-Lock buttons on the remote to adjust the V-Lock settings and remove unwanted image shaking during the still and slow motion modes, the channel up/down buttons on the front panel can also be used.
As virtually all Hi-Fi stereo VCRs, the V4621 produces CD quality sound. All Hi-Fi stereo VCRs use 2 audio heads that rotate along with video heads, providing high relative tape speed and the higher the speed, the better the sound.
The FF and rewind are very fast – the T-120 tape rewinds for less than a minute. The V4621 has an onscreen “Tape Position Display” that shows you where on the tape you currently are with no need to remove the tape from the VCR. And unlike JVC’s “B---I---I---I-O-E” “pseudographics”, the graph looks nice. You can also see the estimated remaining time on the tape.
Setup
The setup is almost completely automatic – the VCR scans for available channels and determines the current time and date automatically. After power outages, it also automatically sets the date and time. 4621 uses radio signals (“Auto Clock Set”) to set the date and time, and here it actually works properly, unlike JVC VCRs where it doesn’t.
Index Search
4621 has index search capability and also "timestamp" - it records the time and channel when you start recording. When you start playback of this segment, this information appears on the screen for about 3 seconds (if you want to, you can disable this feature).
There are two modes of index search. One allows you specify the number of index "marks" to skip (for example you can skip to the beginning of the previous recording by pressing "Index", "2", "Rewind"). JVC VCRs (HR3600, for example) make you use dedicated buttons on the remote and press them several times.
If you performed timer recording, you can search for the beginning of the program you recorded using the menu. You choose the program to search for from the menu and the VCR will rewind (or FF) to the beginning of that program (make sure you don't eject the tape before searching this way, it will not search after that since VCR doesn't know what tape you insert; the regular index search will work though).
Unlike some other brands of VCRs (like JVC), 4621 is very easy to use and program (you can use either VCR+ Gold or menus). The front panel does not have buttons to control menus or program VCR, just basic buttons and 3 RCA jacks – composite video in, audio left and audio right channels, which are helpful for recording from camcorders and other devices.
Back Panel
The back panel has video in and out, audio L in and out, audio R in and out. It also has RF/cable in and out, power cord (of course) and a switch that allows you to choose channel 3 or 4 if you were to use the RF out to send VCR’s signal to TV (not a good idea, the composite video out will provide you with better quality, and is easier to use).
Among two ways to connect the VCR to TV: RF (you connect it to your TV’s RF input and select channel 3 or 4 on the TV) and composite video (Video RCA jack, you connect it to your TV’s composite video input and push tv/vcr button on TV), the latter is better (see above).
Remote Control
The illuminated remote control has intuitive button layout and is easy to operate, unlike some other brands there is no need to point it directly to VCR. The up/down/left/right buttons for menu control and other functions are located in an intuitive manner and are quite large. The remote’s illuminated buttons are useful when you want to control your devices in the dark.
The remote also allows you to control TVs, cable boxes and DVD players of almost any manufacturers (and unlike JVC’s remotes, you don’t have to press two buttons at the same time to do that). However, the functionality is limited – for example, the “menu” button does not work with TVs and there is no buttons to control speed during a DVD playback.
The PV-V4621 is an excellent choice. Excellent picture and sound quality, reliability and ease of use… And the silver finish looks cool.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 119
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Epinions.com ID:
dkozin
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 in Electronics |
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Location: California
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About Me:
I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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