No 'flashback' feature, no mute

I've been very happy with it, except that there's no 'previous channel' (aka 'flashback') feature. I can't believe that anyone would make a VCR or TV without this feature. Likewise, there's no mute button on the remote.

Straightforward lightweight design, great picture, intelligent programming.

On/off indication, user manual, very BUSY commercial advance feature.

As with most Panasonic products, there is an expectation of reliability and this unit, to-date, appears to continue to support this notion. The unit weighs next to nothing but is a smart, efficient unit. To save yourself some time, give the user manual a cursory review but stick to the on-screen programming for best results. Once set up, the functions are easy to use i.e. advance timer recording, etc. The resultant picture is quite good (better on SP than SLP of course) and at a price of $ 199.99 (J&R Music World - NYC) - you cannot get a better deal - comparing price vs. features from any other comparable manufacturer. If you are not a super audio enthusiast - this is the unit for YOU! Definitely recommended!

P.S.: If you don't need the Commercial Advance feature, turn it off. It is a very busy, tedious process and seems to be much ado about nothing, just to skip some commercials. I turned this and the time/date stamp off - I particularly don't need either of these functions.

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Toshiba DX-7.

Crisp clear picture, good tracking ability, clear sound

Slow rewind

A great choice for a home theater system, the slow rewind can be over looked.

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Sony, JVC 4 heads

The picture quality is good as is the VCR+ Gold which works through my cable box.

I bought the unit on 12/99, it worked fine up until a few weeks ago. The remote doesn't turn the vcr off or on (and this after receiving supposedly a new unit). Now I have to bring in the vcr and remote for service yet again!!! aRRRGHH

Like other people, I find the manual to be poorly written. I do applaud the fact that actual techs answer your questions (some have been helpful, others just down right rude and condescending.

Overall I enjoy the product- when it works, of course...

I love the commercial advance feature and the VCR+ gold. The commercial advance works pretty well but somtimes it gets confused. The picture quality is very good but not as good as my SVHS deck which is expected. It rewinds tapes quickly.

I wish it had some kind of indicator to tell the power is on. All it does is the text display gets brighter when it is on. An LED indicator would have been nice. Some of the buttons on the remote are a little small. For some reason I have noticed the time runs a little fast.

Overall I am very pleased with this VCR. I only plan on using it for timeshifting and watch some rentals.

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This model replaced a 10 year old Emerson model and noticed how much cheaper players are constructed and hope this player lasts as long.

According to a leading consumer magazine, PV-8662 was the best VHS VCR in 1998. Therefore, when my old Sharp stopped recognizing speed in which a tape was recorded, and I realized it was time to get a new machine, my first choice was this Panasonic (I decided not to purchase S-VHS because I exchanged tapes quite frequently). Then the company made a new line for 1999, and PV-8662 was substituted by PV-9662. I went to a couple of CE stores, asked questions, checked the Panasonic CE web site, and decided to get PV-9664 instead. The advantage of the 9664 over the 9662 was in the presence of DynAmorphous Metal Heads which somewhat improved quality of the picture, and I could still purchase it for under $200 from Netmarket.
Look and feel:
Right out of the box, the VCR attracted me by its clean lines and nice finish. "Made in Japan", clearly printed on the box, was a nice touch by Matsushita Co. whose marketing research department had probably long realized the effect this statement had on the mind of a conscious consumer. The unit was very light -- I would even say too light to inspire any confidence in an audio/videophile -- which, to my knowledge, was a tendency of almost all the Panasonic/Technics CE products. The display is very nice and has large letters and numbers. The only minus I found was the lack of a little symbol so characteristic on even the cheapest units and best described as "cassette is inside." When one comes to the machine to insert a tape, he/she has to first either turn the unit on and see whether or not another tape is inside or to push eject to check for the same. VCR manufacturers usually don't recommend keeping tapes inside VCRs for a long time (for the sake of the tapes, mostly), but unless it's some valuable recording, I frankly never mind. The buttons on the unit are placed conviniently and are clearly labeled -- it's the remote's buttons that we should worry about most of the time anyway. I give the unit 4 1/2 stars for the look and feel.

Ease of use, including the manuals:
The features, most of which are the old familiar VCR+, Commercial Skip, Movie advance, etc., are plentiful in this VCR. They all work, again, similarly to other machines on the market. The OSD is one of the things that determines whether all these features are to be liked or hated. To my pleasure, the OSD is generally convenient and straightforward to use. Which is something I can't say about the 9664's manual. Probably the worst I'd ever seen for a CE product, the manual was a nightmare to me. Although understandable at the very end of the vigorous time spent reading, it in no way represents the overall quality and reputation of this unit. The text is broken into little pieces with fonts of various size, and these pieces are scattered around almost randomly, hardly giving any order to the whole. The information presented tends to suddenly jump ahead in explaining how to set/use/connect certain parts and features. 5 stars for the unit's ease of use but hardly 2 stars for the manual.

Remote is just OK. Frankly, it's a little inconvenient to hold in my hand because it has a much wider bottom to house 4 AA batteries (more than a remote could need) and gradually narrows to the top where all the action of Play/FF/Rewind/Stop takes place. But it's backlit -- a nice touch. I give the remote 4 stars (5 stars performance minus 1 star design).

Finally, the performance of PV-9664 is outstanding. The quality of picture it's consistently produced is as good as it gets with plain old VHS. I haven't checked its tunning performance, however. The sound quality also seems to be squeezed out to its maximum for hi-fi stereo of this format. The speed of Rewind/FF functions is fast and without delays. The unit well deserves full 5 stars for its impressive performance.

Taking into consideration the Panasonic VCRs' history of good reliability, the overall rating for the Panasonic PV-9664 is 4 stars.

quality build,three recording speeds.

busy remote

This Panasonic PV9664 is a well built unit....despite the light weight (plastic parts). The picture quality is great. The main reason I purchased the Panasonic was this seems to be the only manufacturer that still has the LP recording speed feature....all other brand now just have SP and SLP to record in. I like to be able to record two, two hour movie on one 120 tape. I was a avid SANYO fan for VCR's until they dropped the LP recording mode on their machines. I also have a Panasonic PV9451 machine for the second TV.

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sanyo VCR's

Quality manufacturing, easy of use, excellent picture

Nothing that significantly bothers me.

My use is of a basic VCR, playback of pre-recorded tapes and time-shift recording. In both regards this units performs flawlessly. Picture quality on pre-recorded tapes as well as those I record is excellent. Much better than a similar featured JVC unit I also own. Controls are well laid out and easy to use. Connection to the other components in the system was easy.

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JVC

Commercial Advance

Reliability

Worked great for 1 year. 2 weeks after the warranty ran out, the IR port in the unit quit responding to inputs. (I have several other remotes that used to work the VCR) I reviewed the manual extensively for any help (Lock-out feature, etc...), but could not retore remote function. It has limited usability since I have to manually push buttons on the front for everything. All on screen menus are now unavailable. It will be a long time before I purchase another Panasonic product. I see where other Panasonic VCRs have also had this problem. Serious design or manufacturing flaw. Avoid Panasonic units in this category. Expensive ($140) for only 1 years use.

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Toshiba M683

Features for the price.

The remote has a serious design flaw.

I'm reluctantly returning this unit after only one week of use. I discovered that the SAP/HiFi button on the remote defaults to SAP rather than HiFi. If you touch it by accident, which is easy to do, the VCR will record the SAP channel rather than the primary channel for a program. The button should have been programmed like the speed button. With the speed button, one touch shows you the current setting. A second touch within five seconds will change the setting. The SAP/HiFi button will change to SAP immediately upon one press of the button. So, I ended up accidentally recording a program with audio that was a news program for the blind.

When I called Panasonic about this, I spoke with a very rude guy who told me this couldn't be a design flaw since "all of the units were like that." That's exactly the point.