I have the older generation of this S-VHS for about 5 yrs now, and it works well, reliable, and pictures quality for a machine that has been running for 5 years is "superb" - Super mode, of course. Five years ago, the S-VHS was still
expensive in Canada, prices were in range of $ 700-1500 CAD.
But this S-VHS was approx. $600, which was good compare to a regular VHS which was about that price range. The S-VHS, I was lucky to get them from Japan....dirt cheap... 4 for $ 10.

The only weakness I see in today's VCR or S-VHS is that the physical construction of the machine is "ALL PLASTIC" AND "LOOSE BUTTONS". Panasonic Engineers should have their heads fix with these loose buttons and unbalanceness of the machines.

If the Price of any S-VHS is similar to VCR, buy S-VHS....
because there is a difference my friends.

Don't buy any VCR or S-VHS made in Mexico. Many bad experience from my friends....espcially TV.

Keep stimulate the economy....buy more toys!

Similar Products Used:

JVC hi-fi vcr from 1990....and still working. Japanese product that's not made in Mexico....will liking still going and going...and going.

nice picture

humming noise

i bought this vcr cause of the s cable capability on it it also has spatalizer sound but you cant use it unless you are using it with a stereo tv i hope i can use the spatalizer sound as soon as i hook up my receiver and i hope i dont hear the humming noise that comes from this vcr

Similar Products Used:

none

Price

quality is poor.
Macrovision made the picture look fuzzy.

This review is for PV-8670K. I had this machine just over 2 years. It is now "eating" the tapes. New tapes or rental tapes doesn't matter. Also, the alignment has problem too. Like my Panasonic DVD,(check the DVD in the DVD section) the quality of this company had gone down hill since 3 years' ago. The front of the machine has"Made in Japan" sticker. Now. it reminds me of the the Japanese products about 30 years age. Will not buy Panasonic anymore. The service guy at Panasonic Depot told me it will take about over $100+ to fix the problem. I am going for another brand now.

Have had the Panasonic unit for over a year. It performs well, has an excellent picture at both speeds. Also records in LP mode using normal VHS tapes. However,it lacks certain features present on other S-VHS machines such as time remain.
But, for the price (I paid less than $300), a good basic machine that has a good
track record for reliablity.

When I purchased this unit on some sort of sale from Crutchfield, I thought I would be getting a good deal on a VCR, given that I have another Panasonic VCR at home (PV-4362) this moment, I thought it would be a great addition to my home theater with a S-VHS VCR. But that turned out not to be the case.The construction of this VCR not all that great, but considering this is a VCR, we can let that slide. The control buttons don't have that solid feel like Panasonic has in the past, but how many of us actually go press a button on the VCR?
The important part that we all look for is its performance, and I got to say I am disappointed. My 4362, has Dynamorphous Heads as well, no S-VHS, but it clearly outperformed the 7670, and the 4362 was made back in 1993!!!! In comparison, the 7670's picture miss out on a lot of picture details, record movies in EP mode, and you will see a difference. And I don't understand how can a product that produced 4 or 5 years later would be worse. The picture also has a lot of noise. And the self cleaning heads on it doesn't work as well as the models in the past too. The picture has a lot of noise along with it, but mostly exhibited on my recorded tapes.
The remote is OK, nothing to rave about, at the same time, it's not that bad comparing to most other VCRs.
Bottom line: if you use it mainly for playback for pre-recorded tapes, this VCR gets the job done; if you use it more for editing or record shows off cable or satellite, you might do better with JVC, or one of those 6-heads models from Toshiba.

If any machine has lowered the standard for S-VHS machine, this is it.
If plastic would conduct electricity, there would be no metal in this product. Light construction (hello vibrations?), noisy mecanism, poor picture. The red blurs like if there was no tomorrow even with a brand new S-VHS tape.

I'd recommend staying away from that poor piece of engineering and marketting.

Fits on my shelf.

Tuner.

While away on business our VCR broke down and my wife bought a $90 Philips replacement. I got home and said "What're you thinking? We're not running a mono unit in my system!" So it went to the basement TV.
Bought PV-S7670 Unit #1 from Crutchfield. Tuner - inop.
Bought PV-S7670 Unit #2 from Crutchfield. Tuner - no sound.
I'm now out $13.90 in shipping costs, I'm watching movies in mono and my wife's laughing her ass off!!

Similar Products Used:

Philips $90 Unit

Good picture, remote is simple

noisy during rewind/ffwd

Ive Had this vcr for more than a year and have had no problems with it at all. The picture is great and the sound is fine as well. The only problem I have seen is the mechanism is a little loud when rewinding/ffwding, other than that its a pretty good vcr for the $250-300 price range.

Reliability.

Same as most VCRs; focus is not on manufacturing like it is w/DVD nowdays.

A shame that this is in the Hall of Shame...I use this machine constantly, and it not failed once. I might also add that it isn't really that noisy. Maybe someone will listen when I say to IGNORE posts from people who reviewed a mail-order piece, of any kind. A good experience means they got lucky; a bad one is par for the course.

Very good SVHS picture. Very easy to use. Bright and colorful picture.

Mediocre picture detail for vhs as compared to JVC and Toshiba.

The picture quality and detail of SVHS tapes is very good to great.
Tapes recorded on other machines look even better and brighter on the Panasonic. And the picture detail appears fine. Where this machine falls short is in the quality of its own recordings made in regular VHS mode at the SP speed. Picture detail seems a lot less and somewhat blurry as compared to regular VHS recordings made on the JVC and Toshiba machines (at the SP speed.) However, the JVC and Toshiba recordings and rental tapes look great when played on the Panasonic.

LP and EP speeds are mediocre.

Hi-fi sound is great.

I like the Panasonic's remote best of any VCR remote I have used. The menus are easy to access and manuver through. Timer programing is a snap. The remote has enough buttons for functions that do not require going through menus.

This unit is extremely lightweight as most VCR's seem to be today.

I prefer using this VCR whenever I need to use a VCR, except to record at the regular VHS SP speed.

Similar Products Used:

JVC SVHS-5600U
Toshiba M784 - regular vhs