This is a follow up to my previuos post. I've now given this machine a weekends worth of work. Also bought an SVHS tape to check out it's full capabilitiy.Firstly, I have found the commercial advance not to be as reliable as it should be. This is due to the way diferent stations edit in the commercials between the main feature. Some stations are better than others.
As I mentioned in the previuos post, I suspected that SVHS tape have a mechanical sensor to tell the machine to switch to SVHS mode and record at higher resolution (over 400 lines). Well using a TDK SVHS tape I found the recordings to be very good in SVHS SP mode. In SLP with SVHS you do notice a drop in picture quality and it's questionable whether SLP looks better in VHS than SVHS mode.
Now for the useful information which the makers will hate me for: The machine sensor for SVHS is performed by mechanically sensing for a small hole on the underside (hubs exposed) of the tape cassete. Looking at the casstte case underside with the head path pointing up, the hole is near the bottom left corner in the ridge that runs near the bottom edge (the edge near the side label). The tape quality of a TDK Super Av SVHS is great but not worth the $12 price tag. I believe they are hiking the price as a marketing strategy for snob appeal. My advise is to buy good quality VHS at a fraction of this price and drill a 2 to 3mm hole in the underside of the cassete to fool the machine into recording SVHS on a VHS tape. The results are the same as using a genuine SVHS tape (or close depending on the tape quality purchased) but for a fraction of the cost. When drilling the hole, drill upwards allowing the plastic bits to drop downwards preventing any contamination into the cassette. Happy recording everyone and I'll still give 5 stars.

I LOVE THIS VCR!!! After exhaustive research on the net and racking up the miles on my car. I made a choice to purchase this outstanding VCR. Pound for pound, dollar for dollar this player is worth its price. Now, where to purchase this player? After dealing with the people at One Call on other equipment, it was an easy choice to call them back. Stephanie is a doll and very helpful (ask for her and tel her I sent you). I would recommend the Panasonic PV-S9670 and One Call to anybody who demands excellence in customer satisfaction. They have won a loyal customer for life. 5 STARS BABY!!!

This is just a comment on the use of this VCR after one month. The standard and s-vhs performance is awesome but I had a problem. I had to exchange because of a swimming or wavy effect on the S-vhs record/playback. It was through the entire picture, making the faces of people unstable. It was only rarely noticed, so I thought it was the tape. I finally had some movies I wanted to record on S-vhs. For $7 a pop, I only record movies I "REALLY" like. The swimming effect got worse and so did the picture noise in S-VHS SP mode. I have the worst luck on VCRs. Unbelieveable. I purchased 2 brand new Sonys that had interference in the tuner section. This 9670 was really like this from day one, but not that bad. Now it has grown to a poor picture all the time. I exchanged it. I bought a Philips/Magnavox HiFi for my folks. It had red flashing spurts on the bottom of the picture, like lava. O.K., I bought "4" defective VCRs. The Sonys had the same effect on 2 of them, so I believe it to be design. The Panasonic and Philips were playback related, so I'm thinking the heads were out of alignment. BTW, these were "ALL" from the same store. The 9670 was past 30 days, but they exchanged anyhow. They didn't state the 30 days were up. Pretty impressed with the hassle free exchange. Is this just poor luck. Perhaps they were all in the same delivery truck, and a crash occurred? Who knows, but this just had to be said. I now have the new 9670, and the picture is just unbelieveable better. I did some test recordings on S-VHS mode. I couldn't believe the noise was the same as on the Magnavox standard VHS, which is noiser than my standard VHS Panasonic. The resolution was very superior though. I later learned that the recording was in "SLP", not the SP that I had thought. So, what I found is that I can make 6 hour recording that have the same, if not a tad more, noise than regular VHS VCRs, but with the high resolution of S-VHS. The old 9670 had much more noise on the SLP recording which made it unbearable compared to SP, as it was defective. Now from the limited recording I've done, the picture looks more stable and has less noise. I was hard on my first and only JVC HiFi for being defective out of the box. I have to take that out of the equation since I've now experienced that with many different brands. I guess the thing to be concerned with, is how it lasts in the long run. These receivers didn't break down, because they were never right in the beginning. Maybe my vision just notices more picture flaws then the normal eye. My folks didn't even see the red flashes till I pointed them out. They said they would keep it as that flashing wasn't a big deal or noticable to them. I found it to be unbearable and very irritating. It was also saying in the back of my head, "I have a problem and I will need repair very soon. Better exchange me." Here's hoping to better luck for everyone else.