Price, tuner quality, picture quality

Small buttons on the remote

Like the first review, the only thing I can find to fault with this unit is the tiny buttons on the remote, at least those for the volume and channels. This replaces a much higher priced Sony that was maybe seven years old. The picture quality is similar if not better than the Sony. Audio from rented movies and taped stereo TV shows is quite good. I bought a refurbished unit from soundcity.com for $88 and feel I got the bargain of the year. Recommended highly, especially for the price.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba and Sony

Nice, Responsive, Functional (although ugly), Illuminated Remote. Auto clock set. Very Bright, Large Character LCD. Made in Japan.

Permanent green column during playback at left column (not macrovision), making tape dubbing and digitizing video very unsatisfactory.

I purchased this VCR over a year ago as purely a playback device. The main attraction was that this unit was Made In Japan, which usually signifies superior quality control. At that time I didn't notice anything wrong with the unit. As the months progressed, due my busy schedule, I started taping several cable programming at the 6-hour mode to save space. The quality was as expected at this speed, only watchable.

On one occassion, I decided to tape a classic movie in widescreen format on cable at SP (2-hour) mode to capture the quality. During playback, I noticed a visible green column (1/8 of my screen) at the left margin. I thought that maybe it was due to loose A/V cable connection or dirty heads. So I re-connected the cables and bought/used a dry tape head cleaner. I ran a test record at SP speed and the result was the same. I used the head cleaner 4 more times ... the result was the same. Then I figured it might be due to the brand of tape I was using, Sony. Doing some google research, I discovered that Sony VHS blanks are very poor quality.

However, when I played my recorded Sony tapes in my dad's older model Panasonic VCR, it played very cleanly, without the green column. Later, I rented a new tape from Blockbuster, The Croupier, and played it in my PV-V4540. The green column still appeared. This lead me to believe that my PV-V4540 has defective playback video heads. It is still usable and the green column is not readily noticeable except with wide screen movies or movies with dark scenes. So, I will keep it until I can save up for a 6 head Toshiba. This purchase was regretful. :(

Similar Products Used:

Sony 4 Head Hi-Fi VHS VCR (Made in Mexico), Older Panasonic Hi-Fi VHS VCR (Made in ?)

Easy Setup, Good picture

Dang small buttons on the remote

This is a replacement for a 7 year old RCA VCR. The Panasonic is easier to setup and has a much better picture and sound. At $99 the price was also unbeatable. The only fault is with the remote. The lighted remote is actually only partially lighted (the top 1/4) and the most commonly used buttons (volume, channel change and commercial skip) are incedibally small on the crowded remote.

Similar Products Used:

RCA, JVC

Good Tuner, Smooth Tape Handling nice index features

Small channel select and volume buttons on remote

Since nobody else has reviewed this VCR I'd be happy to be the first. The 4540 is a good machine. It's got a good tuner, front AV inputs, quick winding, smooth and fairly quiet tape travel. The picture is significantly better than my two previous Philips/Magnavox machines

Unfortunately, the partially lighted remote has small channel +/- and volume buttons. I don't know why Panasonic would make the four most commonly pressed buttons so small, although it doesn't matter too much when I'm using the universal remote from my Harman Kardon receiver.

The PV-V4540 is hard to beat at $120. Panasonic is known for their reliabilty. The cheaper 4520 model does not have front AV inputs or auto-indexing. I paid the extra $20 and got those features. I recommend the 4540.

Similar Products Used:

Many 4 head Hifi stereo VCR's