Panasonic PV-D4742 DVD-VCR Combo (Black)

Panasonic PV-D4742 DVD-VCR Combo (Black)

Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description
The handy Panasonic PV-D4742 DVD/4-Head Hi-Fi VCR Combination plays your videos, DVDs, MP3-CDs, and more.

Video Features
Featuring a four-head hi-fi VCR for excellent picture and sound resolution with VHS tapes, this device is compatible with VHS, DVD, and MP3/CD, CD-R, and CD-RW formats. The DVD function features a high-speed viewing mode with Smooth Motion Scan for scanning DVDs at five speeds, up to x100. There's a still-frame mode, and Dolby Digital and dts composite, component, S-video, and digital audio outputs.

Audio Features
This player sports Simulated Surround Sound, which replicates a movie theater audio experience using only two speakers, making multiaudio channel DVDs effective without an elaborate home theater system. It's also home theater ready, sporting the necessary outputs and connections for easy hookup to speakers, preamps, and other home theater devices. Connections include front A/V input, composite, component and S-video-outputs, and a digital audio output.

Other Features
The PV-D4742 also comes with Panasonic's Multi-Brand Universal Light Tower remote control, an illuminated remote that operates your DVD/VCR, and most TVs and cable/DSS boxes, and even a head cleaner for the VCR.

Product Description:
Panasonic marries the best elements of its VCRs and DVD players in its new products that can take the place of both units on an entertainment system shelf. The new PV-D4742 offers an economical and convenient option for consumers looking to save space, or who want to add a DVD player and replace an aging VCR.Panasonic PV-D4742 is "ready to play, " automatically setting the clock and date, and programming the channels as soon as they're plugged in and connected to your TV or cable or satellite system. The superb picture quality and convenience features of the four-head, Hi-Fi stereo VCRs will be familiar to those who have owned Panasonic decks in recent years. With this unit you can record a program and watch a DVD at the same time. You can also listen to a CD or home recorded CD-R, CD-RW, or MP3 recording, or even watch a DVD-R video production made on your PC. The possibilities are virtually limitless.Adding to the unit's versatility is a wide array of audio/video jacks, namely: discreet component video output, S-Video output, dual RCA A/V outputs, optical digital output and RF in/out. In short, all the connections you need whether you're doing your viewing on a 5-year old mono TV or a big-screen digital set hooked up to a surround sound system. The deck also includes Dolby Digital and dts outputs for digital 5.1-channel surround.

Panasonic PV-D4742 DVD-VCR Combo (Black)
Average customer rating:

Infuriating!

VCR Has Problems

Poor

I agree with the concensus of reviews on this one: don't buy

Less than a year old and already broken

Panasonic PV-D4742 DVD-VCR Combo (Black)

Manufacturer: Panasonic
ProductGroup: CE
Binding: Electronics

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Accessories:

Panasonic Instruction Book

Product Features:

DVD-Video, MP3-CD, CD-R/CD-RW playback

Component-video, composite-video, and S-video outputs offer optimal connection with compatible DVD player

Front AV input for easy camcorder or game console hook-up

DVD High Speed, Smooth Motion Scan: 5 speeds up to x100

Auto Clock Set with Backup; Multi-Brand Universal Tower Remote Control

ASIN: B00005V9Q2

Product Description

Panasonic marries the best elements of its VCRs and DVD players in its new products that can take the place of both units on an entertainment system shelf. The new PV-D4742 offers an economical and convenient option for consumers looking to save space, or who want to add a DVD player and replace an aging VCR.Panasonic PV-D4742 is "ready to play, " automatically setting the clock and date, and programming the channels as soon as they're plugged in and connected to your TV or cable or satellite system. The superb picture quality and convenience features of the four-head, Hi-Fi stereo VCRs will be familiar to those who have owned Panasonic decks in recent years. With this unit you can record a program and watch a DVD at the same time. You can also listen to a CD or home recorded CD-R, CD-RW, or MP3 recording, or even watch a DVD-R video production made on your PC. The possibilities are virtually limitless.Adding to the unit's versatility is a wide array of audio/video jacks, namely: discreet component video output, S-Video output, dual RCA A/V outputs, optical digital output and RF in/out. In short, all the connections you need whether you're doing your viewing on a 5-year old mono TV or a big-screen digital set hooked up to a surround sound system. The deck also includes Dolby Digital and dts outputs for digital 5.1-channel surround.

Amazon.com Product Description

The handy Panasonic PV-D4742 DVD/4-Head Hi-Fi VCR Combination plays your videos, DVDs, MP3-CDs, and more.

Customer Reviews:

Infuriating!.......2004-09-24

I will never again spend 300 dollars on any Panasonic product. I've had wonderful luck with their car audio products, but this thing wasn't worth even half of what it cost. The DVD player started to malfunction after about a year, with that wonderfully annoying "Please check the disc and for scratches and stains on disc" message. Brand new DVDs wouldn't even play...but strangely, CDs don't give me any problems. Now, if you'll exucse me, I must go shop for a Toshiba to replace this ridiculous combo VCR/CD player.

VCR Has Problems.......2004-04-11

I had the unit just over a year and only used the VCR ten times or so. It started rejecting and eating tapes. I called Panasonic, described the problem, and told them of the many people on-line who reported problems with the unit. Since it is out of warranty, Panasonic was unsympathic. They do not seem to care that they manufactured a faulty device, and are not going to do more than their warranty obligates them.

When I had problems with a Sharp Camcorder that was out of warranty, and Sharp knew that they were at fault, they sent me a new model free.

Panasonic knows this is a faulty unit, and is hoping that customers won't use it enough to discover the problem within the warranty period.

Poor.......2003-12-06

I received this as a Christmas gift last year. My father purchased it at an electronics store. He was told it was "the Cadillac" of dvd/vcr players (I had picked out a less expensive item), but the salesman talked him into "upgrading". Poor choice. It took 3 months, which happened to be the warrenty period, then the vcr started rejecting tapes. Some tapes must be inserted over and over again until the machine accepts them. Other tapes are never accepted. The dvd player works but the sound has to be turned clear up in order to hear. This is deafening when I turn the dvd off. Overall I feel this is a bad choice. Save your money and buy a different product

I agree with the concensus of reviews on this one: don't buy.......2003-11-19

I got one of these units because I needed a machine that something beyond auto tracking control. It had tracking adjustment, so, I got it to replace my old unit. Within 2 weeks, I wanted something else. The store wouldn't accept it back (Not an Amazon.com store, though.) so, I sold it to someone else.

The unit has several problems, most of them related to the digital drive. The VCR portion I didn't have as many problems with as others report, no ejected tapes, etc. but it has its own irks. First, the RF In. Was very staticy, peppered with little colored dash marks. Other units did not display this static when the cable was connected. Plus, its search function is an abysmal failure. You can't search to a predefined position on the tape, you can only search to a position in X hours/minutes, not a precise time into the tape. While this works fine when the counter is at 0:00 at the start of the tape, but, when it's not the start of the tape anymore, searching becomes an absolute mess, especially when you want to go backwards.

The digital unit, though, is where this dog starts to bark. For DVD's, the way it manuevers through chapters, etc. is not exactly the most user friendly method. There's no easily programmable A to B function. Plus, a real annoyance with CD's. The programmer's apparently decided to code the CD player to automatically skip 2 seconds at the end of each track. Which is fine for music CD's; most people who burn their own discs tend to remove the 2 second gap anyway... I don't. I like the 2 seconds, and, automatically skipping the gaps, WITHOUT giving the user the option to turn this off, makes playing audio CD's impossible, as the last 2 seconds of a track's lines and the first 2 seconds of lines in the next track get swallowed up by the skipping! Poor, poor design.

While the digital drive does accept writable and rewritable CD and DVD formats, except for DVD-RAM, this is very little consolation compared to how much is left out and what doesn't work right. PASS on this model.

Less than a year old and already broken.......2003-10-01

I got this last December and in August, the DVD started messing up. An hour into every DVD we watch, the screen starts skipping then hangs up altogether! We can't turn it off when that happens, either - we have to unplug it.

I'm really not liking anything Panasonic anymore... I also have one of their digital video cameras (yuck!)

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