Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've had this DVD/VCR combination for several weeks now, and I can say I'm very impressed. I connected the DVD video to my home theater receiver using the S-Video connection. The receiver is itself connected to my 32-inch TV also using a S-Video connection. The DVD picture is awesome! I've played several DVDs, some with challenging content (e.g. the Matrix, Star Wars Episode I), and this unit has behaved faultlessly. No nasty digital artifacts that I could see. The unit also provides a component video connection which supports progressive scan. When Santa brings me that widescreen HDTV, it'll be great to see how that performs! I also connected the DVD audio to the same receiver using the optical digital connection (note: no connect cable supplied). The unit outputs both Dolby Digital and DTS audio streams. As my receiver decodes both forms of encoding, I could play all movies with 5.1 surround sound tracks in their full glory. Awesome! Sure beats listening through the built-in speakers in my TV. The DVD section also plays regular CDs and home-burned MP3 CDs faultlessly, both CD-R and CD-RW. Few units handle MP3 on CD-RW, so kudos to Panasonic for that. At 128k compression, the sound is just fine for casual listening. At 192k compression it's hard to tell from a regular CD, and you can still get several hours of music on a single disc. If you don't have a CD burner for your PC, get one! The VCR section is fine too, and has several features that my previous unit didn't have, including program index marking, and commercial advance. This last works pretty well, automatically recognizing and fast-forwarding through about 80% of recorded commercials. It also provides 3 tape speeds: SP (1 x capacity), LP (2 x capacity), and SLP (3 x capacity). So, you can choose the best trade-off between tape usage and video quality. The SP video quality is pretty good, as is the Hi-Fi stereo sound. Note though that the video output is only available through the composite or RF (antenna) connection. S-Video and component video aren't available. This is common to all other brands of DVD/VCR combination, so Panasonic is not alone. But, it does mean you need 2 connections to your receiver/TV, and you need to switch inputs on your TV when switching between DVD and VCR. (Why can't manufacturers build-in an up-converter so you only need a single video connection?) Now the not-so-good-news. The remote, while doing the job it's supposed to, doesn't look or feel like it will last very long. It's made of ultra-lightweight plastic, dipped in silver paint to look metallic. The pale blue color used for the DVD legends is hard to read against the silver background, and the paint has already worn off the little dimple feet that make contact when placed on the coffee table. Finally, while there is a light button, only 3 of the buttons are illuminated, so don't expect to be able to use the remote easily in a dark room. Do yourself a favor. Buy a decent learning remote, and transfer the codes you need. One final point. If you want to get the very best out of the DVD video, connect it to your TV using the best connection it supports (progressive component, then interlaced component, then S-Video, then composite, then as a last resort RF). If you use component or S-Video, be prepared to switch inputs when switching between DVD and VCR. These are minor gripes though. If you're in the market for a quality DVD player or VCR, check out this unit. If you're in the market for both, at the price, it's a no-brainer.