Panasonic PV-V4523S 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR

The compact PV-V4523S offers four-head playback, stereo sound, Commercial Skip, and front-panel audio-video inputs for a camcorder or gaming console. Its four-head design ensures smooth slow-motion play (forward and reverse) and clear still-frame images, while hi-fi sound records and plays back dynamic stereo audio tracks. If you route the stereo output to an AV receiver, you can even enjoy four-channel (left, center, right, and monaural surround) Dolby Pro Logic mixes from TV and Dolby-encoded cassettes.

You can schedule ahead using the recorder's one-month, eight-event programming, and the unit weighs a mere 5.5 pounds--perfect for quick moves from the recreation room to the bedroom or living room when needed. Features like index search, program end search, tape-position display, a trilingual (English, Spanish, French) onscreen display, all-channel auto set, auto power off, and the ever-handy auto clock set greatly simplify setup and operation.

Commercial Skip speeds past unwanted portions of a tape in one-, two-, or three-minute increments. Index search lets you zip right to predefined index points, and tape-position display indicates how much room is left on a tape, before or during recording. The PV-V4523S also has Panasonic's Ready-to-Play feature: as soon as you plug it in, the combo automatically sets its own clock and local TV channels. It comes with a universal remote control.