The Panasonic 4540 VCR looks like every other VCR in the world. It’s black, with lots of buttons and a digital clock that keeps month, day, and time automatically on the front. It works like every VCR in the world, too; it does its job competently day in and day out, giving us adequate service with no fanfare. I don’t know about you, but that’s a good thing in my book; I don’t want to even have to notice my VCR. I just want it to be there quietly, always functioning correctly when I need it. The 4540 does that.
The 4540 isn’t a VCR with a lot of extraneous bells and whistles. It records TV shows, and it plays VHS tapes. I don’t know how much you expect your VCR to do, but this one does perfectly what I need mine to do--tape and play stuff for me. It comes with a universal remote, so you can work your TV and VCR both with the same runner, which is nice. It has the VCR Plus+® SILVER to make programming the VCR faster and easier, and channel mapping so you know what stations you have available and where they are at the touch of a button. One of the few nice little extras this model features is the Commercial Skip, which lets you jump ahead during playback in 1, 2 or 3-minute increments. That way you don’t actually have to fast-forward through commercials; you can skip them entirely.
There’s also a time index, so you can keep track of where exactly on a tape your favorite parts are or where each show begins. My only complaint about the Panasonic 4540 is this: In order to make the cordage more easily accessible, they’ve put the jacks on the front of the unit. That’s cool, I guess, except that what’s easier for me to get hold of is easier for my two toddlers to get hold of too. You need to keep this VCR up out of toddler reach, because they WILL pull all the plugs out. Small complaint, though. When All’s Said and Done:
For this smallish price, you can’t argue with a simple workhorse of a VCR. It may not be snazzy, but it’s always right there doing its job.