Unfortunately why buy a VCR, when it gives snow in couple of months without heavy use. We played not more than 3-4 movies a week. All cassettes were in good condition and the snow gets worse and worse, to the point where it is almost unusable. Cleaning the heads didn't help. Manual tracking(What is manual tracking these days anyway??) didn't help either....

Samsung support didn't help much too. The phone system of their main support number 1-800-SAMSUNG kept me in loop, when I did the proper selection. The email support request didn't get answered for days(still waiting). The local service center responded with "WE do not work on VCRs anymore, they are throw-away these days..".

I hope SAMSUNG cannot expect from me to accept that a 300$+ unit is a "throw away" in couple of months.

CONCLUSION: Look some other company with more reliable product and support.

Great NTSC/PAL VCR (Rating: 5.00)
Review : I am former VCR tech. Own Panasonic AG-W2 (no tuner). This Samsung was with me twice in Europe. Tuner will pick up any station anywhere in the world. Wherever you plug it, it records,converts and plays flawlesly. I am using it daily for couple of years with no problem. I do not see any difference in pix quality between semi-pro AG-W2 which I paid long time ago $2,500. For this price, I may buy one more Samsung just for backup.

A Piece of junk! (Rating: 1.00)
Review : We bought this item a few years back and have had nothing but trouble with it. For such an expensive piece of equipment it should last far longer than it has. We have had to have it repaired a number of times already and so could have bought a new one with the money we spent on it. We certainly do not recommend this product and will never buy another one from Samsung. When I complained to them, I got no satisfaction at all. It stopped working again yesterday.

I hate Samsung for this piece of junk! (Rating: 1.00)
Review : This VCR is really a piece of junk! I have had with it more problmes than with all the other electronic equipment I have altogether. The VCR started "snowing" on all tapes 4 months after I bought it. Customer service sucks! Although the VCR was on warranty, it took me 6 (!) months and numerous contacts with the customer service and vistis to a repair shop to have the VCR fixed. Then, 10 months later, it started "showing" again. I am tired of this VCR! I wish I never bougth it! I hate Samsung for this piece of junk which cost me $340!

Does not Convert NTSC edited video tapes to PAL successfully (Rating: 3.00)
Review : I have had no help from Samsung regarding my SV-5000W Worldwide VCR. I have been trying to get an explanation from Samsung for three years! Here is the problem:

After editing my Hi8 tapes from my Sony TRV 82 Handycam Camcorder onto an NTSC tape, I try to convert the NTSC tape to PAL on my Samsung multi-system SV- 5000W Worldwide VCR. The PAL tape is poor with light and dark areas with a reddish hue at times. When beginning the converting on the Samsung, I notice a Copy Guard Signal message on my TV screen. What I think is happening is that a copyright code is being activated (Macrovision?) when I try to copy my own tapes. I bought the unit to send my NTSC videos in PAL standard to my brother in England.

Ramon Best

Worst VCR I ever owned (Rating: 1.00)
Review : The first impression was great. It played all of my PAL VHS tapes, and converted them with reasonable (not great, but I didn't expect it to be great) quality. Then, after about 6 months it started "snowing" and then the whole screen become filled with snow that it basically impossible to see anything on it now. I've also tried to use it to watch my PAL DVDs on NTSC TV, and noticed strange sound drops. Sometimes, for no reason, it would only show video and audio would be completely mute. I've had nothing but problems with it. Samsung *really* should've recalled this model. I would like file a lawsuit on behalf of all people who got fooled the same way as me with this VCR against Samsung. A friend of mine owned the same VCR and his died in less than a year. So you spend $300 on something that you hope would last for a long time and you get *this* instead?