A remote is required to use this unit. Since this a discontinued product a replacement, or OEM, remote will be needed to utilize all functions necessary on the unit.
TURNING OFF NOISE REDUCTION
To turn off the unit's Noise Reduction setting, you'll need to press the DISPLAY button on the bottom of the remote to pop up this menu:
Use the D-Pad on the remote to scroll to the Video tab and select Line-in NR and set the mode to Off.
SETTING UP BLACK LEVEL CONTROL
This ensures that tapes playing through a VCR don't wash out from capture to the capture device.Press the FUNCTIONS button left side of the D-Pad on the remote. On official Panasonic remotes, hit SETUP on the remote to access the menu.
Scroll down and select the Other Functions button. It'll bring you to a side menu with a Setup button, select that too.
Go down and select the Video tab, and select Black Level Control.
Once selected, follow the image below to set up the levels for the input/output. Make sure that the outputs/inputs levels do not match.
And that is it! Thanks ENunn for helping with set up!
KNOWN ISSUES
Using this as a passthru TBC has a drawback. Any tape being played back will suffer a "colour noise" issue from any output, tapes recorded in EP mode or black & white programming will have a more noticable effect. There is no workaround for this.
This is an example from an S-VHS tape recorded in B&W, inputting and outputting through S-Video.