so last night while researching this issue i came across this thread. i've got two of these models, the Panasonic AG-550 with the same issue on the power supply as you, fried in the same spot! one is burnt all the way through and the other just had the components in that spot crack and fall off. 6 odd years later i don't really expect you to remember, but wondering if decided to fix it or found any sort of replacement? shame to junk it when the rest of the unit was working fine before the power supply failed

I ended up flinging the set. IIRC.. I did try to find a board. The one on there was burned up pretty bad, and on my set.. the picture wasn't that great.

I have a Panasonic PV-4022 VCR that still works as well as the day I purchased it, years ago, never five minutes worth of trouble with it (power supply or anything else). It replaced a Panasonic VCR with VCR Plus+ (a now-obsolete system which allowed the user to record TV shows simply by entering a 3- to 5-digit code into a text box on the TV screen) from the early '80s, IIRC. However, since getting an LG DVD player some years ago (I don't remember how long ago, though), I don't use the VCR much anymore. I do have a bunch of VHS tapes but I haven't looked at them in years, since most of the programming on them (except a few old network TV shows from the '70s-'80s) is now available on DVD.

I may or may not replace the Panny VCR when it finally quits. I will look for a used VCR on eBay if mine quits within the next few months or so; however, I realize VCRs are obsolete in this age of DVD players, so trying to find a used VCR may not be worth the trouble. All I use my present VCR for anyway is viewing old VHS tapes I recorded years ago, before DTV and before DVD.

My Experience with Panasonic
 

Our station had just been sold and the new company decided to go with Panasonic rather than stay with Sony cameras for the news dept.
So, one day one of the new ($17K) cameras comes in blowing fuses on the huge Anton Bauer batteries. Believe they were 20A fuses.
Dead short on the DC bus in the camera.
Since the camera was just out of the 1 year warranty, the CE decided to just send it to Panasonic service and "maybe" they would honor the warranty and fix it for free.
They wouldn't, and said the short was in the imager block and would cost $6K to fix. We requested they return the camera un-repaired and they did.
So, late one night after late news, they brought the camera in to the shop, with a known working camera, and I started swapping parts.
At about 1:30AM I found the problem. It was a short in the gigantic flex circuit that winds thru the camera.
I emailed the CE and he instructed me to order the $106 replacement flex immediately.
I had never had this problem with any of the Sony cameras that we had.
The Panasonic cameras were cheaper than the Sony's. The Sony's were about $25K a piece. So, I guess you get what you pay for.