VHS to DVD: VCR Recommendations?

I have been using the VCR sides of Toshiba combo units, they work fine. If you want a S-video output, rather than composite output, then yes, get an S-VHS. I've heard that Mitsubishi made the best drive mechanisms.

If you have a working VCR, and it outputs an acceptable picture, then just use one of those. Microladyusa tells me that whatever you see on your TV is what will record. So, if the picture that you see is acceptable to you, using the machines you already have, then just use one of those.

SLP tapes are the hardest to transfer, as they have the worst playback, especially on machines other than the ones that recorded them. Since you have the original machines, by all means, try the tapes on the VCRs they were recorded on, and see what they look like. If they play back well, then use them. If not, yes, a Panny with TBC, or a Mitsu SVHS would be a good bet. But, if you do buy a VCR, make sure it has manually adjustable tracking. You may have to oversee playback, at least for a while, making tracking adjustments as needed. It's also a good idea to FF and then rewind tapes before playing, to make sure they playback smoothly, with no sticking.

I worked at TV station and when we still made VHS dubs, we found it's better to use the machine that recorded it if possible. If you can't do that. we had very good luck with early to mid 90s Sanyo machines. If you're looking at ebay for a machine, you're most likely going to find a JVC SVHS as they made the last stand alone machine. Avoid this machine, it does NOT like play tape made in other VCRs.

This really isn’t fair to all the folks that may read your post.

I just went to ebay and found that in the last little while well over 60 S-VHS JVC decks were sold.
If most of these decks really didn’t play any tapes which were recorded on other decks then don’t you think that the majority of those buyers would be demanding their money back??? Or at the very least giving negative feedback to the sellers?

What is happening in reality is totally contrary to your post. Most of the buyers of those JVC S-VHS decks seem totally satisfied giving feedback that reads
“JUST AS DESCRIBED”
“WOULD BUY FROM SELLER AGAIN”
“DECK WORKS PERFECTLY”

Any doubters can check the Ebay feedback for themselves…

On a personal note I am a happy owner of two of the last JVC S-VHS decks. The first one I had since new, a 2002 HR-S3911U with very, very heavy usage and the second deck is a used HR-S5912U which was manufactured in 2003. BTW the HR-S5912U is the last stand alone SVHS (none DVHS) deck made – from 2003 to 2008.

Both my decks play my tapes, which were recorded on Philips, Mitsubishi, Sony, and other JVC decks just fine thank you. Both decks also flawlessly play my commercial VHS tapes – dating back to 1979 – with the majority of my commercial tapes from the mid eighties to late nineties era.

Like all reviews you kind of have to take them all with a grain of salt and try and form a general consensus. Citibear has also warned against the later S-VHS JVC VCRs. Personally I've had pretty good luck with JVC but my experience was back ~1980 with the HR-6700U line so my experience is WAY outdated. I had my mother purchase a JVC in the mid 80s(one if not the first front loader) and while it wasn't crap I wouldn't rate it up their with my Matsushita VCRs of the time.
It sounds like Tony worked for a TV station so I'm guessing he was exposed to lots of different brands of professional equipment, I wouldn't dismiss his experience but rather use it as one more grain of salt to add to the overall consensus. Everyone seems to agree it's best to use the VCR that did the recording

Yes, jjeff, I know what you mean.
Up till recently, I had 2 JVC SVHS S6700U units.
Both had problems every 1 1/2 years.
Decent units, with ALOT of bells and whitles, which is
why I bought this unit in the first place.
The LAST JVC of that time with the MANUAL
RECORDING LEVEL CONTROLS AND METERS.
BUT, as stated on here many times, once the
unit goes OUT of alignment, it's hard to re-capture
the great picture quality that the unit once had.
I sold the bottom unit in the picture for $50.
It had distortion in the 1 audio head side, and tracking
issues.
The person who bought it, said that they fixed it for
like $50 or so. So you never know.
Now, that I have a Panasonic 1980 model I
DO PREFER it to the S6700U model,
because it has the TBC, and the detail switch.
These DO help to give a much better picture.
Also, when I did dubs with the S6700U I noticed that
it did not stay tracked very well. The picture rolled alot,
did the flagging thing at the top of the picture.
This does not happen on the Panasonic 1980 model.
And I've NEVER had to baby sit the 1980 because of tracking issues,
UNLESS, I was dubbing a tape that had been EATEN in the
JVC S6700U unit.

Short answer to Sinister_Penguin: if the majority of your tapes are SLP/EP (6-hour), and your parents original VCRs that made them are still in good working order, don't research any further. Try the the original VCRs first, they are the best choice for playing their own SLP/EP tapes. The biggest issue people complain of is being unable to track SLP/EP tapes because they no longer own the VCR that made them. You do still own them, and they still work: that's a huge advantage. Exploit it.

Long answer:

No, they wouldn't, because almost every buyer of an old used JVC SVHS vcr in 2011 is a head-up-their-ass, stoned out of their mind on the Kool-Aid JVC cultist who is absolutely convinced no other machine whatsoever is suitable for their precious tapes. I'm sorry, SuperEye, I don't mean you specifically, but the JVC vcr boosterism on forums worldwide needs to stop: everyone really needs to put a sock in it already. "Classic" svhs JVCs are the most shoddily-built, inconsistent-performing VCRs ever dropped on an unsuspecting public (the fancy heavy cabinetry conceals a marginal mechanism). IF you happened to buy it back in the day and have been the sole owner, and IF you got extremely lucky and yours never broke, and/or IF you have access to a truly gifted local repair tech who can actually maintain a JVC properly, THEN you can enjoy their arguable benefits.

But such fortunate souls are few, the majority of the classic JVCs drifted way out of alignment some time in the 1990s and are near-impossible to realign today. Every cultist and his mother has bought, sold, shipped, returned and resold every JVC found on eBay or Craigs List: there are NO "barely used mint" JVC svhs available- don't even dream about it. The fact that people snap them up on eBay and give good feedback just indicates the persistence of the cult, and supply/demand by people who are stuck with a ton of old JVC-recorded hifi tapes which don't track worth a damn on any other brand of vcr. If it arrives in one piece the buyer is happy and proceeds to spend $100 or more sending it out to be refurbished (a fool's quest if there ever was one).

Going back several years to 2002 or so, when people first seriously began digitizing their VHS, the cult formed because there was a glut of "high-end" used JVCs floating around pretty cheap, and they were the easiest models to find with the w-a-y overhyped TBC/DNR feature. (The TBC/DNR helps clear up color smear and noise on some tapes, but can cause as many problems as it solves.) Once the TBC/DNR bandwagon started rolling on various forums, "classic" JVCs became a hot commodity and the myth persists today. The chatter tends to obscure the fact that other, better alternatives became available as the years passed. In 2002 the semi-pro Panasonic AG1980 was still in widespread use by event photographers, and prices stayed up near $900 even second hand. Today, you can pick one up for under $100 and it is designed to be serviced easily: any local shop can realign it.

Better yet, both JVC itself and MGA/Mitsubishi introduced much-improved new DVHS models that retain the SVHS and TBC/DNR of the old worn-out "classic" JVCs wedded to updated mechanics that are more standardized and reliable. These too were out of reach eight years ago, but can now be had for $200 or less. Sometimes you can even find the most recent JVC SVHS "pro" models SR-V10 or SR-V101 as well. Any of these would make FAR better choices than one of the ancient JVC 7000, 8000 or 9000 series everyone creams over. Those who primarily have regular-VHS tapes recorded in SLP/EP, like Sinister_Penguin, should not even bother with "high-end" decks at all: its a waste of time and money. The only reason anyone wants the fancier decks is for the TBC/DNR feature, but this feature tends to be optimized for SP-speed tapes and it often backfires with SLP/EP (causing artifacts like snow, fake dropout lines, periodic picture rolling). Compounding this is JVC's "rogue" SLP/EP implementation which varies slightly on every VCR they ever made: each one is really only capable of tracking its own SLP tapes and is hopeless with SLP recorded on Matsushita or other brands.

Even the excellent Panasonic AG1980 is not all that fond of SLP/EP: it handles them better than JVC, but not by much. For what it would cost to buy (and perhaps service) a high-end SVHS, a person with a large SLP/EP collection would get better results by buying a large number of ordinary consumer models by Sharp, Panasonic (aka Quasar Magnavox GE), even LG and Samsung. You can find barely-used 4-head hifi VCRs for $15 on eBay, Craigs List or thrift shops: buy ten for the cost of a single fancy SVHS. Out of those ten, you're much more likely to find one that tracks your SLP/EP tapes smoothly.

Then you are indeed exceptionally fortunate, may you continue to be long into the future. Most people coming onto the scene now looking for a VCR should consider newer, better models. My apologies for the rant, SuperEye, I know you've heard it from me many times before and I'm sure its annoying because your classic JVC SVHS experience has been positive. But it can be an unnecessary gamble for someone just starting today, they should look at newer alternatives for the same money.

Tony1606 was talking about the LAST of the stand-alone VCRs, meaning the inexpensive JVCs HR-2910U, to the HR-5912U lines. One thing Tony got right is that ebay is indeed full of these machines. These are not cult machines these are simply the last VCRs that sold retail from a little over a hundred dollars to a little over $200 dollars. CitiBear - this is why ebay is full of these listings - it has nothing to do with a cult following.

I imagine that the majority of the folks buying those machines are regular folk that simply need a replacement VCR. I'd imagine that most of these buyers never heard of AVS forum or any cult following.



I'm sorry CB but in all honesty it sounds absurd to think that the majority of the folks buying those last-of-line JVC SVHS are cult members and even if they got non-working machines - they would leave five star feedback and state that the VCR works flawlessly. Are you really trying to convince me of this?

Now if you're talking about fancy JVC SVHS machines with TBC and special VNR circuitry then yes - those have a cult following. So do the fancy Panasonic machines such as the AG1980. In my humble opinion these are the machines the layman should stay away from. Not because they are bad machines but because these are the machines that have been passed around to every cult member for the last 20-plus years. These machines have millions of miles of wear n tear and millions of miles from being shipped around the continent three times a year for the past 20-plus years.
Just in the few months we had at least three folks come to AVS and claim that they bought an AG1980 because of advise given here and they claimed that their AG1980 is damaged. So this cult Panasonic VS cult JVC thing is a crapshoot at best. But even the cult members will let you know if they get a "BAD" machine and they will demand a refund or give you a bad rating.

You know sometimes I have to question when a new-member comes to a forum and his first post is written like Tony's review. I also wonder what kind of TV stations Tony worked for that exposed him to tons of consumer VCRs. I say this because I've been working around production, post-production houses and TV stations since 1980 - I've been inside numerous TV stations but not one ever had a low-end consumer line VCR such as the HR-S29xxU to HR-59XXU. This is simply unheard of. Most TV stations (everyone I've ever been inside) used VHS decks only to feed consumer tapes that were captured by civilians (breaking newsfinders) and for these feeds the TV stations use professional VCRs.