S-VHS player to DVD recommendations?

I would look for the Top of The Line JVC 9000 Series Models or maybe even the newer D-VHS ones that also play S-VHS.

If you can find a reasonably priced Sony SVO-2100 that would be a great machine to own. I owned the little brother (VHS only) and it was a rock solid machine with options to help "clean up" the picture before outputting it to the DVD recorder.

The SVO line from Sony is their pro line of VHS/S-VHS decks.

In many cases the machine that recorded the tapes is also the machine that will do the best job of playing them back. If that machine still works, that is the machine I would start with.

Dave

DVD media hasn't been proven (IMO). I would store the tapes in a climate controlled place away from your DVD's once the conversion is done. We know tapes will last for quite a while, while DVD-R media isn't 10 years old yet.

I agree with Travis. I would never ever get rid of those original master tapes. VCR quality has decreased in the past 10 years. What you have now could very well be better than anything you can buy new today. Getting the most out of old recorded tapes has more to do with matching the alignment of the VCR to the tape. Your old VCR is the best match because it's alignment probably hasn't changed much since it created those recordings.

I have VHS tapes that I recorded in 1978 and they look darned good when played in the machine that recorded them. I hope to have the time soon to start making DVD copies while that machine still works. If it stops working is when I will search for a new high buck S-VHS vcr to play them in.

Dave

A PANASONIC 7650 (player only model) would do a terrific job! Built in proc amp control to tweak any of the video needed, and a tbc also. Variable Noise reduction and other settings really let you dial it in perfectly. Manual tracking control with VU-meter monitoring provides excellent results!!!

Here is a link to show you what they look like if not familiar :

7650

This is their "Broadcast Series" units, and are excellent...(You can get a much better price than those listed)

Be wary of getting run down worn out units on eBay, but you can definitely find nice units if you take the time !!

Richard

I used my Toshiba W808 S-VHS VCR to my Panasonic DMR ES25

Before buying anything, copy a VHS recording to DVD-R and play back the finalized DVD-R on a computer monitor screen. Check the overscan area for any artifacts. To check on the sound quality of the recording, you can play back the DVD recording on the hard drive, raising the volume to check for noise. I have found some VHS tapes did a good job recording sound, others did a bad job, so I have to set the sound to mono, not hi-fi. Another way of checking the sound is to download the free VLC media player and change the equalized settings while playing back a VHS to DVD-R transfer.
If you used a JVC S-VHS recorder, you will find that the EP heads were out of allignment and that there is plenty of video noise in the overscan area, not just the ribbon distortion at the bottom. Besides everything else, JVC's tracking control sucks. I used a JVC S-VHS recorder a lot, my mistake.
After 1991, I have found that the reduced tape thickness introduced then to save money leads to tapes that shed magnetic particles much easier when you use high speed rewind. Make sure you have a tape header cleaning tape around.
I have some tapes from 1987 that play pretty good, if recorded in SP speed. In EP speed, the heads of my JVC recorders went bad fast, judging from the playback of those tapes after DVD-R transfer.
Figure any tape you have over 8 years old recorded at EP speed as on borrowed time. Use Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs to record the tapes, first checking the purple dye side for any defects, such as small dye smears (which sometimes occurs with Valueline DVD-Rs).
Just my opinion, but don't waste a dime more on a new VHS recorder or combination DVD recorder/VHS player.

I read that the chroma/luminance splitter in the DVD recorder is better than in the VCR or laserdisc player, so the advice was to use the composite inputs. I have found from personal experience that the S-video output from the VCR seems to be have slightly better image quality. I sometimes use a Samsung VCR with only composite outputs for newer recordings because the Samsung's tracking control is better than the JVC, which cost over twice as much. It is trial and error. Very time consuming. For older tapes, the JVC is better, its slow fast forward and rewind are easier on the VHS tapes. My JVC VHS recorder has a built in TBC (the cheap kind) which works with playback, but removes closed captioning and sometimes blurs the video image. Don't forget to set the unit to the edit mode in the menu.

I might be tempted to get a DVHS machine.

I originaly was Beta, then SVHS, now DVDR/HDD, however I do have DVHS and it is amazing technology. When preserving a SVHS tape, you can put more content per tape:

MPEG-2 at 28.2Mbps (HS mode), 14.1Mbps (STD mode), 4.7Mbps (LS3 mode), and 2.8Mbps (LS5 mode)

While the DVHS is not that popular, it is the ONLY format that will allow you to also record HD w/5.1 via TS (MPEG-2) firewire.

In a year or 2 it will become evident if we will get an affordable HD recordable media that will allow massive amounts of SVHS quanlity to be placed on a disk. If this doesn't happen, then we will be stuck with DVD.

I would NOT start to invest in DVD now if I have waited this far.

It is the only "portable" format. You can use a PC and then burn to Blu-Ray/HD DVD.

There is freeware out there to allow a firewire port to handle the TS (transport stream) from DVHS or Set top Boxes.

I have the problem of preserving about 300 hours of original S-VHS shoots in the best quality possible (before it's too late ... !) - After lots of tests and alternatives, I've come to what 'seems' to be the best solution: use a JVC - HM-HDS4 for playback, that I originally had intended to store a few tapes at a time on it's Hard Drive (!) and then pass them to the Tosh RD-XS32 (more of that later) to be edited and finally burnt ... I then discovered that the XS32 actually accepts a direct DV link from the JVC (one of, as far as I'm aware, only a couple of S-VHS decks that has a DV-out, the other one being the JVC SR-VS30, the one with the mini-DV on the other side) without necessarily having to record to the JVC HD, but simply go straight to the Tosh ...

I was convinced this could have been the perfect solution until I read with great dismay in the 'Canopus ADVC to Sony DVD Recorder' thread ( I'm not allowed to post the url) ... :
So in other words does anybody have any more info on this matter, i.e. any difference between the JVC or the Toshiba DV conversion ... or would I be better off reverting to square one - using a very simple and straight forward Y/C analogue connection ???

• S-VHS tape played in S-VHS player >
  • s-video cable connection >
    • MPEG recording on Toshiba XS DVD recorder

What you suggested is

• S-VHS tape played in S-VHS player >
  • dv compression out >
    • dv compression in, re-compression to MPEG
      • MPEG recording on Toshiba XS DVD recorder

Extra steps, extra loss of quality. No need for DV in middle.

Would there be a significant (noticeable) difference in picture fidelity when copying regular VHS tapes using S-VHS player vs. regular player, using svhs connection vs. composite.

And are there S_VHS players that have component output, if so, would that make an difference?

S-VHS topped out at s-video. D-VHS had component output.

What lordsmurf said.

If the source material is analog (as all VHS or SVHS tapes are), using the DV connection results in extra analog>digital conversion in the tape deck and extra digital>analog in the encoder board or DVD recorder. Every encode/decode cycle introduces degradation, so you want to reduce that to a minimum. Best hookup for VHS conversion is S-video line out from the player to S-video in of the encoder board or DVD recorder, creating a straightforward, single analog>digital conversion. Note S-video can be a tricky signal/wiring format, it doesn't always give superior results to a plain old RCA composite video connection. Depends on the tapes, player and recording device. Try both connections to see which looks better to you.

True, but I find it a rare instance when composite looks better.

If you get a SVHS player with a time base correction circuit your regular VHS tapes will be cleaned up quite a bit, especially slow speed tapes as it tends to clean up the color noise they all have. I use a JVC 9600 myself and also have a Mitsubishi unit with electronic pre roll editing feature and some form of digital filter that isn't quite as good as the JVC unit.
There are other top quality players out there used like some of the last Panasonic pro models that have TBC and other things to help clean up bad tapes so that might be a option for you if your doing a lot of regular VHS transfers.