Analog VHF/UHF as you get OTA or cable is composite video, so a VCR with S-Video will get you nothing (unless you are watching S-VHS tapes).
IMHO, a lot of analog tuners look very similar to each other since composite video is comparitively crappy to start with. That being said, some VCR's have a feature called ghost reduction, which can be a big help. My JVC VCR's tuner uses ATSC A49 if the station is broadcasting with it.
Needless to say, your best tuner would be a high definition digital one if you are fortunate enough to live in an area with lots of HD content OTA.