Connecting your SVHS and tapes differences. (1 Viewer)

[Rachael B]

Luc, ET actually stands for Expansion Technology. It's not a speed. ET encoded tapes don't always play back well or not at all on other S-VHS-ET decks, other than the one that recorded it. In the early days of ET JVC had a disclaimer to as much but has since decided they can get away without it, but ET encoded tapes stille have compatibility problems. I've many times heard that complaint on this forum and experienced it myself in my brief stint using ET.

I was using JVC 7500 & 3500 and the 3500 didn't like the 7500's tapes. The 7500 did like the 3500's tapes. I found no VHS tape that made a good ET picture, and tape price certainly seemed irrelevent. I even tried Maxell BQ commercial VHS tapes that are expensive and they faired worse or as bad as any other brands I tried. One of the best tape forulations for ET that I tried was Maxell's P/I PLUS T-120 industrial tapes that cost $4, or less, each compared to about $10 for BQ T-128's. The P/I tapes are formulated for time lapse VCR's in commercial applictions. They're damn good VHS tapes. The most durable I've ever seen. None-the-less, they're VHS tapes, yuk! All ET recording looked atleast 15% worse, I'm being conservative, than real S-VHS to me. Always snowy to some degree.

Forget using the S-VHS-ET sub-format. Just do VHS or S-VHS. JVC & Fugi S-VHS tapes can be had for less than $5 each mail order if you buy them in lots of ten or more. S-VHS will make you want to forget VHS! Real S-VHS tapes will have no more compatibility problems than garden variety VHS tapes do, which is to say some, occasionally, when taken to another S-VHS deck. Best wishes!

P.S. - the lack of S-VHS sensor hole on a VHS tape causes your VCR to automatically record VHS.

 

[Luc]

Great, I'm learning...

Now

Setting the VCR to “S-VHS” in the menu means it will record S-mode when it detects an S-VHS tape has been inserted. The VCR “knew” it was a regular VHS tape, so regular VHS is all you got!

OK, but did it still record it via S-Video connection since I turned on the S-Video input? On the function menu, it shows that the S-video is active and the composite is inactive. I suppose I could test this out by disconnecting the composite and record with SVHS mode on regular VHS tape.

Or does the term SVHS mode only applies when we're using SVHS tapes.