Sony SLV-R5UC S-VHS deck (1 Viewer)

[Rino C]

Can anyone tell me about this player? How does it compare it to Panasonic AG-1980 and Sony SLV-R1000, which seems to be the consensus best VCR's? Thanks.

 

[Phil Nichols]

Rino C,

A long answer to your inquiry:

I believe the Sony SLV-R1000 is the replacement for the SLV-5RUC, which were a couple of the best home use full editing VCR's ever sold from what I read.

The AG-1980 is also a superb editing VCR that may even have a slight edge on the R1000 according to some posts I've read. They say the AG-1980 may be more of a professional or commercial deck and is not as user friendly as the R1000. The 1980 retailed for a little more than the R1000, if that's any indication (...both well above $1K).

BTW, I own a R1000 and still watch old classic WS VHS films from it right along with my DVD collection. It puts out the best VHS and Super-VHS 480i I've ever seen and good VHS transfers played on it almost match the PQ of my 480i DISH digital channels. The R1000 images are noise free just like digital, partially or fully due to it's Dynamic Sine Filter circuit that Sony contracted Dr. Faroudja to design for them......it says Faroudja right on the back of the R1000. Images from it are rock solid with no jitter at all, with deep blacks, richly saturated colors .... but it's trump card is wonderful high bandwidth analog FM stereo sound. It's multiple video inputs and outputs are via composite or S-Video cabling and I see no difference in it's comb filtered output from the excellent comb filter in my Pio Elite RPTV, so I use S-Video output from it to make use of the R1000's comb filter. Recorded DISH channels on true Super-VHS blanks (..using S-Video into the R1000 from the STB) are almost indistinguishable from the original digital channels themselves. For a real VCR treat, I have some studio made Super VHS commercial widescreen movies and I can hardly tell them PQ-wise from DVD's, other than stereo sound instead of DTS or DS. I bought and returned a top of the line JVC to pick up an R1000 instead and have never looked back.

There are many films still not on DVD (i.e. The original non-SE Star Wars Trilogy in OAR widescreen!), so IMHO a movie lover must have a R1000-class VCR in their system so the step-down from DVD is as painless as possible!

 

[Rino C]

Thank you for your very informative reply. I do not plan on editing. I am looking for the best possible playback performance for the money.

As I have mentioned it in another post, I currently have Sharp VC-S100U with 3D DNR and 3D-Y/C comb filter. Don_Berg suggested that TBC is pretty much a requirement to get the best possible picture.

I gathered that Panasonic AG-1980, Sony SLV-R1000 and JVC 9xxx and 7xxx definitely do have TBC. Someone mentioned that Mitsubishi SVHS decks did as well but I have not been able to confirm this fact. Mitsubishi also only has 2D-Y/C or 3-line digital comb filter.

Do you know if Sony SLV-R5UC deck also has Faroudja "magic" in it as well? Does it have same stellar playback performance as SLV-R1000? It seems go cheaper than SLV-R1000 on eBay. Thanks again.

 

[Phil Nichols]

The R1000 was designed with Dr. Faroudja's inputs and first came out in the early 1990's which I think was after the R5U, so I seriously doubt that Faroudja was inside it.

I would expect that the R5U would be less expensive than the R1000, as the R5U is of course an older model than the R1000. I think that either Sony built R1000's through about 1999/2000 or shipped them for years from inventory in a warehouse if they stopped building them earlier. I purchased mine new in the spring of 2000.

The R1000 spec sheet does not overtly mention TBC but I'm sure that it MUST have it given the quality of deck it is and because I never see the slightest sign of jitter ever. The R1000 also has defeatable Automatic Picture Control (APC) - two different implementations as I understand it - one for record and one for playback. I do not do editing either, but just wanted the best playback possible.

The JVC 9600 I returned after one week before purchasing the R1000 was about $400 less money and just plain did not have the PQ or anywhere near the build quality of the R1000. The R1000 weighs at least 15 lbs.

I would go for a used AG-1980 or R1000 .... not a JVC deck new or used. An RU5 just seems a bit too old and it probably won't have the Dynamic Sine Filter or defeatable APC ...... and maybe not TBC (but most likely does).

I actually do not turn on playback APC on my R1000 as I have custom tuned DNR, sharpness, horizontal detail and specially calibrated the input it's using via my Pio Elite RPTV's internal service menu - which results in an image superior to what APC in itself can provide. I even use Nordost Super Optix S-Video cabling (~$50 per foot) out of my R1000 so as to leave no stone unturned for PQ - just in case! I also turn on simulated surround in my sound system to come as close to DTS/DS as I can when doing stereo movie playback out of the R1000.

(It's too bad you can't try an R1000 or 1980 some way before you buy one or the other.)