SVHS : Is it worth it? (1 Viewer)

[Phil Nichols]

Rachael,

Looks like a great HT room you have in the works! Sounds like nothing less than 100+ inches will do for you! CRT front projection still reigns supreme if you want the ultimate black levels and contrast ratios. DLP front projection is "OK" if you want the latest whizz-bang stuff with compromised blacks and contrast ratios (Even TI's latest black level enhanced DLP chip, even though much better, cannot yet match CRT).

My Dambusters was the movie with the black dog but not from the Mighty Warbirds series - also not one of the Dambusters "documentary type" versions, some of which are available on DVD.

Michael St. Clair,

If you mean JVC S-VHS, then I returned a new JVC 9800 and replaced it with a new Sony R1000. If you mean the new JVC D-VHS, then yeah ......... a good question regarding it's playback quality of existing VHS/SVHS libraries. I'm also wondering if the new JVC 30000 D-VHS VCR would do justice to VHS and S-VHS - plus provide it's superb 1080i movie playback capability. If so, I might pick up the new JVC 30000 for: VHS, SVHS, and HD movies, all in one unit.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Phil,

I did indeed mean D-VHS, and have corrected my post. Given your extensive experience with perfecting VHS/S-VHS playback, I would be very interested in hearing what your opinions are regarding the playback of analog recordings on these deck(s).

 

[Phil Nichols]

I just finished watching a "stunning" VHS transfer of The High Road to China. It took a few seconds to dial in the sound and image parameters just right, but it was worth it. Again.......this is an excellent film not yet on DVD.

 

[AaronD]

Well, you guys convinced me... I picked up an open box 7800 at crutchfield this morning for $179.96. I just happened to be browsing the site still undecided until I noticed they had an open box unit for sale.... I'm so weak when it comes to e-commerce
I was hoping they might magically have an open box Panasonic RA60 dvd player too but I wasn't that lucky.
I also picked up some JVC S-VHS T-120 SVHS tapes and Maxell HiFi T-160 VHS HiFi Grade tapes... Any opinions on these? Are tapes pretty much tapes these days as long as they're hi-grade?
Thanks,
Aaron

 

[Rachael B]

Aaron, I only have one JVC tape. I don't have much oppinion there. I like Fugi and TDK tapes. The Fugi H471 tapes are my fav. They're about $8 apiece. The Fugi regular S-VHS tapes I get for less than $5 each from Adorama in New York.
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I order tapes in lots of ten Fugi's once or twice a year. I can get S-VHS tapes, TDK and Maxell, are available locally for $6+ locally, so I mainly mail order. Don't waste you time with S-VHS-ET. Make real S-VHS tapes or make VHS. If you had two ET-capable VCR's, they might not play each other's ET tapes...? ET is a gimmick to sell more people S-VHS and a so-so one. IMO, if you want to make excellent recordings you need good tape. All garden variety VHS tapes are poor quality IMO, even the one that are labeled and priced as premium.
I think you'll like the 7800. I have a similar, older 7500 on my bedroom TV. It's served me well. Having TBC is a real step up from plain jane VCR's.
Phil, my THE DAM BUSTERS tape came out of a catalog my dad got. They mostly offer old films of real war planes but offered a few movies. I have one of the British documentries about the Dam Busters Squadron on R2 PAL DVD. There are several others. Mine's thesis is that the raid was really a failure and amounted to little more than a terrorist act. A few hundred people drowned and only some limited damage was done. That the raid did little to change the war's course. I stille like the movie. Michael Redgrave is so good in it! Best wishes, guys!

 

[GregoriusM]

Just got a new 7800 last night. My first foray into S-VHS, and I can't believe the difference in recording and playback quality, and I've only used it for straight VHS using composite cables.

I can hardly wait to hook it up using S-Video, and using S-VHS tapes!

Plus, even though the 7800 model is a couple of years old, it doesn't seem to be any different than the 7900 that has replaced it.

I got mine for $299 CAD, with a regular retail of $599 CAD before it was discontinued. Fantastic machine for the price!

... Greg

 

[Eugene Hsieh]

Who is interested in the new DVD recorders coming out? I have an S-VHS deck and tape drives me up the wall. Mind you I have nothing important archived on tape so I only rarely need the tape playback capability. Plus, they're expensive at around $585 for the newest DVD-RAM/-R one coming out.

I'll probably get one soon, but soon may mean next year.

 

[Steve Phillips]

$200.00??? I can find several Super VHS machines around town for $125.00. I agree Super VHS-ET is a joke; these recordings won't even play in all Super VHS machines. The Super VHS tapes sell for $4.00 on sale for a T-120 (major brands, too). A better bet is to get a DVD recorder if you can spare the extra cash.

 

[GregoriusM]

EXTRA CASH being the operative words. I'll wait until the format wars are over, and I can get a DVD recorder that records and plays all of the formats.

Plus, you can't get an S-VHS deck with features like Time Base Recording, etc. for $125! Check out the features on the JVD 7800 on Crutchfield's site and compare them with $125 models. They don't compare.

... Greg

 

[AaronD]

The 7800 has tons of features that the $125 machines wont have... If you want a deck for ~$125 go for the 3900 series from JVC. But the 7800 has digital time base correction, flying erase head, and 2mb of frame memory. It's a superior VCR and worth every penny. I didn't really want to spend $200 on a VCR, but I'm glad that I did. This *should* be the last VCR I ever buy... And once DVD recordables get down to a more reasonable price and come to some sort of standard I'll get one of those too... But for now SVHS works nicely.

-Aaron

 

[Drew Eckhardt]

SVHS will make satellite recordings nearly indistinguishable from the source, while VHS is virtually unwatchable. Take the S-VHS.

 

[Sihan Goi]

Would it be worthwhile to get a S-VHS deck if all I'm using it for is as a TV tuner for my projector? I'm thinking of getting a stereo VCR to convert my cable TV signal from the wall jack to input to my Tag McLaren AV32R prepro, which does video switching for my projector. S-VHS decks over here are pretty expensive, with JVC models(HR-S7600AM) costing up to 400USD.

 

[Chuck Kent]

Sihan: I don't know. What is the TV signal type in Singapore? SECAM or PAL? I didn't think it was NTSC like the US???

The best NTSC US model JVC (the model 9900) has ghost reduction built into it's tuner, but for ghost reduction to work, the broadcasting TV station needs to add an additional (signal) component to the broadcast signal. I don't know if the ghost reduction circuitry is used anywhere else beyond the US.

Since we're talking cable here, I don't think that ghost reduction is a factor anyway. So, IMO, you are back down to how well certain brands work as tuners. My own personal experience is that the HiFi JVC VCRs have very good tuners in them. At least in my setups, they as good or better than anything I've ever used.

 

[Sihan Goi]

Its PAL, but most of the VCRs sold here are multi-system anyway so its not an issue. There aren't a lot of JVC models over here if the regional website is anything to go by, which brings me back to my original question. Would an S-VHS model be better than a normal VHS one if all I'm using it for is as a tuner?

 

[GregoriusM]

If you're using it as a tuner AND using the S-Video outputs, it will look better on-screen than a comparable tuner using only the RF outputs.

Other than that, some regular VHS decks have better tuners than some S-VHS decks, but I think most S-VHS decks would have a better tuner overall.

... Greg