What's the best SVHS VCR currently available?
Urd-sama's Desk
I want to buy a good quality _NTSC_ SVHS vcr. Living in Pal territory
Europe, I don't have access to US or Japanese magazines publishing tests
or news on this topic. And companies are very reluctant to give data on
non-PAL equipment.
So what are the good vcr's currently available in the States ?
I need no frills, just play, record, hifi stereo (don't think a mono SVHS
vcr exist ?) and above all reliability!
I'm not putting a max. on the price I'm willing to pay; I would like to
hear from both consumer and industrial stuff.
From personal experience I know JVC not to be very good. Panasonic seems
to have a very short lifespan. Mitsubishi I have not yet tried but comes
highly recommended. Hitachi sucks. And that's about all brands that are on
the market with SVHS over here. What is the situation in the USA ?
Thanks much in advance!
Jeroen
gigl...@shrsys.hslc.org
surprised when I purchased their SF772 SVHS vcr and found it to be way
better than anything else I have seen out there. It has all the usual
feature you'd expect (HiFI, onscreen, VCR+, blah blah) but has some
features I find very hard to do without like:
Adjustable record levels for audio! A built in titler for putting your
own titles on home movies, or messages..... One remote that does everything
including controlling your cable box with vcr+
I have this unit for 4 months now and am a very heavy taper, so believe me it
is really GOOD!
Frank
KEVIN SMITH
If you are looking for best - money not object Panisonic WV-F565 list
for $7500. Ron Whitting,Pres. Southwest Uplink,Inc -Commercial
Satellite Uplinks for all Major networks wrote: "test against a sony
camera and the WV-F565(it) simply blew it away." Sony DXC 537AH lists
for $9,070. The Sony EVW-300L Lists for $7,700. Hope this is of some
help. Kevin Smith
amigapc
number -- I'm blank at midnight and the machines are at work) with
corresponding editing controllers since August 1990. I teach introductory
TV production at Norman High School in Norman, Oklahoma (one of Redbook's
winner for Outstanding Schools in US about two years ago...). Anyway,
after continuous use for over four years, I have never had either of
these decks go out. I have cleaned then twice and I then only mechanical
problems I face is the slight incompatibility which stems from using a
newer model of editing controller (for the AG1970 really; the original
one was dropped accidentally)...
For a prosumer level editing system, "it ain't too bad."
Rex Suba
David Tetzlaff
Most consumer and even 'prosumer' VCRs from big name companies like
Panasonic, JVC, Mitsubishi etc. seem to me to be similar in reliability.
Mostly, they're pretty good, but every once and a while you get a lemon -
which has less to do with the design of a particular model than whether
the individual piece you get came out of the factory on a good day. For
example, I have two AG-1960's - one which has worked fine for years (the
more typical result I think) and one which breaks down about every three
months.
For a recommendation, I'd say look at Mitsubishi first - the units seem
well made and nicely designed in terms of features and usability. I used
to use one at work, and I thought it was a bit better than our Panasonics.
JEFF HUM
Although it's in the PRO-line, it's only a high-end consumer deck...
But I agree that it's a nice VCR.
Jeff.
Gary Meyer
I'd recommend JVC BR-S500 and BR-S800 12-pin control decks over
anything. CTL time code leave all audio tracks open and you can post
stripe code to the CTL track (insert time code to pre-recorded tapes).
The decks are made of sturdy, solid components like the rest of JVC's
pro-line.
John Devine
djte...@students.wisc.edu (David Tetzlaff) wrote:
>> So what are the good vcr's currently available in the States ?
>
>For a recommendation, I'd say look at Mitsubishi first - the units seem
>well made and nicely designed in terms of features and usability. I used
>to use one at work, and I thought it was a bit better than our Panasonics.
I'd have to disagree, having had experience with three brands of SVHS VCR's I've
found that the Mitsubishi SVHS has a tendency to bleed rather badly in the reds and
though the sharpness is excellent there is also somewhat more noise. I also have a
top of the line SONY which while excellent in terms of editing controls and other
features has a very poor picture at the slowest speed and a second rate picture on
regular VHS tape. By contrast (heh heh) I recently purchased the RCA VR721 SVHS vcr
and it offers one of the best pictures I've ever seen at High speed. An exceptional
picture at slow speed and regular VHS performance superior to any of my standard VHS
machines (I have 7 VCRS). In fact the picture is so good at SVHS slow speed that if
you turn the sharpness control on your tv down a bit, the picture is better than
high speed regular VHS. There is a drawback, however, and that is that there is
very little in the way of controls on this deck. There are SVideo outputs though
and the machine only costs $599 (US). A great deal for a great deck.
--
***********************************************************************
*John Devine "Alles vergangliche *
* Ramshead Productions Ist nur ein gleichnis" ---- Goethe *
* joh...@slip.net *
***********************************************************************
Howard Fredrics
Thanks for the suggestion on the JVC decks for 2800-3200 dollars.
Do you have a similar suggestion for decks in the under $1000 category
and the $1000-2000 category as my budget is limited?
My needs:
minimum four channels of audio with 2 linear and 2 "hi-fi" tracks.
The audio linear tracks should be individually insertable (for audio
overdubs on an existing video tape).
The hi-fi tracks should be insertable without disturbing the linear audio
tracks
so that new video and/or high fi audio can be overdubed (inserted).
A plus would be the ability to have control track time code and/or the
ability to lock the video tape transport to an external audio smpte time
code.
The application which I will be using this for is audio post-scoring.
Thanks for any suggestions!
-Howard Fredrics
fred...@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu
Kent Smith
a Misibishi S-VHS Deck for about six years now. It is very reliable and
is still going strong.
------
KENT
------
mal...@ibm.net
>I'd have to disagree, having had experience with three brands of SVHS VCR's I've
>found that the Mitsubishi SVHS has a tendency to bleed rather badly in the reds and
>though the sharpness is excellent there is also somewhat more noise. I also have a
>top of the line SONY which while excellent in terms of editing controls and other
>features has a very poor picture at the slowest speed and a second rate picture on
>regular VHS tape. By contrast (heh heh) I recently purchased the RCA VR721 SVHS vcr
>and it offers one of the best pictures I've ever seen at High speed. An exceptional
>picture at slow speed and regular VHS performance superior to any of my standard VHS
>machines (I have 7 VCRS). In fact the picture is so good at SVHS slow speed that if
>you turn the sharpness control on your tv down a bit, the picture is better than
>high speed regular VHS. There is a drawback, however, and that is that there is
>very little in the way of controls on this deck. There are SVideo outputs though
>and the machine only costs $599 (US). A great deal for a great deck.
I will second the recommendation for the VR-721HF. It's my second S-VHS VCR (my
other is the 'in'famous JVC HR-S6900U (I've had no problems with mine) and I got it
locally for $499.00 (Metro Detroit) I have seen mail order for around $450.00. A
friend has since gotten one, his had a loud motor, but the replacement one works
fine.
"Nothing sexier than a girl with an accordian" -- Sheryl Crow
Jim Mallory
Internet E-mail Address: mal...@ibm.net
Alternate E-mail Address: 75230...@compuserve.com
William Kucharski
Howard Fredrics <fred...@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu> said the following:
>Do you have a similar suggestion for decks in the under $1000 category
>and the $1000-2000 category as my budget is limited?
>
>My needs:
>minimum four channels of audio with 2 linear and 2 "hi-fi" tracks.
Unfortunately, the price range of $1000 - $2000 and the four channels of audio
are mutually exclusive UNLESS you don't mind buying used.
The cheapest deck I know of with four channels of audio is the JVC Edit Desk
record deck (BR-S800U), for about $3600 or so.
--
| William Kucharski, contractor, AT&T Bell Labs | Opinions expressed herein
| Work Internet: kuch...@drmail.dr.att.com | are MINE alone, NOT those
| Fun Internet: kuch...@netcom.com Ham: N0OKQ | of AT&T Bell Laboratories.
| President, "Just the Ten of Us" Fan Club | "Dittos from Denver, CO"
Geoff Crooks
I agree wholeheartedly with what Kent said. I too have owned a Mitsubishi
S-VHS and 27" monitor since 1988, and have been completely satisfied with
their performance. My only gripes with the VCR (which I hope they have
remedied by now) were that there is no way to turn on the timer without
the remote, and there's no battery backup, so when power goes out, so
does the programming and clock. sigh. But the important stuff, picture
and sound quality, are top notch. I also like the indexing feature.
Geoff.
CHARLES F. CROCKETT
In a previous article, HelperGod...@innet.be (Urd-sama's Desk) says:
>Hi!
>
>I want to buy a good quality _NTSC_ SVHS vcr.
>
>Jeroen
>
BYTE magazine, May 1995, page 99, did a comparison of two systems, one
digital video, the other analog video. They didn't really say how they
picked components, but the analog system used a Sanyo GVR-S955 (list $3495).
Another magazine (?) also recommended this model (didn't remember which
recent mag. perhaps June Videomaker which had a 'best of' spread this month.
Anyone familar with this machine?
--
Charlie, Phoenix, AZ
ccro...@aztec.asu.edu
BRVIDEO
line.........JVCEDIT DESK is it
Stuart Brenner
Panasonic AG-DS850
Fully loaded, great transport, no add-ons needed.
Regards,
Stuart Brenner
FutureVideo
--
Stuart Brenner