oogins Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 I'm currently looking for a new VCR, but I'm not too sure what to look for. I want something with an excellent picture. I rarely record things, so that's not too important. I definitely want one with an S-VID output. I've also heard about VCR's with 6 heads. What's the difference in quality between that and a 4 head? Could anyone suggest any brands or models? ------------------ -Paul AMD T-Bird 900 Asus A7V Micron 256 MB PC-133 IBM 30 GB 7200 rpm ATA 100 Pioneer DVD-105 Slot-Load (16X/40X) 3Dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 (soon to be Hercules Fortissimo II) NEC MultiSync M700 17" (soon to be LG Flatron 915FT Plus 19") Razor Boomslang 2000 w/Everglide Giganta These speakers are for my computer, not a HT Receiver: Kenwood VR-409 (soon to be Denon AVR-2802) Speakers: Klipsch Quintets (5 sats. soon adding Klipsch KSC-C1) Sub: Sony SA-W305 mini-sub (soon to be HSU Research VTF-2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrake2 Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 Not to ask a dumb question, but if you rarely record things, why do you want a VCR, with all the great advances made with DVD? DD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oogins Posted August 27, 2001 Author Share Posted August 27, 2001 Well, I happen to have a lot of tapes. And to go out and buy the DVD versions of all our movies would cost an arm and a leg. So I figure, why not just get a high quality VCR until I gradually get all the DVD versions. And plus, I heard that if VCR's are really good at recording, they don't perform as well when they're playing. ------------------ -Paul AMD T-Bird 900 Asus A7V Micron 256 MB PC-133 IBM 30 GB 7200 rpm ATA 100 Pioneer DVD-105 Slot-Load (16X/40X) 3Dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 (soon to be Hercules Fortissimo II) NEC MultiSync M700 17" (soon to be LG Flatron 915FT Plus 19") Razor Boomslang 2000 w/Everglide Giganta These speakers are for my computer, not a HT Receiver: Kenwood VR-409 (soon to be Denon AVR-2802) Speakers: Klipsch Quintets (5 sats. soon adding Klipsch KSC-C1) Sub: Sony SA-W305 mini-sub (soon to be HSU Research VTF-2) This message has been edited by oogins on 08-28-2001 at 01:47 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 Family member recently bought SonySLVN81.I was actually shocked at the picture quality and sound.I personally hate any tape format.Can't get over my loss of 8-track tapes to hostile player.If I were to buy VCR though,I would look at JVC. Good luck. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilH Posted August 28, 2001 Share Posted August 28, 2001 oogins: The difference in the number of heads between VCR's mainly affects the quality of the special effects (pause, slow mo, fast forward, rewind, etc.). The quality of the recording has no bearing on the quality of the playback in your terms...meaning a VCR that records well does not play well and vice versa...not true. The best quality recordings are those recorded in S-VHS on S-VHS tape. This increases the resolution from 240 to about 400 lines of resolution. Some S-VHS machines today can record an S-VHS signal on a standard tape, but it is not quite as good as using an S-VHS tape. As cheap as VCR's have become the last year or two, stick with a good name, like those mentioned above, and don't get an S-VHS machine unless you plan to record some things in S-VHS. It adds no picture quality to your present tapes recorded in standard VHS. PhilH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boomer9911 Posted August 28, 2001 Share Posted August 28, 2001 Phil said it right, unfortunately SVHS tapes costs a few extra $$$$$$... I would think about JVC, I actually purchased the S3800U, got it home, felt "very" light, took the cover off and "all" the "plastic" components explained that to me. I didn't even fire it up, took it back(great deal on it, but still $180 cdn for that??????). I purchased the Marantz VM5100 to go with my system, cost quite abit more, but as Phil stated, you pay for the machine, but it did have weight in the box Sony is pretty good in quality and Panasonic isn't bad. This message has been edited by boomer9911 on 08-28-2001 at 09:59 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oogins Posted August 29, 2001 Author Share Posted August 29, 2001 Boomer I'm having a difficult time trying to decipher your message. Are you saying I should avoid JVC? I just always assumed their VCR's were pretty good. ------------------ -Paul AMD T-Bird 900 Asus A7V Micron 256 MB PC-133 IBM 30 GB 7200 rpm ATA 100 Pioneer DVD-105 Slot-Load (16X/40X) 3Dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 (soon to be Hercules Fortissimo II) NEC MultiSync M700 17" (soon to be LG Flatron 915FT Plus 19") Razor Boomslang 2000 w/Everglide Giganta These speakers are for my computer, not a HT Receiver: Kenwood VR-409 (soon to be Denon AVR-2802) Speakers: Klipsch Quintets (5 sats. soon adding Klipsch KSC-C1) Sub: Sony SA-W305 mini-sub (soon to be HSU Research VTF-2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveLee Posted August 29, 2001 Share Posted August 29, 2001 Paul, Once you start looking at specific models, check out the consumer ratings for VCRs at: http://www.audioreview.com/reviews/VCR/ I've had a JVC HR-S4800 (SVHS) for about a year now, and have no complaints. It does an excellent job recording from our DSS system, and really blows standard VHS out of the water. It seems to play back standard (prerecorded) VHS tapes with visibly higher quality than our old Sony (non-SVHS) deck connected to the same TV; this could possibly be the visible difference between an S-video (JVC) connection and a standard composite (Sony) connection ... Anyway, as you've already found with audio, some large part of video preferences are "in the eye of the beholder"! Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avman Posted August 29, 2001 Share Posted August 29, 2001 ok, i was working on a detailed reply yesterday and POOF! out into the 1's/0's netherworld it went! anyway, if you want s-video out, you're going to get s-video in, AND s-vhs capability. sony makes one of the best VHS decks day-in-day-out in the industry. jvc, the inventors of vhs, have a format called s-vhs-ET. (Expansion Technology) means that you can achieve about 400 line resolution with a REGULAR vhs tape (results may vary-please try this at home) and about 420 l.o.r. w/ a s-vhs tape. compare to ANY vhs vcr at ANY price whose performance is limited to 220 l.o.r. and the RECORD quality w/ a good source (digital satellite,digital cable,or antenna) on the s-vhs et deck will clearly be superior. i know you say that recording is not an issue, but if s-video is, then s-vhs (et) comes along for the ride. avman. p.s.: 19 micron heads are really a must for extended record time recording/playback ------------------ 1-pair klf 30's c-7 center sony strda-777ES receiver NEW! sony playstation 2! dishnetwork model 7200 dishplayer satellite receiver/digital bitstream recorder pioneer dvd player sharp 35"tv panamax max dbs+5 surge protector/power conditioner monster cable interconnects/12 gua.speaker wire surrounds and a 'teens sub coming! KLIPSCH-So Good It Hz! This message has been edited by avman on 08-29-2001 at 05:10 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Phillips Posted August 29, 2001 Share Posted August 29, 2001 Sony is one of the better VHS decks out(IMHO).I have one that's 6 years old and still works like it was new.A friend recorded something from a laser disc for me many years ago.He used the Sony SVHS that cost a grand at the time.Recorded on Hi-Fi maxcell,S off because I didn't have an S deck at the time.Picture was better than pre-recorded even when played on a non S machine. I now have a JVC S7600 U and it's OK,looks good when recording on non S,better on S tape.Not much difference on pre-recorded stuff. About the 6 heads,4 are for video and the other 2 are used for Hi-Fi.Some have a "flying erase"head that usualy takes out the rainbow effect when you are editing or taping. You still get what you pay for. This message has been edited by Steve P on 08-29-2001 at 06:35 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oogins Posted September 1, 2001 Author Share Posted September 1, 2001 Thanks for the info guys! I'm going with the Sony SLVN81. I've decided that I don't really need an S-VID output. ------------------ -Paul AMD T-Bird 900 Asus A7V Micron 256 MB PC-133 IBM 30 GB 7200 rpm ATA 100 Pioneer DVD-105 Slot-Load (16X/40X) 3Dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 (soon to be Hercules Fortissimo II) NEC MultiSync M700 17" (soon to be Sony CPDG420S 19") Razor Boomslang 2000 w/Everglide Giganta These speakers are for my computer, not a HT Receiver: Kenwood VR-409 (soon to be Denon AVR-2802) Speakers: Klipsch Quintets (5 sats. soon adding Klipsch KSC-C1) Sub: Sony SA-W305 mini-sub (soon to be HSU Research VTF-2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boomer9911 Posted September 5, 2001 Share Posted September 5, 2001 I guess I'm saying that I wasn't impressed with the makings of the machine. I have owned JVC before and was impressed for regular hifi, but for super vhs the bang for the buck to me wasn't there(MO). I felt the build quality of say my Marantz VM5100 SVHS (and features)to be better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted September 18, 2001 Share Posted September 18, 2001 Its true most of todays VCR's are built so well they could float on water!Some could even float with a help of one baloon! I remember the first Hitachi VCR we had,it was over $1000 CAN,heavy and lasted almost 9 years!The unit still workd but would need heavy cleaning and some parts are quite worn out. After I purchased the Mitsubishi U56 VHS HiFi and U67 SVHS machines.Quality was great(all are still working like new!). This year I set out to buy another SVHS VCR to make transfers(from U67).Most were so cheap,so light they almost screamed WE ARE CHEAP,WE ARE LIGHT and WE WILL BREAK AFTER THE WARRANTY. So I decided to get the JVC 9800U,the only non pro SVHS with a bit of quality feeling.Still not up to the Mistubishi VCR's in terms of built. Sometimes I wish Krell or Jeff Rowland start making VCR's. Ah forget it they would require a crane to move and need 20AMP outlets! LOL TheEAR(s) Now theears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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