Sony SLV-D960P (or similar) vs Panasonic NV-HS900

[Jokris]

I am considering buying an s-vhs and I am at a situation where I have a Sony SLV-D960P. It is a combo DVD/VHS but I only intend to use it for s-video output.

However I am also able to get a Panasonic NV-HS900 from another seller.

Do you have any experience of comparing similar S-VHS players for these companies?(without tbc)

[oln]

The S-Video out is only for the DVD-side on that Sony. The picture quality on those isn't too bad though linear audio playback on these combo decks made by Samsung can be a bit hit and miss depending on the deck in my experience and bad ones can have a lot of audio noise. Hi-fi audio output is fine.

NV-HS900 should be good if you can make sure it's in good condition and properly tested, there are some known issues that can pop up with the mechanism in them.

[Marshalleq]

It has taken me a moment to understand what you're doing. oln is right - every single dual VHS/DVD I've seen - the S-VIDEO output only works when you play DVD's. I got caught out with this too. I assume something better runs internally when you convert direct to DVD - but I wouldn't recommend that either as DVD usually has pretty horrible codecs and I have no idea how it handles the interlacing.

I resisted getting a TBC unit because I too thought my tapes were good enough. I'm glad I got the TBC though. What I noticed straight away was that a lot of my tapes looked like broadcast quality. Obviously to the untrained eye - but they were all suddenly very stable and what used to be slightly wonky lines that I thought, 'Oh that's just VHS' nope, that went away too. Plus all the black squiggly lines and noise on some of the more challenging tapes.

From what I'm seeing if your tapes are mostly OK you get the most bang for your buck from the S-VHS player - I'd say it get's you 80% there to the best quality you could get (assuming good tapes). I don't have much experience with the external TBC so more experienced others may tell you otherwise.

So what I'm saying is, it's worth it. If you value what's on those tapes, just spend the money, you won't regret it.

As for brands - JVC invented S-VHS and many people say they're the best - that's what I got. But I've heard Panasonics are good too. Personal choice a bit I guess.

I trust this is helpful, apologies if not.

Marshalleq.

[Alwyn]

It has taken me a moment to understand what you're doing. oln is right - every single dual VHS/DVD I've seen - the S-VIDEO output only works when you play DVD's.

Oln is talking only about a particular Samsung. I have 5 DVD Recorder-VCR combos that output over S-Video from the VHS side: 2 Pannys, an LG, a Sanyo and a Sammy.

Perhaps I picked up a cr@p JVC S-VHS VCR (non-TBC version) because it's video is no better than my newish EZ-48 and LG 990. I'm getting what I consider decent video using a VCR + ES15. Given Marhsalleq's experience with VCRShop (if you can't trust them, who can you trust!), I'd be very hesitant in forking out hundreds of dollars on a S-VCR with a TBC.

[Marshalleq]

You can get them on eBay. Either way it all comes down to how important those tapes are. If you value them what price would you put on the vcr? $100? $1000? $3000? It’s hard right. Yes my experience wasn’t great but if it was the o lot place I’d still go there. What I’m finding with second hand goods is some of them are so pristine they’ve never been used. Let’s face it by the time s-vhs came out most people started shifting to digital. I got an NTSC player for $8 the other day. I tried to clean it but it was so clean already nothing came off anything. Even the rubber. If the shipping works for you I would try eBay. What vcrshop has done to their credit is fixed every little thing I’ve asked about without me having to actually ask. That’s what you want get from eBay.

[themaster1]

Toshiba, mitsubishi, philips they did good vcr's aswell (sometimes they were jvc's rebranded).
More important thing : Just make sure to pick one made in late 90s/ early 00s to avoid extra work/money on capacitors swaps/ psu issues and spaghetti cables ( just great to pick up noise/ distort signal...).

[oln]

Toshiba, mitsubishi, philips they did good vcr's aswell (sometimes they were jvc's rebranded)

Have to be a bit careful with specifyingToshiba and philips brands. Philips was mainly used on crappy Funai VCRs from the mid 90s in the US and on Funai and some LGs from the early 2000s in Europe, and any Toshiba past around 2000 is also gonna be some cost cut Funai or Orion-made budget VCR. Brands are tricky - there is always a lot of outsourcing going on.

It has taken me a moment to understand what you're doing. oln is right - every single dual VHS/DVD I've seen - the S-VIDEO output only works when you play DVD's.

Oln is talking only about a particular Samsung. I have 5 DVD Recorder-VCR combos that output over S-Video from the VHS side: 2 Pannys, an LG, a Sanyo and a Sammy.

.

Most dvd-recorder/VHS combos send everything via the internal digitizer so can output from the s-video outputs from the VHS side. The JVC ones that are actual JVCs (not the ones that are LG or Orion under the hood) are one exception. At least on the DR-MX1 I have the s-video and component out is for the dvd-recorder side only though it has a feature that lets you output vhs from the component but not s-video which is supposed to be progressive scan only but seems to do interlaced too. I believe some earlier funai-made ones also only do it in dubbing mode. (and some of the panasonic ones have raw vcr output available on one of the outputs as well.)

Not aware of any DVD/VCR combos that only have DVD playback (not recording) with s-video other than the few combos that were Super-VHS (possibly the ones with blu-ray if any of those had s-video out since those seem to also contain a digitizer like the recorder models even though they are playback only on the digital side)

[Marshalleq]

I have a philips DVP3050V which doesn't play VHS out the S-Video. The others I've looked at on the back have the S-Video in a labelled areas called DVD next to an areas without S-Video labelled VHS so just always assumed they were all like that. Good if they're not!

[Skiller]

Oln is talking only about a particular Samsung. I have 5 DVD Recorder-VCR combos that output over S-Video from the VHS side: 2 Pannys, an LG, a Sanyo and a Sammy.

Would need to look at the schematics to tell for sure, but I bet these machines do not take the Y/C signals off the tape to output over S-Video, like an S-VHS deck would, but rather convert the Composite signal from the VCR side to S-Video internally (via digitizing it first) as this is easier and cheaper to implement because a decent Y/C separation functionality is built into some chip on the board anyways for recording Composite signals to DVD.

But I think it is unlikely it would make much of a difference with most tapes.

[Marshalleq]

Nice. That would be good to confirm - I think I may have seen some commentary elsewhere on this site, that agrees with that assessment, so you're probably right. Would be good to be 100% confirmed though.