Jvc hr-s8700 pal vcr

[Quasipal]

This morning I was in town and in the Cash Converters found a JVC HR-S8700 S-VHS machine for sale. It was in at £15 but an offer of £12 was accepted. It's in nearly new condition, no wear or damage and the inside is in 'new' condition too. The remote control is missing but I can get one from eBay.

There is not much online about this model so I thought I would ask here. It does have DigiPure, jog and shuttle, front vu meters and the date inside is 2000.

Thanks for any input - is it a good machine for transferring?

[hech54]

That one is similar to my Philips VR-1100 (assuming you mean DIGITAL VU meters), but with JVC's Digipure marketing text.
I love my Philips/JVC clone.

Actually that may be the more "conventional JVC-looking" model than my clone. Somewhere in the 8000 range they change to the larger housing and probably different components.

[Quasipal]

Thanks - yes, digital meters. Some of the cheaper models were just a basic display with no way of adjusting the record levels.

Sounds like a decent enough deck - my first JVC in full working order actually!

[hech54]

Just beware of the JVC - Panasonic fanboy flame war that's about to begin.

[Quasipal]

Just beware of the JVC - Panasonic fanboy flame war that's about to begin.

I've seen a few of those!

To be honest I'm a Panasonic user - but not all pannys are that great. From my quick evaluation this model does give good performance, but it falls short of the Panasonic HS950. I need more time with it (and a remote!)

[Quasipal]

I've spent more time testing now that I have a remote control. I have been evaluating the same frame captured by this JVC and the Panasonic HS950 and whilst both are excellent they deliver completely different pictures. The JVC has a smoother picture, stronger colour and less detail. The Panasonic really does show more picture information - it clearly showed the texture of crumbling plaster in one scene whereas the JVC did not even show that same area as anything other than a even tone. Nonetheless it was better for tapes that have less details and more noise (which is quite a few). I am glad to have it in my rig.

[hech54]

I have an Panasonic NV HD620 that sounds a bit more mechanically "sound" than my Philips but I only use it for viewing BIG tapes above E/T180.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/PANASONIC-VHS-VIDEO-RECORDER-NV-HD620-ORIGINAL-FERNBEDIENUNG-/2...item43ce9c1545

[hech54]

Oh and here's a nice (retail) site to gain some info on some of the more "odd" VHS machines:
http://www.vcr-shop.overweg.com/