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  1. Member
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    hi all,

    i know i'm a n00b here, but i'm hoping someone on this seemingly very well informed forum might be able to help me out.

    i'm looking for vhs deck as i'm planning to get into vhs big time over the next few months, maybe years if i like it enough. primarily i've been drawn to the format from annoyances involving dvd subtitling on foreign films, seems like a bit of a bizarre reason for the change, i know, but vhs seems much less fuss to me with (afaik) subtitles being unchangable on foreign films - my other reason is price, with vhs going for less than 20p a piece at the moment, now seems like an ideal time to start collecting.

    anyway, i'm going rather ot with this, and as you'll no doubt have gathered from the topic title, i come here with a question in mind. basically, after a quick bit of research at these and a few other forums i've realised that it's pretty much essential for my vhs deck to have tbc as standard, and happily enough, this has narrowed down my search (in my budget) to either the classic panasonic nv-fs200 hq, or the rather unusual combi machine that is the panasonic dmr-e75v.

    i'm not fussed for any of the extras that either machine can give me, all i'm concerned about is the vcr playback quality through a crt projector (probably sony vph1020qm), although seeing as both are the same price, if picture quality is more or less equal then tne dvd player would be a nice bonus

    so, can anyone please enlighten me on the differences in pq between these two, and also, would either be a suitable source for my potential crt projector setup with a stereo amp. thanks in advance for any help at all
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  2. Member FulciLives's Avatar
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    You are clearly utterly insane.

    Either that or you think you are funny.

    A LOSER either way.

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman
    "The eyes are the first thing that you have to destroy ... because they have seen too many bad things" - Lucio Fulci
    EXPLORE THE FILMS OF LUCIO FULCI - THE MAESTRO OF GORE
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  3. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    Panasonic NV-FS200 gets my vote.

    Although not quite as mean-spirited as Fulci put it, I also have to wonder why you want to downgrade from DVD and HD to VHS format? I can understand if you want something unavailable on DVD, but otherwise no, I don't understand.

    Even at 20p per tape (50 cents USD), the space required by a room full of VHS tapes is easily replaced by a large wallet of DVDs. I'm annoyed enough as it is with my VHS tapes, I try to dispose of non-essential ones as DVD conversions are finished (something I do, because I restore everything first, your average layman should not dispose of his or her tapes, because he or she probably did a lousy transfer).

    DVD players can turn subtitles on and off, it's all how your DVD player is set up. Some auto-start, some don't. Most all of my machines can have this setting altered to suit my fancy.
    Want my help? Ask here! (not via PM!)
    FAQs: Best Blank DiscsBest TBCsBest VCRs for captureRestore VHS
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  4. Greetings Supreme2k's Avatar
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    ls, did you really fall for that?
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  5. Member
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    thank you for your response lordsmurf, i was hoping you'd reply actually as i seem to remember your name popping up in one of the previous articles i read about the fs200, or ag1980 as it is more likely known to the majority on here, (the european version better as it has SCART tho :P)

    anyway, space isn't really an issue for me and i quite like the retro charm of vhs cases cluttering up the place (i collect mega drive games too, so they wouldn't really look out of place - hehe), i appreciate that subs can be flicked on and off with dvds but i really despise tne faffing around, especially when a disc is primarily english with bits of other languages and i still have to turn subs on - ridiculous imo. i have a yamaha s2700 to a sony bravia telly with b&w mt-20 surround and whilst the picand sound are beyond exceptional, it's the little things like the aforementioned niggles that actually destroy the watching experience for me. i'm strange and probably unique, but oh well, what can u do, right?

    back to my question and can i ask if anyone has tried both models for comparison, or should i just bite the bullet and get the standalone machine? also, will my old pj actually do this machine justice?

    thanks again lordsmurf for taking ur time to help, i'm not really sure what i've done to receive the hate from the others :S
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  6. Member
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    Hi, well, just stumbled on this forum and wated to reply on this thread, so I registered. Well, why should the guy not get into vhs if he wants to? I myself have a large collection of pre recorded vhs tapes still, and simply cannot justify the expense of replacing on dvd, and no time to sit there transferring to dvd or pc, so thanks to ebay I bought a good quality panasonic deck to view these tapes on as and when. In fact I bought two NV-HS 1000 Edit Stations, along with brand new spare head drums. Being svhs machines with tbc, the picture quality is superb.
    I agree with the comments made on the fs-200, this is indeed another superb machine, and I am looking for one to come up on ebay. Did you also consider the nv-hs950, as this also has tbc as standard as well as the fs-200 and hs-1000.
    I do actually prefer recording on vhs (for record now watch later) as you dont have to bother with having to find a blank dvd, formatting it, waiting for the disc to register etc etc..just put tape in hit record..simple.

    It may amaze some but I actually own 3 sony superbeta sl-hf950 vcrs, and use one, other 2 in reserve. The picture quality is even better than vhs. Perfect still frame pause and frame advance / reverse, and is not affected by macrovision protection like vhs and dvd are. These machines sell for around £350 when they appear on ebay! Like you, original poster, I like actually having a tape, something mechanical, rather than just a disc. Im 35, and it is I have to say a retro thing as well. vhs and beta were all I knew when I was back at school! Long live beta.
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  7. Originally Posted by overheat
    i'm not really sure what i've done to receive the hate from the others :S
    It isn't "hate" per se: your utter loathing for DVDs in favor of VHS, to the point where you feel DVDs have no redeeming value (mostly because of occasional subtitle issues), just sounded like some sort of joke and the early responses assumed you were kidding. That, or completely out of your mind . Since you've clarified you were deadly serious, you've picked up a few more serious responses. But you have very much a minority viewpoint: it is incredible that you actually prefer watching VHS over DVD on a projection TV. Most of us would not do this unless we had no choice. While we can certainly understand the allure of amassing a huge tape library for pennies, in the long run it usually isn't worth it. Eventually you will move on to a newer type of display which will not show VHS at all well. Commercially made studio tapes were always very cheaply mfr'd and aren't as durable as consumer-made VHS. Inevitable tracking problems occur causing hifi sound drift and video degradation. Getting repairs for VHS decks will become increasingly difficult. All factors to consider before dismissing DVD altogether.

    If you already owned a large collection, it would be more understandable. I have thousands of VHS and Beta tapes, and I agree the effort to transfer them to DVD is onerous. If I didn't need to get rid of them to free up storage space, I wouldn't bother. But one thing I've learned as I go along is that most tapes, no matter how well-recorded, have issues. The mechanical designs of VCRs have been many and varied over the years, if nothing else the stupid hifi tracking issue is enough to completely turn you against VHS once you start checking large numbers of them. Its astonishing the percentage of VHS with hifi sound mistracking problems: that alone justifies buying DVD replacements at discount sales or re-recording programs onto DVD from broadcast reruns. DVD may not be perfect but it beats the hell out of VHS for consistency. Your difficulty with the subtitle options is unusual: either your player has a lousy interface, or you like movies that unfortunately have botched DVD menus. I'd still take the subtitle hassle over hifi mistracking, but to each his own. Of the VCRs you mention, the NV-FS200 is the sturdier and more repairable of the two. The DMR-E75V is primarily a DVD recorder with a VHS deck thrown in as a convenience: the vcr portion is adequate but not as good as the NV-FS200, and its not repairable when it breaks (the plastic mechanicals can't be taken apart to fix, rendering the vcr section disposable). Still, if you intend to go all-VHS, you'll need more than the NV-FS200: its a great VCR but it can have odd image interactions with a percentage of tapes. You'll want to supplement it with a cheaper Panasonic or preferably another brand altogether like Mitsubishi or Sony, maybe both. That should cover you for mechanical compatibility with a wide range of tapes and spread the workload around.

    Retro can be a lot of fun, and I agree its good to keep this old stuff in use as long as possible. But don't be surprised if down the line you suddenly lose patience with the whole thing: it can become unbearably annoying when you least expect it. I had an industrial-grade laserdisc player and about 50 laserdiscs I thought I'd keep forever, but when I went back to it recently half the discs had degraded to near-unplayability and the damn player was behaving neurotically. I copied what I could to DVD-R and ended up chucking the player and the discs: irritation trumped nostalgia right quick. I've had similar difficulty with aging audio cassettes. And don't get me started on vinyl records: love 'em, but maintaining a good-quality turntable like my Thorens gets to be more tedious than its worth so I've cut way down on my overlapping LP/CD collections. What seems "cool, retro and quaint" at 35 can become "redundant, annoying and frustrating" by 45. And let me tell you, those ten years fly by quickly.
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