Theories on JVC 9000 series VCRs

[Jam Burgler]

I often hear that the 9600 is considered the best of the 9000 series. Does anyone know if there's any truth to this?

I currently own a 9600 and my old HR-VP700u died (this was their top of the line, $450 unit in the mid 90's), so I'm looking to get another 9000 series JVC unit.

Anybody out there have several of the units for comparrison.

Have the menu or features changed much since the 9600?

I remember when I bought my 9600 that the 9800 didn't seem to offer anything new (and in fact dropped a few features.)

Has the TBC changed at all in the 9800, 9900, or 9911?

I also did some reading on the 9911 and found somebody complaining about the magnets on the face of the unit that hold up the protective cover. Any guess as to whether the magnets could cause tape degradation?

Anyway, any input would be cool.

[Eandtc]

This sounds like a hardware question...

[davideck]

One of my favorite features about the 9600 is the Dynamic Drum System, providing crystal clear search and excellent tracking capability. I don't think that the 9800, 99XX units have it.

[Dr_Layne]

One of my favorite features about the 9600 is the Dynamic Drum System, providing crystal clear search and excellent tracking capability. I don't think that the 9800, 99XX units have it.

The 9800 has the dynamic drum system with time scan pro slow. Up to 9x scan with audio.

Steve

[davideck]

Ooops! Sorry about that.
I was thinkng of the 7800...

The 7600 and 9500 are other VCRs with the Dynamic Drum System.

[lordsmurf]

I also did some reading on the 9911 and found somebody complaining about the magnets on the face of the unit that hold up the protective cover. Any guess as to whether the magnets could cause tape degradation?

Was that the amazon.com review? That person is just a dumbshit. The faceplate magnets, if it really bothers you, are a knife carving away (will not deface unit either). Most people rip those face covers off anyway. At any rate, those magnets do not come into contact with anything whatsoever and are barely strong enough to hold up the faceplate. In time, they will fail and not even hold it up.

.
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As far as the units being "better" it's all about the plastic content percentage. The 9600 was just built more solid, though the 9800 and even 9900 are not much behind. The 9911 is the cheapest design ever, and probably one of the last ones.

[Jam Burgler]

Ahhh, so its more of a build quality thing than a picture quality thing.

And yeah, Lord Smurf, it was that Amazon review. Haha. Guy was all up-in-arms about it but never said he actually experienced any tape degradation from the magnets.

What about the features, anybody find anything on the 9800, 9900, or 9911 that they like a lot that's not on the 9600?

Do the newer models still have forward and backward frame-by-frame? That used to be the big selling point back in the day. It wasn't until the late 90s that the backward frame-by-frame showed up in the consumer models and its essential to me.

[NamPla]

Or else you could go with any ol' hi-fi 6-head VCR and process your capture via Avisynth. Same result, I think. Difference of opinion?

[piano632]

I think the build quality started slipping with the 9800. The 9600 has a spring-loaded jog shuttle dial on both the machine and the remote. The 9800 replaced that with a plastic twirly thingy (pardon my highly technical terminology). Not that a jog shuttle dial is going to affect picture quality, but it makes you wonder what else they skimped on.

Not sure what features the newer models have compared to the 9600, but the 9600 has:

"Commercial Advance" - fast forwards thru commercials
"Movie Advance" - skips over movie previews on pre-recorded tapes
While fast scanning in forward or reverse, the audio is sampled and played back at *normal* speed

[lordsmurf]

Or else you could go with any ol' hi-fi 6-head VCR and process your capture via Avisynth. Same result, I think.

No.

Once you go digital, your options are SEVERELY LIMITED. Those interested in the highest quality transfers need to perfect the source in analog-land. Digital only transfers what it sees, and then plays with that. Analog methods will "pull" more out of the analog signals.

Digital methods are about creating what IS NOT THERE.

Analog methods are about correcting WHAT ALREADY EXISTS.

[Jam Burgler]

Or else you could go with any ol' hi-fi 6-head VCR and process your capture via Avisynth. Same result, I think.

No.

Once you go digital, your options are SEVERELY LIMITED. Those interested in the highest quality transfers need to perfect the source in analog-land. Digital only transfers what it sees, and then plays with that. Analog methods will "pull" more out of the analog signals.

Digital methods are about creating what IS NOT THERE.

Analog methods are about correcting WHAT ALREADY EXISTS.

Definately. This pretty much applies to all forms of recording (video or audio). You need to make sure that source is playing as solid as you can get it when you do the recording because no amount of tweaking later down the line is going to get you the same quality.