VHS recorders for playback. Any thoughts?

[oldfart13]

After having acquired 2 older units from a friend who says he no longer needs them, I was wondering what people are using as playback for their VHS tapes, since this will also affect the quality of their captures.

My main playback deck is a JVC S-VHS 3800 which is a servicable enough deck and has a video stabilizer, though no TBC. However, I've recently acquired some older decks that were real prosumer equipment when they came out, a Hitachi VT-S730 (S-VHS) and a Sony SLV-R5UC (also S-VHS) that originally cost my friend over $1,200USD! Both units are easily fixable for problems (usually, the capacitors dry out and have to be replaced, lubrication needed, etc.)

A site that has repair guides for the Sony SLV-R5UC also lists some other old units that make excellent NLE or home theatre centre pieces so I was wondering what others are using for transferring (S)VHS content to DVD?

[mikel]

Sony SLV-R1000 & JVC 9900

...very happy with each of these.

[pfh]

After 2 months watching and bidding on JVC 9xxx models at Ebay I gave up and found a site selling factory refurbed JVC 9911's for ~$210- that's what I settled on. The thing was brand new factory sealed and works great.

[davideck]

Of all the VCRs that I have owned, the Hitachi VT-S730 was my favorite. It was one of the first SVHS VCRs that had auto assemble editing, and its picture quality was exceptional. If you can fix it, then I think you will find it to be a real gem.