D-VHS VCR for remastering old video and recording new video?

[Cyrax9]

Hey everybody--

I know this is a stupid question, but I was looking at the JVC SR-9911U S-VHS editing VCR and saw it had several great remastering features in it. I also looked at the JVC HD-HM40000U D-VHS VCR and the JVC SR-VD400US D-VHS Prosumer VCR. Here are my questions,

I'm looking for the following "features" in a VCR I can use for recording, as well as remastering, I'll look for a bargain on these but I need it to meet these requirements:

- JVC D-VHS (This is what rules out the SR-9911U) VCR suitable for VHS/S-VHS Remastering and D-VHS Recording.

- Digipure Circuitry technology by JVC

- Built-In TBC on par w/SR-9911U

- Built-In DNR on par w/SR-9911U

- HDTV Recording ability; specifically HDTV Upconverts.

So why don't I just go with the S-VHS SR-9911U if I'm not remastering D-VHS tapes? Simple, I want to be able to remaster the video I'm capturing onto D-VHS, upconvert to HD and store on D-VHS as I capture to DVD. Why? Because I don't have any intention of buying a Blu-Ray recorder the day it comes out, I'll let some other poor soul work out the bugs and by 3rd Generation or later knowing that I'll have a respectable HD Optical Media machine, but in the meantime I need something that's able to handle HDTV Signals. I also want ONE VCR to playback my VHS Tapes and to record my new D-VHS tapes while I use DVD until an HD Recording format catches on.

Can anybody tell me if there's a D-VHS VCR that meets my specifications? I'd like nothing more than to have a JVC D-VHS VCR replace my old VHS VCR and serve as my remastering tool as well as an archival device until an Optical HD Media format is on the market and known to be recordable without flaws.

One question about D-VHS though, recording to DVD has practically eliminated the "tracking lines" that are only visible on a PC (I hope I'm using the right term here) from my recordings. Will D-VHS re-introduce these lines that are ONLY VISIBLE on a PC, but not a TV, or will my recordings still look as clear, if not clearer than on DVD?

Thank you in advance for your help;

~Cyrax9~

PS, my original subject was "Help! I need help finding a D-VHS VCR for remastering." -- the forum wouldn't let me use this subject because the word "help" was in it. I know the rule about "help" topics, but can someone fix this so that a normal topic can still have the word "help" in it, as in "I need help remastering a video?" I had reword my topic to be slightly misleading because of this, just a thought.

[edDV]

I'm still confused after reading this twice. Sounds like 2 VCR's to me, one analog, one D-VHS are needed. Not clear if by "remastering" if you mean you are trying to edit your analog tapes to SD D-VHS? How do you plan to edit your DTV digital captures? What is the source? Is it only the internal OTA DTV tuner?

[Cyrax9]

I'm still confused after reading this twice. Sounds like 2 VCR's to me, one analog, one D-VHS are needed.

That's what I'm trying to avoid, but I might need two VCRs, sorry for the confusion with this topic, I wasn't exactly sure how to word it.

Not clear if by "remastering" if you mean you are trying to edit your analog tapes to SD D-VHS?

I had considered this possibility, as it would eliminate the "Archive to DVD until Blu-Ray is tested by early adpoters." step of remastering my 1980s/1990s VHS Tapes, but I had other ideas as well. My original idea was to run the VHS Tapes off of my old Consumer level Sony VHS VCR(s) onto a JVC D-VHS VCR, effectively "capturing" video from an analog source to a D-VHS Tape set in HS Mode. This would give me HDTV resolution, but not nessecarily HDTV quality. (That's what Hardware and some built-in filters are for.) The next step would be to transfer my newly made D-VHS Tapes to my PC, edit/filter (e.g. Remaster) them as needed, and then use a firewire cable to dump the data back to the D-VHS VCR. The third method would be to use a D-VHS VCR with VHS Playback capabilities (I've seen VHS/S-VHS/D-VHS All in one units that would be great for this.) to capture to my PC. Edit and filter the video as needed, and then transfer the video to D-VHS Tape in HS Mode from my PCs firewire port. I don't know if this would work or not, but the idea is to remaster and upconvert SDTV Signals to HD. This may or may not be a good idea depending on how much filtering is required.

How do you plan to edit your DTV digital captures? What is the source? Is it only the internal OTA DTV tuner?

The editing would be done on my PC with TMPGEnc+ and VirtualDub. (I may look into purchasing Avid or Adobe Premire Pro if I can find a copy that works with my antiquated OS.) I could also edit in my archaic copy of Pinnacle (Crapware) Studio 7 if need be, but it's SDTV only. My current DTV Captures are all SDTV signal, so they've been archived either onto VHS or DVD-Rs and the Panasonic DMR-E500s internal HDD. I was thinking of just connecting the S-VIDEO OUT that I normally run into my TV (The set has component video IN but my reciver is still an SD DBS Reciver.) into the D-VHS VCR, upconvert and archive the footage I have onto D-VHS Tapes for roughly two years, and then transfer it to Blu-Ray when it's passed the 3rd Generation. I don't feel like being a BD "Test Pilot." I will have an HDTV most likely before December as my SDTV from 1993 is about to kick the bucket and I also need a way to record HDTV Broadcasts from that eventually at the very least for time shifting. I don't feel like knocking the signal down to SDTV quality though.

Basically this unit needs to play VHS/S-VHS*/D-VHS and to record to D-VHS. It needs to be able to handle feeding video (filtered) into my PC for further editing (I haven't chosen an audio editing program yet.) and to be able to archive upconverted SDTV Signals into HD quality until Blu-Ray becomes a viable option. (In the unlikley event that HD-DVD beats Blu-Ray as the optical HD Format I'd hate to dump video onto Blu-Ray and then be slapping myself as I move it to HD-DVD.) I put an asterisk next to S-VHS as I don't have anything in that format to my knowledge but at the college I'm at every so often we trip over an S-VHS tape that has something we filmed on it. (Although we're using mostly MiniDV now.)

I know most of JVC's D-VHS VCRs playback VHS and S-VHS as well as D-VHS, what I need the unit to also have is the DigiPure Circuitry that aids in cleaning the signal of a recording, the built-in TBC and the DNR Filters that are comperable to the SR-9911U S-VHS Model. I'm mostly upconverting VHS Tapes to HD or just SD D-VHS if need be. I'm also going to upconvert DVD-Quality SDTV Signal and may need this unit to connect to an HDTV, although it's really going to be used with hardware filters and software filters for remastering standard VHS Tapes/DVD-Rs and to subsequently upconvert them to HD.

I don't know if this makes sense or not, I'm just looking for a JVC D-VHS unit with HD Capabilities and the filters I mentioned above. I'm sorry if this sounds confusing; I'm trying to do three things with it really and I think it should be able to handle all three of them. I know the quality of the VHS Tapes may be less than perfect but I might just keep them in SD-Quality or only upconvert them to a lower HD Resolution (e.g. 480i instead of 1080i) if need be.

Thank you for your help so far and I apologize if I sound confusing, I'm really looking for a unit on par with the JVC S-VHS prosumer line that many people are using for remastering here, but that will record HD Signal as well. I'd normally wait for Blu-Ray but because there's another format war (oh joy) on the horizon I'm going to wait before I spend several thousand on a high-end BD Player/Recorder and BD-R/W Drive. This VCR is a "stop-gap" to upconvert old tapes and DVDs and archive them until Blu-Ray is readily available and has been around for awhile. Once Blu-Ray seems like it's being used regularly I'll take the D-VHS Tapes and move them to Blu-Ray Discs. This may be a few years though and I want to be able to record HD Signal by the time I have an HDTV Set. (Which, judging by my family TVs picture tube problems, might not be very long.)

[edDV]

Not clear if by "remastering" if you mean you are trying to edit your analog tapes to SD D-VHS?

I had considered this possibility, as it would eliminate the "Archive to DVD until Blu-Ray is tested by early adpoters." step of remastering my 1980s/1990s VHS Tapes, but I had other ideas as well. My original idea was to run the VHS Tapes off of my old Consumer level Sony VHS VCR(s) onto a JVC D-VHS VCR, effectively "capturing" video from an analog source to a D-VHS Tape set in HS Mode. This would give me HDTV resolution, but not nessecarily HDTV quality. (That's what Hardware and some built-in filters are for.) The next step would be to transfer my newly made D-VHS Tapes to my PC, edit/filter (e.g. Remaster) them as needed, and then use a firewire cable to dump the data back to the D-VHS VCR. The third method would be to use a D-VHS VCR with VHS Playback capabilities (I've seen VHS/S-VHS/D-VHS All in one units that would be great for this.) to capture to my PC. Edit and filter the video as needed, and then transfer the video to D-VHS Tape in HS Mode from my PCs firewire port. I don't know if this would work or not, but the idea is to remaster and upconvert SDTV Signals to HD. This may or may not be a good idea depending on how much filtering is required.

D-VHS is a MPeg2 TS stream of variable bitrate at HD or SD resolutions. I can't think of any advantage to dubbing or upscaling to HD from VHS. It doesn't add quality. A HDTV set can play either resolution and has an internal scaler.

I'll think about the rest. Sorry, I'll be on the road for two weeks. Later.