JVC HR-J737MS any good?

[idan182]

Hi all, I have a JVC HR-J737MS, I've read it's 1996 model.


[Attachment 53823 - Click to enlarge]

Is it considered to be high-end model or any good for only viewing and capturing home made VHS+VHSC tapes to Computer/MPEG2?
I don't think this model is 4 or 6 Head model.

I saw this HR-J747MS:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/JVC-VHS-VIDEO-PLAYER-HR-J747MS-Fully-Working-with-Remote-Vgc-...EAAOSwxbhe4fgb

Which has 6 heads.
Is it way better than mine?

[orsetto]

Neither is considered particularly "high end" -these are standard decent midrange consumer JVC models, with multi-system PAL-NICAM capability. Few (if any) multi-system VCRs were made with "high-end" features: high-end means the VCR includes the premium TBC/DNR video conditioning circuits, usually indicated by a big front panel button labeled TBC/DNR.

The VCR you're looking at on eBay is pretty similar to yours, the only significant differences I can see is that one adds more tuner ability for CATV recording, and HiFi stereo audio (adding two spinning audio heads to the usual four JVC video heads to make "6 heads"). Your front panel has the same "German Stereo" label as the eBay model, but does not have the "VHS HiFi" label, which is strange. What is "German Stereo" on your JVC? Does it record in stereo on the tape edge linear track, or does your JVC actually have the HiFi audio system? It would be very unusual for JVC to offer a two-video-head VCR with HiFi audio in 1996, but then the multi-system Germany models don't often appear in discussion threads and little is known about them.

One way to check if your JVC has four video heads is to speed-search an SP mode tape. If the speed picture is very clear with very thin noise lines, you have four heads. If the speed picture shows thicker, snowy interference lines, you have two video heads. If you do have four video heads, the only improvement that eBay model might offer is HiFi stereo. But you should also check if you already have that too: play a HiFi tape, and cycle the Audio Monitor button on your front panel. If the on-screen display cycles thru L, R, Stereo and MIX, you have HiFi. If "Mix" doesn't show as an option, you probably don't. If your JVC proves to already have both four video heads and HiFi audio, there wouldn't be any advantage to that eBay VCR.

I wouldn't buy the eBay VCR just to get four video heads: if all you need a VCR to do is play tapes into your PC, two vs four heads does not make a huge playback difference at this level of standard VCR. The extra two heads are more significant if you use the VCR to record SP mode tapes, or want to be able to speed-search SP tapes with a nicer search picture. Same with HiFi: if you don't have any HiFi tapes, you don't need the HiFi feature.

[oln]

Your VCR has hi-fi, so presumably it's 6 head (i.e 4 video + 2 hi-fi). Never head of a hi-fi deck with only 2 video heads, but I suppose it could exist. The model you linked to on ebay is likely the successor to the VCR you have going by how JVC named their decks.

What is "German Stereo" on your JVC?

I think it refers to this, basically means that the VCR could decode audio broadcast over the air in this format, and also NICAM digital stereo broadcasts. Most consumer Hi-Fi VCRs would include decoders for the respective high-end broadcast audio formats in the region (there wouldn't be much advantage on a mono deck over the standard broadcast mono audio). As it deals with decoding broadcast TV signals it's not relevant to capturing.

[LaiSh]

Hi i try to help a friend. She has the same jvc HR J-737MS vraag. We connecties him to tv with the yellow/white/red fabels. Hé was working. But there is no colour movie. While the old wedding movie of 2000 was Made and watchers in that time in colour. Can somebody help me what to do?