Help choosing VCR for capture source

[Numbat]

I was after some advice from the wise ones that inhabit this forum. I am about to start the conversion of many old PAL VHS tapes to DVD using my Datavideo DAC-100, TBC-1000, Videofactory2.0 and TMPGEnc and Pioneer A06 DVD burner.

I am looking at purchasing a new VCR as mine is very ordinary (a 5 year old Teac with scart in/out composite only and a 20 year old chunky that can be handy).

I am in Australia and have narrowed it down to either the
JVC HR-S5990am S-VHS machine for $499AUD (~$324USD)
http://www.campsiehifi.com.au/index.php?apg=products&&bpg=item&category=22&brand=20&bid=641

or the Toshiba V-E59H for $399AUD (~$260USD)
http://www.toshiba.net.au/cgi-bin/toshiba/000141.html?id=8tvmaWUf

any thoughts/advice on these or any other suitable units. Cheers

[FulciLives]

I was after some advice from the wise ones that inhabit this forum. I am about to start the conversion of many old PAL VHS tapes to DVD using my Datavideo DAC-100, TBC-1000, Videofactory2.0 and TMPGEnc and Pioneer A06 DVD burner.

I am looking at purchasing a new VCR as mine is very ordinary (a 5 year old Teac with scart in/out composite only and a 20 year old chunky that can be handy).

I am in Australia and have narrowed it down to either the
JVC HR-S5990am S-VHS machine for $499AUD (~$324USD)
http://www.campsiehifi.com.au/index.php?apg=products&&bpg=item&category=22&brand=20&bid=641

or the Toshiba V-E59H for $399AUD (~$260USD)
http://www.toshiba.net.au/cgi-bin/toshiba/000141.html?id=8tvmaWUf

any thoughts/advice on these or any other suitable units. Cheers

I live in the USA and I have several USA NTSC models of TOSHIBA VHS VCR units. I also have an 8-head TOSHIBA VHS VCR that is multi-system. I also have a USA NTSC S-VHS by JVC.

All of my TOSHIBA VHS VCR units can kick the shit out of the JVC.

My vote for TOSHIBA

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Don't even TRY looking for the 8-head TOSHIBA. They stopped making it years ago. Now they are all 6 head or 4 head designs.

[Marco33]

How about a VCR with a TBC?

[Numbat]

Thanks for the advice John, I suspected that the Toshiba would be a better unit. I had an old Toshiba hi-fi vcr that was of the 1988 era and it was great. I sold it when I got the Teac, bad move on my part! I was considering the JVC because I thought that the s-video out may be an advantage.

Marco33, I bought the Datavideo TBC-1000 so that I had a bigger (and cheaper) range of vcrs to choose from. From my readings of previous posts here, the inbuilt tbc’s in the vcr's don’t perform as well as any of the external units. Has this been your experience?

Any good/bad experiences with Panasonic, LG, Sony etc?

Keep em comin’…

[FulciLives]

Any good/bad experiences with Panasonic, LG, Sony etc?

I've had a few PANASONIC NTSC VHS VCR units including two S-VHS models. The problem I had with the PANASONIC brand was that I used to do ALOT of recording and after a while they would get out-of-alignment so that a copy made on them would only look good when played on THAT same unit. Play it on another VCR (even anothre PANASONIC) and there were tracking problems ... especially with the Hi-Fi Stereo track.

I never had a SONY VCR and I didn't even know LG made a VCR I thought they were a PC computer company (i.e., only made computer products).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lordsmurf]

All of my TOSHIBA VHS VCR units can kick the shit out of the JVC.

Care to make a wager? I've yet to see a VCR that can stand up to the JVC HRS-9800, at least in the below-$1,000.00 price range.

The 9800 has a 4MB buffer, digital noise reducion, full timebase corrector, image stabilizer, image calibration, audio level adjustments, 4 HiFi heads, S-VHS-ET, and several editing functions. Not cheap at $500 US, but well worth the money. It's a miracle machine. Garbage tapes can go in, and near-perfection can come out. Add a TBC (like the DataVideo TBC-1000) that has full frame synchronization, and there's very little that this machine cannot do.

You must have a low-end model. Those are barely good for paperweights. I have two of them, 3800 units, and they're always in the shop. They worked great for about a year or two, then pooped out.

For PAL tapes, I really like my Samsung 5000W. Plays SECAM and NTSC too. Digital on-the-fly signal conversion.

[troyvcd1]

Wow. I wish I had $700 bucks lying around to get a good vhs player and tbc.

[FulciLives]

I have a S-VHS JVC model HR-5900U
Not very old and not top-of-the-line but far from bottom-of-the-line as well (actually it is right in the middle because at the time there was a 3000 and 4000 model and then the 7000 and 9000 models).

My JVC never looked as good as the TOSHIBA when it came to playing back VHS video tapes. In fact the darn thing just died recently. I doubt I had it for more than 2 years if that.

Total Junk.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[spiderman2k1]

I have a $900 dollars panasonic VCR that has noise filter's I also have a ATI ALL IN WONDER Radeon card that goes for $50.00 dollars now. just get a good VCR at best buy for $80.00 buck's or so and a ATI ALL IN WONDER Radeon you can get one for $50.00 dollars at www.pricewatch.com get the macroivision patch at www.doom9.org you ATI capture software MMC 8.1 and your capture should be fine. If you want a nice VCR you might want to get a World Wide VCR I have a Samsung that goes for $400.00 I buy tape's all over the world from ebay and remaster them to DVD. The other way to fic bad VHS tape's is to use TMPG and that can take for ever. Price wise ATI is the best way to go