Sony VCR - should I upgrade?

[scratchie]

Greetings all;

A couple of months ago I decided to take the plunge and buy a new computer with a DVD-R drive. The ultimate goal is to convert some of my VHS tapes to DVD-R (aside from the advantages of the new computer in general, and the ability to backup my whole computer onto one DVD-R!).

When I was first looking around for information, I was reading some of the forums on this site and noticed some extremely disparaging comments about Sony VCRs. I've had mixed luck (fairly disappointing, actually) with Sony home electronics products in general, but, perhaps foolishly, I actually did buy a Sony Hi-Fi VCR three or four months ago (before I decided to buy the computer). I don't recall the exact model (I could look it up) but it's a four-head hi-fi model that cost me a hundred bucks.

So, the question is, if I'm trying to make archival copies of my VHS tapes, should I invest in a better VCR? It doesn't seem like many companies are even making VCRs anymore (without DVD players or TVs attached) so my choices were rather limited, and I was only buying it for home viewing, not analog>digital conversion, so it seemed like a decent choice. I haven't had any noticeable problems watching or taping programs with this machine but I'm wondering if I'm going to be disappointed with the results for DVD conversion. I don't want to convert a half-dozen or a dozen tapes and then discover that I need to do them all over again.

What's the consensus on this board? (Or is such a thing possible?). For perspective, very few of the tapes are super high-quality to begin with; their value is more sentimental than anything. For example, movies that I want to keep that were taped on used tapes at LP speed, live concert material that's not first or second generation, so the picture quality isn't great (although it is hi-fi sound), grey market tapes of unreleased movies on video. The limiting factor for a lot of these tapes is going to be the quality of the tape itself, not the quality of the analog>digital conversion. Plus, I'm probably not going to throw away any tapes when I'm done (like in the commercials), so I *can* re-convert them later if I want.

But on the other hand, if I decided to buy a new VCR, I could get one that supports PAL, which might come in handy if I want to trade with people overseas (I probably want to get a multi-format DVD player at some point, too).

Anyway, I'm primarily interested in people's opinions on newer Sony VCRs. As I said, I can look up the exact model number if it's needed, but it is a very new hi-fi model, about a hundred bucks.

Secondarily, if anyone has any good information, or links to other forums, concerning digital>analog conversion or people who trade for out-of-print movies, send it along!

Thanks in advance, everyone.

[redwudz]

I am not familiar with Sony VCR's in particular, but in general the quality of the recorded tape is more important than the VCR. Usually the best quality playback is from the same machine that recorded the tape, if it is in good condition. I have been using an ADVC-100 for about 4 weeks primarily to covert old VHS tapes to DVD. I use a cheap VCR with no problems. I'm sure I would have a 'slightly' better DV file from a better recorder, but even the best VHS quality is not as good as a DVD. I would see what the quality of your DV file is before I would invest a lot into a new VCR. Maybe some of the Sony aficionados would be able to give you better information on that brand.

[Bob W]

I use a JVC SD2901U VCR which has s-video out. The JVC along with with this gadget http://www.facetvideo.com/ allows me to record very good quality backups to my Panasonic E50 recorder. They still sell the JVC at BestBuy and CompUSA for around $100.