Suggestions on DV and SVHS Players

[tito13kfm]

I am currently looking at the JVC HR-DVS3 Mini DV/S-VHS 4 Head Stereo Dual VCR.

Would I be stupid to buy a combo unit like this? Would I be better off just buying a JVC9900 and a good mini-dv player?

I want to be able to transfer SVHS/VHS/ and DV tapes to DVD. Currently I just use a crappy 4head vcr and my Canon ZR-60 for the DV. But I am toying with the idea of doing this commercially and I don't want to burn out my camcorder doing transfers.

Does anybody have any experience with the HR-DVS3? Is JVC truly the way to go. Would a 2 in one like this be a waste of money? Any help and or guidance would be truly appreciated.

Edit: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=248591&is=REG

[johns0]

combo units are never a good thing,ive repaired those types of things for years and they are always built cheap

[tito13kfm]

I would hope that at a list price of $1399.95 it wouldn't be built cheap..
But, you are probably right.. anybody else with some insight?

[lordsmurf]

Combo = cheap

Dual decks, combo VHS/TV, combo DVD/VHS, combo DV/VHS, etc.... all crap.

All mistakes I made in my foolish early years (and even some of the latter years). Some are mistakes I watched others make.

[piano632]

There is a pro/industrial version of the HR-DVS3 called the SRVS30U. It costs a little more but since pro/industrial equipment is built for durability maybe it will be better.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=250896&is=REG

You can read user reviews of the HR-DVS3 at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000066R6Z/104-6330761-5500752?v=glance

[tito13kfm]

Thanks for the reply guys.
I guess I'll have to do more research into this. Perhaps for now I'll just buy a JVC9800 and use my camcorder till I get more money.

Thanks again.

[DaveS]

tito13kfm -

I have the HR-DVS3U deck myself and so far, I like it alot. Time will tell whether it's crap b/c it's a dual deck, but for now it works fine (only 2 mos. old and I'm not looking to jinx anything).

The VHS/miniDV dubbing is a good feature and it's nice having a miniDV deck already hooked up so that you don't have to get out the camcorder and hook it up all the time, but that's more a luxary than anything else. (Although, I have printed a few projects to DV tape as a backup and I'm not sure I would have done that if I had to break out the camcorder first.)

Although I haven't made real use of it yet, it does offer an A/D passthrough so you can play a VHS tape and send it through firewire.

In terms of compatibility of control of the deck via virewire, it seems to do just fine. I read a review of the 1st and 2nd generation of this deck and they seemed to be really bad that way. The review tested against 4 different products on several platforms and all had no problem controlling the deck. My limited experience matches this.

The other thing it offers is timed recording onto miniDV. This way, if your PC is tied up rendering or something, you can still capture a program off cable (etc.) and not lose any quality when you send it over to the PC. (but so will a deck w/ a HD, etc.)

The differences between the pro model and this one are:
- support for Sony format DVCAM on the miniDV
- simultaneous recording onto the VHS and miniDV
- 1 year labor on warranty (vs. 1 year parts, 90 days labor for the consumer model).
- pro model is black, consumer is silver

The difference in street price for the pro model was a little over $100 (B&H) so I can't say whether that also means the pro model is built better or has better parts. My guess is not, but that's only a guess.

Anyway, so far, I think it's a good deck. The only negative experience I had was that it ate one of my miniDV tapes, but I was really giving it a hard time at the controls - I think being a little more careful would have prevented that (and good thing it was only a scratch tape). The unit is a bit on the large side, but still passable.

Anyway, feel free to fire away any questions. I haven't made use of all the deck features yet but I'd be happy to try to answer whatever I could.