Any SVHS Recommendations?

[davideck]

The Panasonic AG-19XX VCR would add a high frequency adjust (picture control) to the setup, providing an adjustable means for reducing analog noise prior to the NR in the DVD Recorder. This would be a nice alternative to the temporal filtering in the JVC VCR.

[Bix]

As a reminder, GoVideo's SDV-650 (if you can find it) is a clone of JVC's HR-S9800U.

[guber]

Hi all, I'm new here and thought I'd post in this topic because it seems to be along the lines of TBC... I just got a used Panasonic AG-1980, and I'm really liking it... the only thing is I cannot see any difference at all between the TBC turned on or off, other than a very slight change in darkening the colors. Most of my tapes are from the mid 90's and i guess they dont have a whole lot of time base errors to begin with, but shouldnt I be seeing at least some kind of improvement when switching the TBC on? Could there be something wrong with my TBC?

(another thing... is TBC and DNR basically the same thing when referenced in these forums? I cant find any "DNR" control on the deck.)

Also, when doing these tests, I have it on the "normal" setting. What are the "edit" and "detail" settings meant for? It didnt go into great depth in the manual.

[themaster1]

JVC’s SR-VS10 offers stunning video quality in S-VHS mode, thanks to JVC’s incorporation of DigiPure technology – a blend of advanced digital image processing technologies perfected by JVC. These exclusive digital technologies maximize Super VHS benefits by reproducing vivid colors most realistically, and offering crisp renditions of image contours. DigiPure technology includes Digital Wide TBC (time base corrector) which digitally removes jitter, Precision 3-D Color circuit for clearer color separation, Digital 3-D YNR.CNR which improves the signal-to-noise over a wider range, and Digital R3 Picture System which applies edge correction to the luminance signal to enhance detail. At the base of these DigiPure technologies is a Digital 3-Dimesional Circuit with 4MB Frame Memory. Together, they maximize the potential of Super VHS, which uses high-band recording to deliver 60% better picture quality than ordinary video.

source: here

So to answer your question a tbc is different than the luma and chroma noise reduction function BUT most of the time, on high end vcr's, these two functions are "blended" together meaning you can't use the tbc and turn off the dnr & vice versa...hence the confusion by the people non familiar with these functions...i guess.For exemple on my vcr the two functions are available via a single button (not two as the advanced video "rippers" would like to) (see my avatar)

The vcr from panasonic don't have the Digital R3 function i think someone correct me if i'm wrong

[orsetto]

...shouldnt I be seeing at least some kind of improvement when switching the TBC on? Could there be something wrong with my TBC?

(another thing... is TBC and DNR basically the same thing when referenced in these forums? I cant find any "DNR" control on the deck.)

Also, when doing these tests, I have it on the "normal" setting. What are the "edit" and "detail" settings meant for? It didnt go into great depth in the manual.

There is nothing wrong with your Panasonic AG1980: the effects of its various enhancement circuits is simply more subtle than the sometimes eye-popping results you see with a JVC or Mitsubishi VCR. The 1980 does have DNR, that is the normal-edit-detail switch you mentioned. These three settings in combination with the soft/sharp slider above them offer infinitely variable adjustment. You will need to play with various combinations to see what works best for you: normal is for normal tape playback, edit boosts detail for copying, and detail boosts it further by widening the range of the associated soft/sharp slider control. (The TBC has its own independent on/off switch.) Panasonics are designed primarily to stabilize flagging, jitter and tearing- if your relatively recent tapes do not need such corrections you will not see any noticeable effect from switching the TBC on and off (other than the entire image getting slightly richer and moving a tiny bit towards the right).

JVC and Mitsubishi specialize in noise correction: they excel at removing grain, snow and color noise/color bands/color bleeds from the VHS image. This is much more obvious on screen. They also fix most flagging and tearing issues, making them more of a "one size fits all" solution for digitizing VHS than the Panasonics. However the Panasonics have a slight edge in flagging and especially jitter stabilization, and since they do not have color processing filters their output can arguably appear more "natural" at times than JVC/Mitsubishi, whose filters do occasionally oversaturate colors and change hues a bit.

It can be a tough choice. The JVC/Mitsubishi system is generally more useful with the typical noisy standard VHS tapes most people want to convert to DVD, but the Panasonics can stabilize jitter that the JVC/Mitsu system tends to choke on. Unless you can afford both types of VCR, you'll need to sample many of your tapes to see which issues you'll need the most correction of, then choose the VCR accordingly.