Recommending a good VCR?

[MeekloBraca]

I live in Canada and dont have the luxury of a good selection of VCR.

But can someone recommend me a good VCR that plays videos back really nicely and has a good auto tracking system in it that is availble in Canada.

The JVC's look really good but I cant find them anywhere that I can buy them at, or where they will ship to me.

[lordsmurf]

People sell used JVCs on eBay, most don't care about where they ship to, as long as the person is good for the money and covers the shipping costs.

And then some places like B&H may ship to Canada, I really don't know. Check out some of the large camera/video stores in Toronto or Vancouver.

[BCdave]

Hey, M.B., here's a JVC SVHS VCR at The Source by Circuit City, which has several locations in Edmonton.
http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/Product.aspx?language=en-CA&catalog=Online&ca
I don't know how good the current JVC models are; probably not nearly as many features as the HR-S9600U which cost 6 times as much back in the early 90's.

You also might try A&B Sound, which is where I bought my JVC's & Mitsubishis back in the day.
And Amazon.com has a good selection, and they ship to Canada.
Good luck, and congrats on the Grey Cup.

Dave

[MeekloBraca]

Oh dude that is wicked I never thought of Cirucit City here.

Hey im looking at this...

http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/Product.aspx?language=en-CA&catalog=Online&category=...roduct=1613291

Now ive read smurfs website and hes said to stay away from this type of JVC SVHS due to them breaking down within a year. Ill take that chance, but do these SVHS's offer a INcorportated TBC and filters to improve video playback?

[MeekloBraca]

My choices seem to be the HR3912 or the HR5912.

They are both the same price. What would you guys recommend?

[suppafreak]

S-VHS VCRs do not have incorporated TBC and filters. The main differences between the Regular VCR and S-VHS VCR are these:

Regular VCR outputs only about 280 Horizontal lines where S-VHS is about 400 lines (but only if the video content was recorded on S-VHS tape.)

S-VHS has an S-VIDEO out (some has both in and out) and regular VCRs do not.

If you need TBC, you will need to buy it separetly.

[Rich86]

Here's my $.02 on vcr's and jvc specifically.

I am a long time user of JVC s-vhs vcr's. My advice would be that if you are not already involved in s-vhs - don't get involved now. Here's some experiences.

I have a JVC 9600 series S-VHS vcr. It was the top of the line full featured s-vhs vcr when I bought it. The current JVC top of the line is almost identical. It is superb for timeshifting - ie. recording tv and playing it back at a different time on the same vcr. By using s-vhs tapes, the recording/playback quality is about as good as it gets. However, I have learned the hard way that compatibility with s-vhs recordings across multiple s-vhs vcr's is not guaranteed. Compatibility does not even exist within the JVC product line. Tapes recorded on this vcr always have trouble tracking on other vcr's - and the reverse is true as well. This is a pretty well known issue and referred to as the "JVC mistracking issue". Of course JVC isn't interested . . .

Also - the 3000 and 5000 series JVC vcr's are very cheaply made. They are lightweight plastic, and have very poor front panel displays - providing almost no information - not even icons indicating play, rw, ff, etc..
If you are determined to have a s-vhs vcr, I would advocate finding a way to go for a 9000 series vcr, and accept the idea that s-vhs tapes recorded on it may not track properly on other s-vhs vcr's.

My most recent vhs oriented purchase was a JVC HR-C37U deck - which is a combination vhs/dvd unit (NOT s-vhs), that can play s-vhs tapes in "quasi" mode (meaning not at the full 400 lines of resolution s-vhs is capable of) and also play dvd's. One of the nice features about this device is it can run both vhs tape output and dvd output to all video and audio connectors (component, s-vhs - and digital audio outputs). I find it also does a very credible job of playing vhs tapes - esp. through the s-vhs connectors. However, if you are determined to record and playback in full s-vhs mode, you need a full s-vhs vcr. Keep in mind that playing back a regular vhs tape via a s-vhs vcr does nothing to improve playback quality, so if your need is to play back previously recorded vhs tapes, maybe you don't even care about s-vhs?

[MeekloBraca]

I dont really care to record onto SVHS, im just looking into a VCR that has really good playback capabilities with an SVideo output.

As for these VCR's not having incorportated TBC's and filters, ive read differently. Maybe im reading wrong.

[davideck]

My VCR comments are here;
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1381787

[MeekloBraca]

Well unfourtunatly my choices of VCR's is either the 3912 or 5912. Whats the difference does anybody know?

[jimdagys]

I'm not sure if they do this in Canada, but where I live, I have pulled out a number of good vcrs and tvs out of the supermarket dumpster. A company will do an in-store promotion, say like shampoo, for a few weeks and have a short video to promote their product. When the promotion period is over, they usually just toss out the tv and vcr, it's just cheaper to do it that way.

[lordsmurf]

Anything below the 7000 series does not contain the full spectrum of DNR and TBC abilities. Anything older than the "600" in any line (7600, 9600) is also missing picture and audio filters. The "600" style machines in any series are about 10 years old at this point. You don't want a VCR that is more than a decade old.

The JVC S-VHS machines (or a comparable VCR in terms of features) are pretty much a required item for anybody wanting to convert VHS to DVD, and expecting the maximum possible quality to be pulled out of the tape. VHS on a normal VHS player is going to look like crap, full of grain and chroma flaws, possibly even sync and timebase issues. Or audio too, linear vs hifi. You have to try and control every single aspect of the tape, and these advanced VCRs do that for you.

As far as I'm concerned trying to convert a VHS tape to digital format without an advanced machine ... is like trying to drive a new car without tires on the rims. Sure, you will probably get the job done, but it'll be one hell of a rough ride, and likely very disappointing.

Buy the VCR.

Stick with your original problem, which is where to get one.

There is another option nobody has mentioned. I've done it many times. All you need is friends. In this case, friends in the USA. Pay them to buy the VCR for you, and to ship it to you. I did this to get my German-made UK/PAL JVC HR-S7965EK unit. I paid a buddy in England to buy it for me and ship it to me. Why? The store refused to ship to me direct. Problem solved.

The only "unknown" is what sort of Canadian taxes may or may not be levied on it when it gets through customs. Into the USA, I had nothing. When I last sent a VCR to UK (same situation, I bought a S-VHS 9800 for a friend and mailed it to UK) he had to pay import duties. But that may just be UK.

One thing you've never mentioned is your budget. That would help.

[MeekloBraca]

200 bucks Canadian, 250 max, so around 210-220 US dollars give or take....

There are ways of getting around the customs levies. When you fill out a form at a USPS branch you put Gift instead of purchase and the cost of the item is 10 bucks. The customs levies, im pretty sure, are GST related.

Ive thought about what youve suggested though, but im afraid the 9000 series machines are out of my price range no matter how badly id like to get one. My choices here in Canada that I can get through a retail store are the 3912 and 5912. Mixed reveiws up and down the web on these two but then again what doesnt have mixed reviews. Some people give it a 1 rating because it doesnt have the little flashy icons on it.

Id certainly love to get one of those machines that have the filters and TBC on them. Ebay doesnt have any right now, but if you know of a good place that can sell one at a reasonable price, ill worry about getting it shipped.

Some retails stores will make exceptions too if you call them and explain it to them.

Thanks for your help!

[davideck]

210 US Dollars should buy a nice VCR on EBay. Good ones show up all the time. I've bought several and am very pleased.

I agree with lordsmurf. The quality of your captures depends heavily upon the quality of your source, and the VCR is your source.

[MeekloBraca]

Again im looking at a 3912 or 5912....

Are these good machines to buy?

[lordsmurf]

They are okay, but not great. If you want to use your money wisely, then buy a used machine off eBay. You can find the SRV10U, 7600, 7800, 7900 units in the $150-200 USD price range fairly often. And then merely get a friend in the USA to help you out with the shipping aspect, if the eBay seller refuses to sell/ship to Canada (which is quite honestly unlikely, most people in the USA are just fine with our northern neighbors).

[Alan69]

As far as I'm concerned trying to convert a VHS tape to digital format without an advanced machine ... is like trying to drive a new car without tires on the rims. Sure, you will probably get the job done, but it'll be one hell of a rough ride, and likely very disappointing.

.

There is one way to make it a lot easier, if you're technically inclined a bit. Doesn't take that much tech experience either, just enough to not electrocute yourself with open wiring etc.

Tracking control only does a tiny bit. If you open a VCR, you can adjust both of the guide posts, left adjusts more to the top of the picture, right adjusts more the bottom.

Use both, and the tracking (which only adjusts timing to the sync pulse, not the real tape track like the guide posts do..) and you can do wonders.

I've been able to get all but 1-2 tapes to play near perfectly out of several hundred now, where it looked like 10-20 % needed a TBC or more.

If all VCRs were properly aligned, it wouldn't even be needed. But across many manufacturers etc, that'll never happen. Tweaking the posts gets the alignment from tape to head near perfect, from there on things work better than you might expect. If you've got a tracking type error that tracking won't fix, video tearing at the top etc, then it's likely adjusting the guide posts can get the job done.

Alan

[MeekloBraca]

"They are okay, but not great. If you want to use your money wisely, then buy a used machine off eBay. You can find the SRV10U, 7600, 7800, 7900 units in the $150-200 USD price range fairly often. And then merely get a friend in the USA to help you out with the shipping aspect, if the eBay seller refuses to sell/ship to Canada (which is quite honestly unlikely, most people in the USA are just fine with our northern neighbors)."

I dont want the 7600 though do I?

[lordsmurf]

Sure you do. Anything "600" or later is good. 7600, 7800, 7900, and the SRV10U/SRV101 are great models.

What you don't want is 7500 or 9500 and earlier, as those lack certain features, and they are more than 10 years old at this point. Technology has improved since then, don't get something obsolete unless it's free or near-free.

[MeekloBraca]

Ok good, I was about to ask you about the 101 model cause I can find that, just not the 10.

[davideck]

Ok good, I was about to ask you about the 101 model cause I can find that, just not the 10.

You may be interested in this;
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280412

[lordsmurf]

Ok good, I was about to ask you about the 101 model cause I can find that, just not the 10.

You may be interested in this;
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280412

I would not readily blame the VCR on that one. It may be the source tape causing it. Yes, even if another VCR is fine, still might be the tape. Or the unit could be bad. That's atypical.

[MeekloBraca]

Hey Smurf, does the SR-VS10U deul format do the same as the single format SR-VS10? The deul format having a place for camcorder discs and the the single does not?