Do S-VHS VCRs record in regular VHS?

[nocam1334]

I am interested in getting an S-VHS VCR to record stuff for myself in high quality. However, I would also like the ability to record in regular VHS to show videos to friends and family. Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

[zzyzzx]

Yes. My JVC SVHS VCR does both SVHS and regular VHS.

[machete]

You can use a regular VHS tape in any S-VHS VCR and it will give normal VHS compatibility.

[brentb]

The JVC SVHS vcrs are actually SVHS-ET (Expansion Technology or something like that). You can use normal VHS tapes and record in normal VHS and share with your friends. You can also use normal VHS (high quality ones work best) and record in SVHS-ET which will only play back properly on an SVHS-ET machine.

I'm not sure how compatible true SVHS is with SVHS-ET.

I've got the JVC HR-S4800, with S-Video inputs and outputs, and it works pretty well.

I've never experimented with using true SVHS tapes in it.

take care
Brent

[zzyzzx]

The JVC does both SVHS and VHS-ET.

[spoonmerlin]

I also have a jvc 4800 and I use svhs tape all the time recorded from a dishnetwork satalite through svideo. The picure quality is alot better then regular vhs; 400 lines of resolution instead of the 240 with a vhs.

I don't use svhs-et mode much.

The tapes are expensive like 5-10 for new ones. I use bulk erased ones for about $2 apiece last time I got some a few months back.

If you want to save alittle money the 3800 is pretty much the same but with only one svideo input the 4800 has 2.
Here are a couple places that have it for about $110.00
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/ttastore/jvc9-hrs3500u.html
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/saveondealz/jvchrs3800vcr.html
the 4800 is $140.00
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/gigabuyz/lgddealshrs4800u.html
Here is one with the 5900 but I don't know what the diference is.
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/hyperaudio/hrs5900u.html

One other thing to keep in mind do not try to play svhs tapes on a regular vcr as it will ruin it.

[ApacheWraith]

I wonder, can you buy movies in S-VHS format?

[zzyzzx]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2002-01-16 01:21:27, ApacheWraith wrote:
I wonder, can you buy movies in S-VHS format?</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

There are very very few pre-recorded movies in SVHS. I think that most in existance are ones that came with the VCR, or something. If you want to copy a DVD onto SVHS it comes out great.

[ApacheWraith]

Actually I was thinking of going from S-VHS to X-VCD, or whatever, figured it would be better than VHS to start with. Isn't a VCD or X-VCD technically better quality than VHS even if captured from VHS?

Apache