JVC DR-M100 looks wahed out on tuner & line in

[carnivore99]

I have a JVC DR-M100 hooked up to a well-calibrated TV via component cable. Commercial DVDs look great, but the picture quality from both the internal tuner and Line In (SVHS) looks terrible -- very washed out, no contrast etc.

I'd like to dub some shows from my DVR onto DVD using this machine but I don't want them to all turn out looking like this. I must be missing something -- is there a black level or IRE adjustment for the input somewhere on this machine? I don't see anything like that in the setup menu and I don't have the manual.

[KeepItSimple]

Unfortunately there is no black level adjustment on that unit.
I had a similar DR-M10 and if you want the picture darker you have to feed it a darker signal if you can. I used the 'darker' black level adjustment output from another DVD Recorder to compensate.

[lordsmurf]

Sometimes it's the television at fault. One of my televisions makes the JVC look bad, but only on certain connectors. Other times, your source really does look that bad (for example, my local CW has levels that change weekly -- the broadcast has the IRE problem).

[orsetto]

There have been some rather fierce battles on this forum re the notion of JVC dvd recorders tending toward a "washed out" look in their recordings. I can only report from my personal experience. I currently own a JVC DRMV5 combo recorder, its DVD recording section is identical to the separate DR-M100 you are asking about (they are from the same model year: the DRMV5 is the VHS/DVD combo version of the DR-M100). Last year I had five more JVCs for a total of six running night and day, I got them at a fantastic second-hand closeout sale and used them to speed thru part of a massive ongoing VHS>DVD dubbing project.

Two extreme points of view are usually presented here: you have passionate JVC defenders who swear the "washout" is a myth, and JVC haters who swear its just dreadful. My take is somewhere in the middle: I think its ridiculous to say there isn't an issue, when its obvious to anyone who suffers it. But its also not "terrible" or a dealbreaker either. The "classic" JVC machines skew a bit lighter in their recordings and tuner passthrough than many other makes, period. I won't waste time explaining why because it doesn't really matter, and JVC is hardly the only make to ever have this IRE discrepancy (Toshibas once skewed lighter, Pioneers darker and Panasonic was once dark to the point of murky: all were comparable or worse "errors" than JVC).

The point is JVC recordings CAN look a bit washed out depending on circumstance and connected equipment. Every JVC that I have used records a little too bright resulting in *somewhat* washed-out DVDs. When I play these recordings on my own displays (carefully calibrated older high-end Proton and Sony 27" CRT monitors), or on my laptop, they look wonderful. If I bring them elsewhere to play, they can appear anywhere from way too washed out to pretty much normal. It depends on the display and the player, and they all react differently: some pull the slightly-bright JVC image down into a more normal range, and some exaggerate the issue and make it kinda nasty.

If it bothers you, the simplest answer is get a different recorder. But these issues are never simple: while the "classic" JVC DR-M100 tends to slight washout, it also has the best noise filtering and flexible recording bitrate/resolution settings ever put into a consumer DVD recorder: it makes VERY efficient use of available media space. These positives can more than make up for the slightly brighter picture depending on the program material. There are also workarounds: if you have a fancy flat panel TV and you use its ATSC tuner or line outs to feed your JVC recorder, you can usually adjust the the TV output jacks to "darker" which will completely normalize the JVC recordings. Or you could connect an external processor, TBC or even another DVD recorder with IRE adjustment passthrough between your source and your JVC recorder.

It is well worth experimenting to find ways of making your JVC DR-M100 fit your needs: the encoder quality level in these machines cannot be matched by any models available new today, even JVC does not make anything near as good anymore (current JVCs are just typical rebadges of cheap generic units). You might consider supplementing your DR-M100 with an additional recorder and using each as appropriate to the program- this is what I finally decided to do. I use my JVC for some things, and my Pioneer for others: neither is all-purpose all the time, but together they make an incredibly useful and flexible team.

[deuce8pro]

Set the picture to Cinema to bring down the black level when playing back the recorded dvd in the JVC.

Also, go into your TV's picture settings and bring down the brightness when playing them back, if it helps.