400 lines of res equates to around 400-500x480, approximately SVCD/CVD resolution. This is discussed at
http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/vid...nd-sources.htm
Theory (
Kell Factor theory, for example) may dictate higher detail in the signal is possible, theory doesn't always happen. This would be one of those times. Feel free to capture/encode at either 352x480 or 720x480. Even with the theory factored in, 720x480 is large enough to capture any and all analog video data from the Super VHS format.
VHS is less, of course, about 300x480 in a digital equivalent. Betamax is the same. Contrary to revisionist myth, Betamax wasn't any sharper than VHS. At best, it had better colors, but that was more a statement about the VCRs than the format itself.
At $35, you bought it for 10-20% of value. Good job.
I suggest against using JVC S-VHS VCR "calibration" anyway. In most cases, it just adds jitter and the tracking "sensing" is too slow. I've seen more visible tracking errors with it on, than with it off. It really screws up recordings, to the point where the same VCR that made the tape sometimes can't even play the recording. Yikes!
The on-screen flashing is simply a matter of turning off on-screen display in the JVC menu.
When it comes to TV sets, I notice HDMI increase noise too much. I only use HDMI on my HTPC and Blu-ray player. On a DVD, it looks worse than s-video or component connections. (I don't use any composite inputs for video, only video games.)
Mono means "1 channel audio", not necessary "1 speaker only". Most mono is piped to both speakers, same data recorded to both stereo channels, if it was recorded and played back properly. A lot of broadcast TV is still mono, but it comes out of all available speakers.
To fix left-only or right-only audio, I use
SoundForge. Audacity probably works too. Just copy the good channel over the bad one, save file (or re-export, in Audacity). This involved decompiling a DVD, of course, and re-authoring when done. There may already be a guide for this in the forum, I can't remember.
If you get blocks, you need to change recording settings. The prized JVC recorders talked about on this site are best when used in 3-hour mode or 1-hour mode -- not 2-hour mode! This goes back to bitrate allocation. 1-hour and 3-hour (FR180) modes use high bitrates, while SP mode is very compressed. Discussed at
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/show...best-1507.html
Some of the Panasonic machines have special synchronizer filters that clean up certain errors. The JVC VCRs often fails on these specific errors. But the Panasonic recording is very inferior, so the Panasonic machine is used in "passthrough" mode. Search the forum for the term "passthrough" and it will bring up a lot of results on this topic:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/search.php -- the ES10 model is spoken of most often.