Philips VR 20D D-VHS good choice?

[srmusico]

Hi, i have reserved a really cheap unity of this Digital VCR.
Im trying to get some info about it.

Is a good VCR under 100$? Is a good choice to add it to my stuff?

I have other VCRs like Panasonic NV HS930 and a JVC SR V10E.
Also i have a Panasonic DMR ES10 DVD as a TBC.
The main objective is Pal standard SP VHS. Also some SP home recordings from TV.

What’s your opinions ? I’ll check the VCR tomorrow. Any special feature to test ?

Regards !

[latreche34]

Try it and see for yourself, Make sure you use S-Video out for analog tapes.

[srmusico]

Thanks for your reply.

Yeah, that are the basics for all SVHS tests. my main question is if this VCR is a good choice.
As i have read is a clone of the JVC HM-DR10000EU .
Lordsmurf say in some post of years ago, that these machines are a good "player" option but near impossible to repair their parts.


My JVC SR V10 is worse than this DVHS ? What about versus my Panasonic NV HS930?


Thanks!

[hodgey]

The JVC HM-DR10000EU (which seems to be identical) uses basically the same ICs and cuircuitry for analog video (VHS/SVHS) playback as the JVC HR-S7600/8600/9600 SVHS decks at least so unless they did something very different with it it probably won't be too different to the SR-V10 unless the digital bits help in some other way. For whatever reason it uses the older JVC mechanism from the HS-S9400 other JVCs from around 96/97 rather than the one used in other JVCs from the same year..

[srmusico]

Thanks for your reply!
Im officially a proud owner of this Philips VR 20D. The condition is like new. Works like a charm.
I will test it deeply soon and compare to my other VCR's.

[Tester]

Yes, it's a JVC rebadge. Yes, it's a good player... especially at that price... but the tape transport is infamously finicky, both in JVC and Philips guises. These models are well know for their apetite for chewing tapes. Beware! It's best NOT to rewind or fast-foward on these; avoid using picture search too. You've been warned!

NB: Some (few) Philips units behave slightly better: Philips made six mechanical versions (!), the first of which used a completely unadapted and dead-on-arrival Philips TurboDrive, the later ones oscillating between crappy Funai or crappy JVC.

That being said, one of my (modified) VR-20Ds produces the best image quality I've ever seen on a PAL machine for VHS and S-VHS.

[hodgey]

I suspect that statement you quote about different mechanisms might be talking about Philips VCRs in general rather than the VR20D. (Or have you spotted one with a different mech in it?)

[Tester]

That statement applies specifically to the VR-20D.
I've "spotted" at least two (maybe three?) (slightly) different mechas* on my (6) units thru the years. Only one of them behaves reasonably, seems to be on a tapesalad-free diet. Mostly.




_____________
(*) The ones that aren't "dead on arrival" —as TVK put it— seem to be reasonably interchangeable, though. Only once (IIRC) I've had trouble 'transplanting' those slighly different different mechas between VR-20Ds.

[hodgey]

Humm interesting. Maybe different variations of the JVC mechs then? That's what's visible on pictures and in the service manual for it at least. I have a hard time seeing them put a turbo drive mech in there at least seeing how differently those would interface (they liked to slap the turbo drive logo on regardless whether the vcr was of the actually of philips/grundig internals or ones using jvc or funai bits.)

[Tester]

At least one of my decks was a mixture of Funai and JVC. The tape carriage was slightly different/redesigned (IIRC, that deck is long gone).

[Tester]

I haven't seen a full-fledged Turbo-Drive in these models either, but apparently that was the case with some early units. At the end of the VHS era, JVC reportedly used a few Funai mechas (OEM'ed, perhaps?) in their own VCRS.

[srmusico]

I have tested my Philips VR20D vs the Panasonic NV HS930 and:

-HiFI audio sounds really similar. (same comercial SP Tape)
-Mono audio sounds apparently better in Panasonic. (same home recorded SP tape).

-Video seems clearly better in Philips VR20D.

I have attached 2 quick comparisons.

[Tester]

That tracks.

Re: mono audio, later/EOL JVCs were known for their lackluster performance, quite muffled sound. At least in some models it was due to minor differences in mechanism alignment (AC head position). Also, filtering.

HiFi audio should sound similar by design, if a bit 'crisper' (read: more open, treble-y) on a Panasonic, perhaps, from my experience.

[srmusico]

Hello All, 1 month after using this DVHS, i can say that the machine works like a charm. Really great image, very stable tracking with most tapes and perfect audio (mono and HiFi).

I have one question about TBC.

Is it worth connecting the SVideo Output to the DMR ES10 and use also the TBC that ES10 have?
Which TBC is better?
If i do that, do i have to route the audio into the ES10?
I have read that Lordsmurf loves ES10 and i have one here.

Thanks for you help and knowledge!

[latreche34]

Not when you have no problems, If it ain't broke don't fix it, ES10 is not transparent, there is a trade off in quality when used in passthrough.