Best VCR opinion

[Thermaltake]

Is that question even answerable ?

What really is best s-vhs VCR In terms of picture quality, durability and reliability in your opinion for let's say video capturing and in general.

You can name one for each brand like JVC model... and Panasonic model...

[lingyi]

https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vid...ing-guide.html

https://www.digitalfaq.com/editorial...g-workflow.htm

[aramkolt]

Still figuring that out haha. I've acquired one of just about every "series" of NTSC consumer/prosumer VCR with line TBC (with the exception of W-VHS and the higher end D-Theater D-VHS decks), but I need to figure out how to test them against each other objectively. Even doing that test won't reveal anything about longevity or reliability though, it'll mostly just show differences in picture quality.

Really there's only a few "series" to consider if you're excluding rare variants:

JVC 7600 Series - 2MB memory for line TBC
JVC 9600 Series - 4MB memory for line TBC - on paper these should be better than the 7600 series, but later ones may have more suspect brands of capacitors used.
JVC DVD/VHS Combo decks that had TBCs - Uses a different mechanism than the others.
JVC DV/VHS Combo decks that had TBCs - Use same mechanism as the 9600 series.
Panasonic AG1980
Mitsubishi HD-2000U

Less talked about VCRs with Line TBCs:

Certain Medical VCRs - Though these often only work with SP speed - These are kind of interesting in that they'll often have hour counters on the heads and I've seen units with as low as 2 hours of use, and sub 50 hours is pretty common.

Japanese-only models - they do use NTSC over there, so they work fine, only caveat is possibly needing to step voltage down to 100VAC. Most people probably use them on 120V, but most are marked as 100VAC only.

Some people also like the Panasonic EZ series that would do sort of a DMR-ES10 combo thing and act like a line TBC, some of which had HDMI output which makes them easy to use with modern TVs if you just want to watch something rather than capture.

Other considerations:
-Condition of the specific VCR
-Do they tend to output "hot" video levels, meaning well over 100IRE for white?
-Do they contain SMT caps that are more likely than others to go bad, or have crappy brands of caps that fail often?
-How likely is something to be damaged when removing the deck to clean the mode switch?
-How well do they handle "line dropouts"?
-Do they contain a dynamic drum unit that can fail and not always be fixable by removing gears?
-Do you need the remote to enable/disable commonly accessed features such as the TBC?
-Some decks have multiple S-Video outputs which can be useful, but not required.
-Some decks don't like VHS-C
-The "best" VCR probably isn't one that never comes up for sale and is unobtainable

Main issue that makes this comparison hard is that most users here will invest in one or two high end VCRs and go with whichever plays a difficult tape the best, never experiencing all of the others that are out there and while also not knowing if the VCRs that they do have are performing optimally - you'd almost need multiple of each to really see if the unit being tested is representative of how each model is supposed to perform.

The null hypothesis for testing would be that high end VCRs with Line TBCs should perform pretty similarly, but there definitely are some visible differences in line dropout compensation on some units as well as color reproduction, sharpness, and noise.

[Thermaltake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lingyi

https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vid...ing-guide.html

https://www.digitalfaq.com/editorial...g-workflow.htm

Read that before. But can't continue to talk there cause topis is old. That's why I asked here to see if anything change over time with people opinion of using VCRs today.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aramkolt

Still figuring that out haha. I've acquired one of just about every "series" of NTSC consumer/prosumer VCR with line TBC (with the exception of W-VHS and the higher end D-Theater D-VHS decks), but I need to figure out how to test them against each other objectively. Even doing that test won't reveal anything about longevity or reliability though, it'll mostly just show differences in picture quality.

Really there's only a few "series" to consider if you're excluding rare variants:

JVC 7600 Series - 2MB memory for line TBC
JVC 9600 Series - 4MB memory for line TBC - on paper these should be better than the 7600 series, but later ones may have more suspect brands of capacitors used.
JVC DVD/VHS Combo decks that had TBCs - Uses a different mechanism than the others.
JVC DV/VHS Combo decks that had TBCs - Use same mechanism as the 9600 series.

Panasonic AG1980

Mitsubishi HD-2000U



Less talked about VCRs with Line TBCs:

Certain Medical VCRs - Though these often only work with SP speed - These are kind of interesting in that they'll often have hour counters on the heads and I've seen units with as low as 2 hours of use, and sub 50 hours is pretty common.

Japanese-only models - they do use NTSC over there, so they work fine, only caveat is possibly needing to step voltage down to 100VAC. Most people probably use them on 120V, but most are marked as 100VAC only.



Some people also like the Panasonic EZ series that would do sort of a DMR-ES10 combo thing and act like a line TBC, some of which had HDMI output which makes them easy to use with modern TVs if you just want to watch something rather than capture.


Other considerations:
-Condition of the specific VCR
-Do they tend to output "hot" video levels, meaning well over 100IRE for white?
-Do they contain SMT caps that are more likely than others to go bad, or have crappy brands of caps that fail often?
-How likely is something to be damaged when removing the deck to clean the mode switch?
-How well do they handle "line dropouts"?
-Do they contain a dynamic drum unit that can fail and not always be fixable by removing gears?
-Do you need the remote to enable/disable commonly accessed features such as the TBC?
-Some decks have multiple S-Video outputs which can be useful, but not required.
-Some decks don't like VHS-C
-The "best" VCR probably isn't one that never comes up for sale and is unobtainable




Main issue that makes this comparison hard is that most users here will invest in one or two high end VCRs and go with whichever plays a difficult tape the best, never experiencing all of the others that are out there and while also not knowing if the VCRs that they do have are performing optimally - you'd almost need multiple of each to really see if the unit being tested is representative of how each model is supposed to perform.

The null hypothesis for testing would be that high end VCRs with Line TBCs should perform pretty similarly, but there definitely are some visible differences in line dropout compensation on some units as well as color reproduction, sharpness, and noise.

Thank you for detailed info.

I always do inspection on my own, change all capacitors and other stuff if needed. I have two VCRs now JVC S9760E and HS-1000 (I am in PAL region) both fully serviced and rebuild. I will keep JVC that's the beast of VCR but I am wondering if I should get rid of HS-1000 and get some better Panasonic instead, but don't know if HS-1000 is already the best you can get from VCR.

How much MB does S9760E and HS-1000 have ? And does that matter in picture quality and quality in reproducing overall ?

[lordsmurf]

The topic is old? VHS is old. The information is "evergreen" and will not change.