S-VHS decision: JVC S7711 vs. 9700 vs. Panasonic?
 

Hi, everyone!

Not long ago I mentioned I wouldn't buy a S-VHS deck because they were unaffordable to me at the time. Fortunately, I think things are going to get better for me soon enough.

However, picking a S-VHS is like picking a car, it's really tricky.

As usual, my tapes are VHS tapes and either home family recordings or TV channels recordings, some of them second-generation recordings.


My current choices (based on what VCRshop has to offer) are:

JVC S7711
https://vcrshop.com/product/vcr/vide...igital-tbc-nr/

JVC S9700
https://vcrshop.com/product/vcr/vide...tal-tbc-dnr-5/

The S9700 cost twice as much as the s7711. The S9700 also has Dynamic Drum technology, although I'm not sure it changes playback image quality. I don't know if the S7711 also has Dynamic Drum, though.

Is the S9700 twice as good compared to the S7711 and worth getting, or is the S7711 almost as good and sufficient for my needs? Are any of these JVCs good at mono audio playback form old tapes?

I also discovered that JCV S-VHS decks, for some reason, don't allow to separately control lineTBC and DNR. It's either both or none, which is annoying to me. Some Panasonic S-VHS decks allow separate control.


It's worth noting that the Panasonic AG-1970 and the Panasonic AG-7650 were also considered, but not only VCRShop does not sell them at the moment but the AG-7650 is as top-of-the-line-professional as its price. However, I'd like the hear your opinions on these Panasonics decks as well. :)

The 9700 doesn't offer anything over the 7711 for capturing, the dynamic drum doesn't do anything for normal playback and is just another failure point and the extra editing features are of no use here.

AG1970 is a US model, it doesn't play PAL tapes. The European equivalent would be the NV-FS200 which shares like 90% of the guts with it.

I have not really had a good experience with JVCs past the HR-Sx600 lineup. hey've all either had issues with dropout correction not working as it should (earlier ones), while the later ones have linear audio that has so much interference on it that it's unusable for tapes that are not hi-fi. Maybe I've just been really unlucky though I've seen other threads with the same issues here so seems both problems are at least something these models are prone to.

Good, then I won't have to shell out so much money. :congrats:

One thing I forgot to mention: do S-VHS JVC decks like the 7711 improve (even if marginally) the image quality of VHS recordings on standard VHS tapes?

So that's why the VCRshop didn't show the model! And, wouldn't you know it:

https://vcrshop.com/product/vcr/vide...ic-nv-fs200-2/

Do you have any opinions regarding the Panny FS200 over the JVC S7711?

That's kinda disappointing. :(

I found someone on this forum stating that JVC Dynamic Drums are good for LP/EP playback, and I do have some LP PAL recordings. Is the Panasonic FS200 not good enough for LP? Should I go with the European equivalent of a Panasonic AG-1980P?

Or, as another user mentioned, should I try getting the European equivalent of the JVC SR-W5U, the holy grail of S-VHS decks?

No contest. Get the 7711.
The only variable is condition. Obviously a better condition 9700 is better than bad condition 7711.

Once upon a time, the 1990s-2000s, JVC information reflected that the dynamic drum helped with playback quality. And due to the gear at the time, happenstance, it appeared correct. In hindsight, it was bad JVC marketing, the DD is not for playback quality, but rather playback quality during FF/REW (and including audio preview). So disregard, including some of my old posts. It became even more obvious when EOL JVC would outperform quality of the DD decks, though condition matters, and certain DD were/are outstanding when fully functioning.

7600/7611EU and 7965EK are my PAL favorites.

As far as I know there was never any PAL W-VHS deck. The closest PAL vcr is the very rare JVC SR-388E SVHS from that gen that has TBC (others like HR-S9400, HR-S7000 etc lack the TBC) but I have no idea if it's any good. The US got 2(or more?) of W-VHS variants though those were marketed more at "professional" use rather than as a home vcr.

So the JVC S7711 and/or the S7600 are indeed better overall than the Panasonic FS200?


I also found that VCRshop also has the 7611 model:
https://vcrshop.com/product/vcr/vide.../jvc-hr-s7611/

From what I can tell, the main difference between the 7611 and the 7711 (given that both are sold at the same price) is that the 7711 is S-VHS ET whereas the 7611 isn't. Is that a deal-breaker?

Dynamic Drum can give you problems since it can be damaged. I'm with @lordsmurf , I have an 7600, 7700 and 7722 and my favourite is 7600. Besides I have DVS1 and SR-VS30 and both are incredibles.

The SR-VS30E is also available at VCRshop but it's really expensive...

https://vcrshop.com/product/vcr/vide...er-vhs-et-tbc/

However, the miniDVD player is enticing since I still have some miniDV tapes. Is the player actually any good?

As a side-note, I have another issue with capturing:
https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vid...html#post90661

Can the lineTBC of the JVC S7600 fix the jagged line issues I show in that thread?

The unit is very good, but it is better to use cameras to play tapes (or so they say here).

Yes, all VCR with Line TBC can fix the problem.

I'd always pick a higher end Panasonic over the JVCs. But not those older models, unless they're getting totally rebuilt. I just grabbed a PAL NV-HS950, but seems they're getting harder to come by. VCRshop only seems to have the same generation models without the TBC.

So, I guess I agree that JVC was the way to go here, given the options.

That's strange. The photo shown on VCRshop for the HS950 clearly shows that it was both lineTBC and 3D Noise Reduction

https://vcrshop.com/product/vcr/videorecorders/tbc/panasonic-nv-hs950-s-vhs-super-vhs-digital-tbc-3d-dnr/

The HS950 is the equivalent to which NTSC model?

The 950s and 1000s have TBC, in that generation. But VCRshop doens't seem to stock them recently. I wanted to buy one a few weeks ago and they were out of stock then too.

Not sure on the NTSC equiv, as I use AG1980s for NTSC.

I see. I had misunderstood you the first time. 👍

Check DM! :)

They do have the NV-HS1000 and AG4700 (which is the "pro" variant of it) in stock.

I owned a Panasonic AG-7750 and two AG-1970s at one time. I had upgraded to the AG-1970 from two AG-1960s. 7750 and 1970 are WAY in different leagues. 7750 is a broadcast quality machine, expensive to buy, expensive to maintain. The TBC was great. I used it with Video Toaster and VITC time code in '92-'95 or so to do a poorman's A/B roll of tapes from 2 cameras. I don't recall having any genlock of all two decks. The 1970 is NOT broadcast quality but is considered Industrial quality. The line TBC in both my 1970s was terrible. (I've described this to LordSmurf privately and he hasn't given me his reactions to that report yet.)

I was lucky my dealer was willing to take the 7750 that I foolishly wore out on editing TV shows and trade it for a JVC BR-S800U, which I used through '98.

My gripe about the 7750 was NO speed other than SP. I was a big fan of EP for some things and LP for others. The AG-1970 played all 3 speeds (and believe it or not), I was able to RECORD in LP via special tricks.

The AG-7650 is (I believe) the playback-only version of the AG-7750. And both (I believe) are heavy monsters. I hauled the 7750 in my car, along with 2nd VCR, lots of audio gear and cabling, to TN every fall from '92-'97. In '94 I foolishly did THREE cams... Never again. Two was hard enough. I had estimated it took me 10 hours with 2 cam to post-produce a 1 hour lecture. 3 cams was much more, not to mention the flaws in the system. (But this is why I had two GVP TBCPluses which I now can't use.)

If anyone wants to know how to record LP with the AG-1970, I'll start a separate thread.