Best or good VCR to buy?

[gerbil]

I am a vintage enthusiast and would like to purchase a good S-VHS stereo VCR. I've been looking for one for a few days and I don't know what to choose, I've also searched the VCR forums but I still haven't figured it out. I will buy it from a local store.

Which of the following models do you think would be a good choice? I want a good stable image and not to eat the video tapes.
Panasonic NV FS88 - cheap price
PANASONIC NV HS-850 S-VHS 3D HiFi-Stereo - cheap price
Panasonic Nv-Hs1000 - expensive
JVC HR-S9500 - cheap price
Panasonic NV-HS880 - cheap price

[themaster1]

The JVC for me (because i know this brand very well), this one has all the features you want (TbC, Dynamic Drum,Transcoder (secam<>pal), although in practice you will rarely use the transcoder, quality can be so-so, and the dynamic drum is kinda fragile (cracked gears) so you don't want use it too much.

it'll be good for retail movies tapes, home recordings/camcorders that will depend on the quality of the tape, probably not optimum.

There is no reason to buy an expensive deck (like 2-3 hundred bucks or more) unless it's brand new (unopenned box) if you ask me because panasonic is known to have bad capacitors inside

On those words, bid safely

[mbassiouny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by themaster1

this one has all the features you want (TbC, Dynamic Drum,Transcoder (secam<>pal),

just for precision, Tanscoder/standard convertor is only in French models(MS/EF). Other PAL land models (EU,EE, etc) do not have it and do not need it.

If you know for a fact his tapes are PAL, I would say the JVC is nice yes, but the Panasonic Nv-Hs1000 is a very good VCR as well and IMHO can be better than the 9500 in many cases. It depends a bit on the state and where the VCRs are coming from (store Vs random seller, etc). If his tapes are SECAM, the HS-850 is good.

[gerbil]

My video tapes are PAL.