I'm attaching the JVC HM-DR10000EK user manual to this post.
The "NTSC capability" does not appear to be true NTSC output. It's simply your standard PAL-60 output, as you'll find with virtually every PAL VCR. It's not a converting VCR either, from anything I'm reading. It's just a standard high-end JVC S-VHS/D-VHS type VCR. You've already listed the important features: TBC/DNR, B.E.S.T., Picture Control. From that alone, it looks fine.
EP is only NTSC, from what I've observed through the years. NTSC has SP, LP and EP/SLP.
- SP = standard play (2 hours on T120 tape)
- LP = long play (4 hours on T120 tape)
- SLP = slow play, used in 1980s and early 1990s to describe 6 hours on T120 tape.
- EP = extended play, another way to express SLP
PAL VCRs only had SP and LP.
- SP = 2 hours on T120 tape, 3 hours on T180 tape
- LP = 4 hours on T120 tape, 6 hours on T180 tape
T180 tapes were not common in NTSC areas until the the mid 1990s, and those were actually T160 tapes from Maxell. By the late 1990s, we saw T180, T200 and even T240 tapes (10 hours EP), though mostly from low-quality manufacturers, rebranded by low-grade brands like Memorex. The tapes were thinner and overall inferior in every way imaginable.
There's no such thing as "SP playing mode" or "EP playing mode" or whatever. The machine must play the tape at the speed it was recorded. SP is always played at an SP speed, otherwise it's just a garbage signal.
SP and LP made good use of the tape, while SLP/EP had overlapping compression, making it a poor choice. The body that oversaw the PAL format probably opted out of the quality-compromising setting, as they had done with so many other aspects that come up in PAL vs NTSC conversations.
