Is the JVC SRV101US a good S-VHS VCR?
 

I'm trying to get a better VCR for my capture project. I contacted a handful of the sellers with S9600 and offered $250-$300. I saw this v101us refurb, and thought that a fresh manuf. refurbed unit might be better than a used one. I contacted the seller about it, he immediately dropped price to $300 without saying anything else and I knee jerk reacted and bought it.

I was reading *after* I purchased it and saw that the V101US is apparently not nearly as good as I had thought. Lesser quality transport, no dynamic drum, and possibly red/green banding, unless that was just that one unit.

Assuming I could get the seller to agree to relist the V101US, and I could get the used S9600 for the same price, should I do it?

{ebay links removed for your privacy}

I'm lost here; stressed out over spending several bills for a VCR that didn't cost $300 new.

Did I make a bad purchase?

Thank you for you time, I know it's valuable.

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Think of it this way:

- Group of best / excellent / great / good / suggested VCRs
- Group of good / decent / okay VCRs, mostly non-TBC units
- Group of not suggested / crap / consumer / junk VCRs

The JVC SR-V101 is in the first group -- suggested. So that's good. :)

Within that group, certain individual VCRs are identified as "the best" of that group. No, the SR-V101US is not one of those. But no, it's not bad either. In the JVC line, for NTSC (USA/NA) models, the 9600, 9800 and 9900 are considered "best" as per feedback of many users, for more than 15 years. Both this site, and others.

I have an SR-V10U -- not 101, but 10 -- and like it. Is it one the "best" units? No.
Is it bad? Also no.

If the 9600 is in at least as good a shape as the 101, I'd get the 9600.

Lesser quality transport = ALL JVC are lesser than Panasonic transports. But there's more to a VCR. Panasonic has quirks, too.

No dynamic drum = that may not matter. The dynamic drum has downsides, too. It's why I have a with-DD 9800, and a non-DD SRV10U. It can help tapes, it can make some worse! Generally, yes, it's better to have.

Possibly red/green banding, unless that was just that one unit = must have have been that one unit. Such an error is NOT model-wide.

The $150-350 range is average. It depends on condition, usage, completeness, etc. $300 is maybe about $50 too high for that exact model. It was $300 when new. The 9600 and 9800 usually command the higher price, because of features, and rarity. Those were $450 new, in 1990s dollars (probably at least $600 in 2013). The "SR" models are far more common, especially the V10U model. They just made lots of them at the end there. It's almost as if they wanted to saturate the market before leave S-VHS.

Hope that helps. :congrats:

If you have followups, ask here. ;)

the 101 is ok, but not worth anywhere near $300
i typically sell them for $150-$200
they are a little flimsier - but all JVC are kinda flimsy anyway
the main bitch i have with the 101 is it doesn't have a TBC button on front - you have to go into the menus to turn on/off
i like being able to instantly see the difference

Someone on ebay recently sold 2 brand new (still in the box) 101's for around 150-200 each. They actually started the biddings at 50 and 100 dollars.

It wouldn't be the first time someone got taken for a ride. Besides, even though the new ones sold for that, it doesn't mean there's a guarantee there will be others at that price, if any at all. I picked up a NIB 9600 AIW w/ accessories for $35. There were just two, and they both sold in a matter of hours. If you look now, a used card by itself goes for that much. Just because I bought one at $35, does that make the others up there a bad deal? Ebay's prices fluctuate significantly, it's more about right place/right time than anything else. That said, $300 was perhaps too much.

This is very true. :salute:

Oh I agree. That's what I'm meant. I probably should've clarified that first :)