#1  
08-26-2011, 11:26 AM
stuckinstandby stuckinstandby is offline
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Hello, first post

I'm looking to buy a reasonable quality VCR to transfer a few VHS tapes (about 20-30 I guess) on to a mac.

I've looked at the VCR Buying Guide thread and been watching out for some of the recommended models on eBay, but if they ever do come up they're usually very expensive (to me at least). I guess my budget is probably £25 (GBP) delivered, but ideally around £15.

I've been offered a Panasonic NV-SJ220 for a good price. As far as I can tell it's not genuine SVHS but quasi. I can find very little about how good it is, so any help on that or other recommendations at this price appreciated.

Maybe I should think about spending more for a better one, but keep in mind that if I sell it afterwards I should get a decent percentage of the outlay back?

Thanks
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  #2  
08-27-2011, 08:22 PM
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Quote:
Hello, first post
Welcome to the site.

Quote:
I've been offered a Panasonic NV-SJ220 for a good price.
The Panasonic NV-SJ220 is just a basic consumer VCR from the late 90s or early 2000s. There's really nothing special about it in any way. If anything, the Panasonic consumer VCRs of that era had annoyances with blue screens popping up in the middle of playback. Sometimes a bad frame or glitch in the video would trigger several seconds of blue screen, which would knock out both audio and video. It wasn't a great choice for a playback VCR, though there were much worse models to be had.

Quote:
As far as I can tell it's not genuine SVHS but quasi.
SQPB, or Super VHS Quasi-Playback, is basically nothing. This simply means a plain VHS VCR can play a higher resolution S-VHS tape at standard VHS resolution.

Suggested VCRs are good because of the features found on the VCR -- it has nothing to do with S-VHS playback. In fact, most people using these high quality S-VHS VCRs (including myself) will primarily be using them for the playback of VHS tapes made on consumer VHS equipment (or even commercial VHS releases, for personal conversion work).

Quote:
I've looked at the VCR Buying Guide thread and been watching out for some of the recommended models on eBay, but if they ever do come up they're usually very expensive (to me at least). I guess my budget is probably £25 (GBP) delivered, but ideally around £15.
Unfortunately, your budget is much too low for buying a decent VCR of any kind. You'll have to spend probably 10x that amount. In $USD, you need to spend $200+ most of the time, to get a good VCR. Converted to £GBP, you're looking at at least £100, but more realistically, given the supply/demand for PAL units, I'd say it would be a budget of £150+.

Quote:
Maybe I should think about spending more for a better one, but keep in mind that if I sell it afterwards I should get a decent percentage of the outlay back?
Yes, if the unit is in good condition, it can be resold for a fair value. I've seen people sell these excellent VCRs for the same or even more than what they originally paid. Again, assuming the unit is in good to excellent condition, from a non-smoking home/office, etc. (Tobacco smoke is a destroyer of VCRs.)

The DigitalFAQ marketplace forum, eBay, and Craiglists are the usual suggestions for buying/selling VCRs.

For PAL units, here's an eBay tip: check both eBay.co.uk (UK) and eBay.de (Germany). You'll sometimes find more German sellers with JVC S-VHS VCRs being sold than UK. All PAL S-VHS JVC VCRs are made in Germany from what I've seen, as it applies to the suggested models. PAL is PAL, more or less. Some German sellers are stubborn, and won't ship outside Germany (stupid, as far as I'm concerned), but others are not so tunnel-visioned and understand we live in a world market.

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  #3  
08-30-2011, 05:16 PM
stuckinstandby stuckinstandby is offline
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Thanks for the detailed response.

Sounds like I need to either stump up for a better machine or make do with the lower quality.

I'll take a look at ebay.de - I thought searching worldwide would include all on ebay.de too but a quick test says not.

Back to the buying guide then. One question, I assume the trailing characters in the JVC model numbers are region codes - U or US for USA and E or EK for Europe? So JVC HR-7500EK (which isn't on the list) would just be the European (and PAL) equivalent of the HR-7500U?

I also found a couple not on the list which were recommended by lordsmurf in a post from a few years ago:

Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
For PAL (UK, Australia)
JVC HR-S7955EK
JVC HR-S8955EK
Are these still okay?
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  #4  
08-30-2011, 09:25 PM
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The 7500 NTSC model is more limited than the 7600 and later models. See discussion here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...jvc-s7500.html

And then the PAL 7500 is not the same as the NTSC 7500. This is one of the few "shared number" models that is different between video systems. The PAL versions lacks a TBC, thereby making it an undesirable unit for this sort of work.

Compared 7500 models here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...nuals-jvc.html

JVC HR-S7955EK and JVC HR-S8955EK -- those are essentially identical to the 7965/8965 listed on the guide. That section is due for an expansion. Research is done, just not yet published with the rest of the list.

Quote:
JVC S-VHS (PAL) - PAL prosumer VCRs, same features as NTSC machines listed above.
  • JVC SR-S388E / SR-388EK
  • JVC HR-S7600EK
  • JVC HR-S7800EK
  • JVC HR-S7965EK
  • JVC HR-S8965EK

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  #5  
09-13-2011, 04:00 PM
stuckinstandby stuckinstandby is offline
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Thanks for all the info. I'll stick closely to the model numbers listed then. Quite a minefield!
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  #6  
09-17-2011, 07:48 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stuckinstandby View Post
I'll stick closely to the model numbers listed then.
Sticking the list is always the safest route. If you see another model, and could get a great price on it, don't hesitate to make a new post asking about it. Another tip is to check the features, as found in the VCR manual. We have archived many VCR manuals here on this site.

Those are here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...s-service.html

I'm sitting on quite a few JVC VCR S-VHS manuals right now, and plan to post those sometime this month. I have manuals for dozens and dozens of models. It's going to make quite a nice addition to this site.

Quote:
Quite a minefield!
Yeah, it's messy and hard to navigate.

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