Best of the Panasonic AG- series S-VHS editors?
 

Not sure if this is the right board, but does anyone have an opinion on this? These 2 look great (XLR ins, hifi, etc.)

Panasonic AG-7750
PANASONIC DS555

But seriously - where can a guy find a comparison on these? What are the differences? I'm looking for the ones with the best audio quality and there are SO many of these Panasonic decks. I just want to know what is what

Neither of those are what you want for converting VHS or S-VHS tapes to digital formats.

While the specs may look nice on paper, the hardware has a lot of limitations, and tends to come from abusive pasts. These are editing and recordings decks -- not playback decks. They tend to do quite poorly at playing tapes not made in these same VCRs. These generally only record (and thus play back) SP mode VHS or S-VHS. Some only play S-VHS, and not VHS. Most of them lack the filtering to make consumer videos look as good as later Panasonic or JVC S-VHS models aimed at professional playback of consumer videos.

Furthermore, most of these VCRs were used by non-video professionals -- students, coaches, hospital personnel, etc. In addition to the hamfisted usage of the decks, many of them have been subjected to unclean environments. Who knows what sort of nasty spores or other junk is inside the unit? The mere thought of getting a used VCR from a hospital sort of creeps me out.

Instead, look for a VCR from this list: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ing-guide.html

In terms of the audio playback, XLR and all of that won't really do you any good -- especially considering the source quality. The best that can be done is to insert a mixer between the VCR and the digital capture/recording device. Just use the RCA audio output -- it's fine for the source. The Behringer XENYX 1002B is highly suggested. It's only $89 from Amazon -- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...0&linkCode=as2