Pana AG1980 vs. JVC HR/SR best choice for this job?
 

Hey guys. After a bit of reading in here, I've come to the conclusion that I want to purchase a Pana 1980 machine or a JVC SR/HR series machine.

What I need from you pros is which is better for tape to computer dumps using some pretty crappy tapes made from poor camcorders over 20 years ago? These are all home movies basically. The sound quality on playback has got to be good as the majority of the tapes are concerts.

Can someone help me pick the best machine out of the two? I understand that it would ultimately be best to buy both and pick the best machine for the job, but I simply can't afford to do that. I'm leaning towards the Pana simply since I've owned many Panasonic's over the years and like them....JVC not much. But ultimately that doesn't matter as I want the best one for my particular job.

Thanks guys! This forum really is slick. Very helpful.

if most of your tape are SP mode get a JVC
if they are EP/SLP get the Panny
the Panny may also track some tapes better if the are really bad

Are your tapes VHS-C tapes? If so, I'd recommend getting some donor vhs tapes and converting the footage onto the vhs tapes. This way you don't need to bother with an adapter.

No sir...good ol' standard VHS tapes. I won't need an adaptor thank goodness.

The footage I have is all handheld work and like I had said, pretty bad on the tracking. Also from a variety of camcorders at that time. Mostly recorded EP. It seems like the Pana machine wins out for this particular application guys?