VCR Question

[Stereomaniac]

I know most of you guys threw away your VCRs eons ago, but here goes. I have a JVC HR-S3902U, but the features I am asking about are common on lots of units.

This unit has Video Calibration that adjust the picture according to the tape quality. I can turn it on/off. Why would you ever want to turn it off. Wouldn't you want the unit to sense the tape and produce the best picture?

Second, the unit has a picture control that has Auto/Soft/Sharp/Edit modes. JVC recommends AUTO most of the time. Soft is fuzzy and Edit is used when dubbing. I tried SHARP and the picture is sharper, but I also sense a added vibrance to the picture and at the same time a lose in fine color gradations (like in skin tones). I can't decide if AUTO or SHARP is better. Any thoughts on the technology and what I am "seeing"?

[eisforelectronic]

Video Calibration doesn't always do a perfect job, there's always the chance that it may be enhancing something you don't want to or you may want to see what the video looks like without any changes.

Similarly for the picture control, any kind of electronic filtering or enhancing basically adds or takes something from the original signal. This as you seem to have noticed is not always a good thing. As always, no one can tell you what you think looks better. The basic premise of auto vs sharp or soft is auto lets the machine decide for you. The problem with auto functions is that the picture may change from scene to scene which can sometimes be annoying. On the other hand, you may find almost no difference at times.

Your vcr probably is employing some sort of basic time base correction.