Looking for a quality s-vhs vcr advice

[AylmerQc]

I'm trying to get set up so as to transfer my old vhs tapes onto a hard drive and eventually edited onto dvd. The only thing I'm missing (I have everything else) is a decent vcr with an s-video output. What's a good model? I'll probably end up buying used but will consider new if under $200. I've seen a lot of JVC vcrs but the reviews on Amazon are very negative. Any suggestions or advice? I keep thinking about the all in one units (vhs tapes to dvd) but since I have the computer,software and analog-to-digital converter (HP dvd writer or I can use my mini dv camera) I'd hate to pay for extras I don't need. I did try the Ion unit that does this and ended up returning it because it didn't track very well on the first 10 minutes of any video tapes I played.

[markw]

IIRC, the only VCR's that have (had?) S-video outputs are (were?) S-VHS VCR's and, with regular VCR's about as plentiful as dodo birds, I wouldn't get my hopes up on finding one NIB. You might find one used but there's no guarantee that it's 100%.

Besides, the ultimate quality of a regular VCR recording isn't all that much improved with a S-video interconnect. Realisticly, composite may be as good as it gets.

[02audionoob]

You could add a video capture card to your computer and play the composite into that. I transferred some videotape by running the antenna cable into a TV tuner card. Quality was decent.

[pixelthis]

Quasi-super playback (playing back SVHS IN standard) might have svhs out, I DUNNO.
Better hurry, these units are going the way of the DODO.
Your best bet might be a vhs/dvd recorder combo, burn everything to DVD.

[pixelthis]

or YOU COULD go with one of these...


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._VHS_HDTV.html

[pixelthis]

OR maybe one of these(Iused to have two of these)...

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ult#ps-sellers

[AylmerQc]

Thanks all.
So,going on the opinions of the replies so far, JVC is OK? Seems like they have a lot of bad reviews on Amazon and when I called Future Shop, the guy in the video department didn't think highly of them.

[02audionoob]

I have a JVC VHS (not S-VHS) and it's around 20 years old. It's seen significant use...daily use as a time shifter in most of its first 10 years...and it still works fine without ever having needed a repair.

[Woochifer]

JVC stopped making standalone VCRs last year, so what you see out there are the last remnants. Everything VHS from here on out will be a DVD/VCR combo unit.

Fortunately, just about all of them have a quasi-S-VHS mode that allow you to play back any S-VHS tapes you might have. And all of the DVD/VCR combo units will have a S-vid output. I'm not sure though if they can playback tapes recorded in the S-VHS ET mode (which records the S-VHS signal using regular VHS tapes rather than the more expensive S-VHS tapes).

I'm on my second JVC S-VHS unit (the first one was a very nice editor until the hi-fi audio output crapped out). JVC VCRs aren't the best I've ever used, but everybody else exited the VCR market long before JVC did. In my case, I also had a library of S-VHS ET recordings that I wasn't sure would play properly on other VCRs.

For just playback, you might be okay to try the used market. Most S-VHS models were made better than the garden variety VHS models, so they might still have mileage remaining.

[AylmerQc]

Yep, I only want to use the vcr to put everthing on external hard drives,then get rid of my tapes which like everyone else's are,besides taking up a lot of room ,deteriorating by the day (minute?). Lots of home movies. Commercial stuff I won't bother unless they're rare classics.
From what I'm reading of the replies here,looks like I should be OK with a good used JVC. I was concerned that their quality might have gone out the door. As one of you mentionned, JVC seems to be the last to manufacture VCR's. The guy on the phone at Future Shop sounded in a hurry but just said he thought JVC weren't good,maybe too many returns in the past, and FS didn't sell vcrs anymore.anymore (I guess since nobody makes them?)
So,I'm wondering if a vhs to dvd writer unit would give me the S-video type quality I'm looking for? I'm aware that my vhs tapes aren't the best quality hence I'd like as little deterioration as possible in the transfer process.
I'm guessing that any Hitachi or Sony vcr's that I can find will be older than many JVC's since they stopped manufacturing them a number of years before JVC?

[02audionoob]

How many tapes do you want to convert?

[AylmerQc]

2 dozens at least.

[pixelthis]

2 dozens at least.

That must be valuable.
I had about 800 and was faced with a huge task of recording them to DVD.
Amazing how extraneous a lot of them became when faced with that task.
In other words I save about 200, chucked the rest.
DONT miss them, really.

[N. Abstentia]

When I moved all my VHS to DVD a few years back I bought two JVC S-VHS decks..this was probably 2002 or so. One died and one is still going strong. If this one were to die I'd get another JVC for sure, as long as the price was right

[02audionoob]

At only 2 dozen, one could perhaps justify having a service do it.