cheap seats price,needed a vcr for current tape collection

lightweight build, my Mitsubishi clobbers it on the build campaign. No slow motion, remote could have been better designed.

Wow, after reading the other reviews here, it is disconcerting how this deck is fairing. So far, I haven't any complaints from the record or playback fronts. Sure from an operational standpoint my Mitsubishi slays this deck,and the audio performance is way better too. But my Mitsu has a dying rewind motor, and the rotary head stack I am affraid is worn from all that playing and recording I did. I mostly watch DVD movies these days but I didn't want to forget my favorite (some not available on DVD) tapes. The JVC was on sale and I bought it. My old JVC a non S-VHS model still has a great picture and is 14 years old, and has never seen a repair shop. Well, the 3800 does service with my Loewe T.V. and I am impressed with the detail and color this machine has. I am a bit dissapointed with the sound and I am currently using a BBE sonic maximizer to help things out here. The transport sounds cheap and tinny, but afterall the deck "IS" cheap. I can't believe how light this thing weighs. Programming the 3800 is easy enough, though they should have included the Cable eye with the deck and not make you send for it. Pretty silly in my humble opinion. I figure if this decks hangs in there for a few years no big deal, I'll just get another deck later. Especially since my tape watching is about say 10 percent of the time vs. the 90 percent on my DVD viewing. I can't take VHS technology too seriously anymore, and I am not willing to make a huge investment in it either, so in the final analysis, the JVC fills the bill fine for me. Will it for you?? Don't know, but if you spend more than $300.00 on a deck, you have $$$ to burn. So far I am a satisfied customer. V.C.

Similar Products Used:

JVC and Mitsubishi

none

Unable to record SVHS/ET, Poor Picture Quality, Poor Audio

Don't buy it at any price.

The features and price sound great.
The product Stinks!

It's my newest VCR, and I'm already replacing it.
My 10 year old Kenwood Digital VCR is better.
Even my $90 Sanyo 4Hd HiFi cheapie is better.

Don't waste your money.

Similar Products Used:

Sharp VCS101U, Sanyo 4Hd HiFi, Kenwood Digital VCR

S-video, Price, auto set up,Includes s-cable and rca's

poor internal tuner. remote, display

forced to buy a new vcr when my old Hitachi F351 hi-fi's tuner went dead after 10 yrs. I figured might as well get a s-video unit as I'm into dvd and DSS satellite now.I couldn't find another svhs unit anywhere close to this price range and didn't want to spen a whole lot as i don't use it as much since i got dvd and a good blockbuster to rent from.
playback and aux recording is much better than with standard vhs. The internal tv/cable tuner is very noisy and grainy i returned the unit after the first week and got a replacement figuring i just got a bad one first time. the second wasn't any better. tried better cables with no improvement. adding a signal booster from radio shack helped out alot but still never got the quality picture i really wanted. Hitachi was a much better quality tuner.
I also don't like the remote set up although it works fine.
I don't like the fact that the display on the unit automatically switches from the time to the tape counter when playing. even if you switch it back to time it goes back to the counter as soon as you f fwd or rewind. if there is a way to set it so the time is the default I can't find it.
The display is clear and large so its the primary clock on my system. If it would just display the time!
Small problem but it realy bugs me

Similar Products Used:

Hitachi and rca hi-fi vcr's

None

Breaks fast, plastic everything, crappy remote functions

Bought it in August 2000. By Thanksgiving it was having problems and creating snow on a number of my tapes, and then started physically damaging them. Best Buy sent it for repair, but they couldn't find anything wrong with it, so they fully cleaned it and sent it back to me. Within 7 days it did it again. They gave me a replacement unit and within a week it had totally eaten one of my tapes. Needless to say I got my money back and bought something from another manufacturer.

On top of the model's destructive tendencies, the auto clock set never set right - it kept bouncing time zones. My programs never worked either when I used manual programming control. I was also annoyed that I couldn't punch in time buttons (which I can't do with my panasonic either but the rest of the panasonic features more than make up for it.) The included S-Video cable was a joke as well, far too short to work with my setup (tho the 3-prong RCA/Composite cable was great.)

It's true: JVC = Just Video Crap. What a horrid machine. No one should have to deal with one of these.

Similar Products Used:

Replaced with Panasonic PV-VS4820

Low Price Point, Easy to Find

Weak, grainy picture. Washed out colors. Noisy when
rewinding or fast forwarding tapes.

I should perhaps start this short review by saying
that I am the owner of an eleven year old video editing
and duplication firm. My company is a full time commercial
business located in a medical office park. In a typical
month we will duplicate from 400 to 1000+ tapes and edit
anywhere from 10 to 30 projects a month.
This is a full time occupation for me; and prior to
starting my company I had several years of experience in
government and broadcast operations. Since the early 1980s
I've owned at least two dozen consumer VCRs and dozens of
commercial ones in my business.
During the past 5 or 6 years, I've watched the
quality of consumer VHS & S-VHS VCRs slide in both quality
and features. Metal parts have been replaced by cheap
nylon and plastic items, drive motors have become lighter
and cheaper, and dedicated/discrete controls have been
replaced by cheap-to-manufacture chipsets with clunky
menu systems. Among the leaders in this move to ever-
cheaper units has been JVC.
I bought this unit to replace a five year old Quasar
VHS machine in my home office that could not play S-VHS
tapes. And I have to say that after taking this unit out
of the box and feeling how flimsy it was; I decided to
open up the cabinet and look inside. Sure enough - just
loaded with plastic and nylon parts. And after hooking it
up to my TV/Monitor, I was really unhappy with the noise
it made when fast forwarding and rewinding tapes. Also -
and this seems to be a problem with several models of JVC
S-VHS VCRs I've looked at - this VCR will not record the
mono and Hi-Fi audio tracks at the same level. The Hi-Fi
audio ALWAYS seems to be recorded at MUCH HIGHER levels -
sometimes to the point of distortion.
Well needless to say - this machine was soon sold off
and replaced by an older Panasonic commercial unit. Frankly,
from looking at JVCs consumer offerings; I consider them
all to be just junk. That's why most broadcast and pro
video types call JVC - the JUNKY VIDEO COMPANY!!!!!
If you are looking for a "Real" S-VHS VCR, get your-
self a Panasonic AG-1980 or an older AG-1970; if you can
find one.
For value - one star for being a waste of your
hard-earned dollars; and two stars overall for shameful
quality.

P.S. - If you go into mass market retailers such as
Best Buy or Circuit City; you might notice that
you see them selling almost the whole JVC line
but very few models from Sony, Panasonic, or
others. The reason - because JVC offers bigger
discounts to move their junk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic and Sony Professional Models, Panasonic and
Quasar Consumer Units.

Low cost S-VHS capability

Tuner performance, low weight, build quality

Brought it home and set it up on Sunday, recorded and played back a 2-hour movie off of cable, in S-VHS mode using a brand new S-VHS premium grade cassette (TDK XP Super Pro T-120). The picture looked great but not as good as the tuner on my TV (Sony WEGA) even though the video connection was S-video with a good quality cable. I confirmed this by recording a short segment off the TV monitor jacks - the VCR tuner is somewhat noisy, not up to the standards of the Wega or my old Sony VHS or even the cable box (which unfortunately is composite video).

Unfortunately when I next used the VCR the following Thursday, I inserted another brand new S-VHS cassette (same brand as before) and the lights on the front started flashing. I ejected the tape and found a huge wad of loose tape outside the cassette jamming the mechanism. I went back to Good Guys and exchanged the unit, and I can't complain about their service - they even replaced the cassette.

I confirmed that tuner performance on the new unit was on a par with the old - in fact their was no discernable difference. I then checked out the AV mode on the unit, by recording a few minutes in S-VHS mode off of a PC DVD player S-video output with Macrovision suppressed. This demonstrated that the deck itself is a considerably better performer in AV mode than when using the built-in tuner. I then tried both the conventional VHS mode and the JVC ET modes with a new conventional VHS cassette. ET is better but still inferior to real S-VHS when you have a good AV source.

I have decided to keep the unit and use conventional VHS tapes and VHS mode for time-shifting programming. For very high quality "keeper" tapes I will use a quality external TV tuner and S-VHS media. In my opinion this unit is worth the $149 sale price - but I would hesitate to pay more.

The most irritating problem is the light weight plastic box - the friction of putting a tape in the front was enough to push the VCR backwards on the wooden shelf. I fixed this with a couple of double-sticky foam pads on the bottom, effectively gluing it in place.

Similar Products Used:

Sharp and Sony conventional VHS

For what I need it for. None.

I don't really use my VCR that much. I am more into DVD's. I didn't want to spend a arm & a leg for one, at the same time I wanted one that works good. I thought about Tivo but the cost and the fact I don't record much didn't seem sensible for me. Being a super VCR at this price range I couldn't resist. I am very pleased with the unit. It does what I want & it does it very good. (Better than my sony which was a little cheaper.)
There are better if you want to spend a lot of money but for the occassional user this is a good unit.

Similar Products Used:

Sony VCR

Seems too much plastic

Close out sale for CAD$199.99 on the Bay, always Priced
at CAD$250 in Future Shop.
Using the resolution test chart from the
"Video Essential" DVD to test recording ,
FUJI HQ VHS tape in VHS SP mode gave less than 300 lines
FUJI HQ VHS tape in S-VHS-ET SP mode gave 400 lines
FUJI HQ VHS tape in S-VHS* SP mode gave 400 lines
JVC SV-120 S-VHS tape in S-VHS mode gave 400 lines

*hard to find any low price S-VHS tape here in
toronto (JVC SV120 S-VHS cost CAD$8.) so I drill
a hole in the FUJI HQ and the VCR take it as S-VHS
tape with no problem. But the S-VHS-ET mode can
save the trouble, anyone have better idea ?

Above line number is approximate, how can I tell just
by looking at my Panasonic GAOO TV.

I am not sure if they will sent the controller eye to
a Canaidan address ? anyone got it?

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic HIFI, and 3 others

Many

Wish it had fast rewind and the plug and play worked.

I just received my VCR today. The unit worked great out of the book. There is some reading to setup the unit up and plug and play doesn't work on satellite. However, the unit resords nicely and all functions worked well. I like that the unit has auto tracking and is super VHS. The picture is much better recorded in the ET VHS mode. I even like the remote. The unit was also very quiet. I few reviewers complained about this. But perhps JVS listened and my unit is very quiet. I would reccomend this unit. If you recoed off cable then I would probably would buy another unit with more features for less money. However, I record off satellite and want the extra resolution.

Similar Products Used:

Pansonic VCR

SVHS

Did not notice any appreciable difference between VHS and SVHS recordings.
After 1 week useage the TV tuner started acting up and would quit after recording for 6 minutes and I would only get a blue screen for the remaining recording time. I'm returning it today and getting my money back.
I found it impossible to figure out how to set up a timed recording session without reading instructions. You have to press VCR+ first. Then you must press a Start key to get to the Time recording screen. Also you can not use number keys to set the times. Just to set up Recording functions in my learning remote required 'learning' 10 different keys.
Overall I would give this 0 stars, but that is not a choice.