Performance Value

Remote

I have been looking at new S-VHS VCR's for a little while now. After going to several stores and checking out the competition, I must say that this unit has the best bang for the buck. I am not 100% sure if the frame buffer actually does what JVC says it does, but this unit's picture quality, IMHO, is better than any of the other units out there. I am not happy with the remote, but I have come to accept the JVC remotes as being just OK after having several other JVC products (thus the 4-star overall rating). I feel that the 9600 was a better unit, as far as construction and quality, but I personally can't justify the extra cost when I will be doing very little, if any, tape editing. Bottom line is, Great Performance for the Money.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Panasonic S-VHS

Super Value, great features

none that I can see yet

I was happy enough with the jvc hrs3500, that when the rca vr730 died, I new I would buy another JVC, unless someone else came out with a butt kicking svhs machine. I tape from DISH network, and this is the best recording I have ever seen. The Time Base Corrector, actually makes rental tapes and older recordings look good.

It understands satellite channels within the vcr plus type express recording system, which makes it even better.

All I can say is, for the money ($297 from ecost.com), nothing can touch this machine. The best picture I have seen in a consumer deck.

Similar Products Used:

RCA vr730hf (panasonic svhs), jvc hrs3500

Everything

None so far

This VCR absolutely rocks! The picture quality is superb!!It even makes rental tapes look better (Huh?). This thing has a ton of features and at $308.00 delivered from ECOST.com it has to be the best value in a VCR on the planet!!! The audio quality is excellent and I'm just not getting the negative reviews I've read on the remote. It may not be the best remote in the world but it's not that bad either. The S-VHS ET is interesting, but I don't think I will use it all that much. The audio on search is great and what's really cool is watching the news at 1.5 or 2X when you are in a hurry. I would highly recommend anyone in the market for a S-VHS deck to take a serious look at this one. Simply amazing what 300 tamales buys these days.
Life is good.

Similar Products Used:

Numerous VHS VCR's over the years: Sony, Zenith, Hitachi RCA but no S-VHS.

Good overall product

Build quality

To Howard Sun: the composite video out connection is for video signal only-use right and left audio out for all audio signals.

This a pretty good deck. JVC was able to pack in a large feature set an still achieve a low price.

Variable fast forward speed, stable still.

Picture quality is inferior to Betamax. Reliability and warranty seem to be poor.

Out of the box, this unit had problems. When it did record in SP, the picture was not impressive. After a day, the unit refused to accept a tape, or shut down several seconds after recording commenced. I asked for a replacement unit, but this will take a month. Overall, not too impressed with the reliability of any JVC or Panasonic product. If it were not for the low price, I would not have even considered it.

Similar Products Used:

Sony VHS and Betamax decks, which seem to be better built.

Just bought this unit from Future Shop in Winnipeg. I paid $CAN579 for it, butam quite happy with it so far. Tapes from my old SONY SVHS unit play fine.

Only one minor complaint... when I press the remote control buttons I sometimes
have to click several times for any action to occur. I thought the batteries
might be weak, but even new Duracells didn't make any difference.

Great picture, easy to operate, good value

Could have a better audio S/N ratio

This was a replacement for my piece of crap Sony SLV 900 HF that was forever ruining my tapes. I purchased the JVC for $235 new in the box because the retailer felt so bad about my lemon Sony I purchased from them in 1994. I like the JVC and from what I remember of the old JVC units they were built to last. I especially like the digital comb filter and the S video output. Beautiful picture also. Really makes my tapes look better. Only time will tell.

Similar Products Used:

Sony SLV 900HF and Sony SLV676uc

Bought this baby from J&R for $320. Great picture, nice sound, excellent features. My one complaint, the front panel is not as sturdy as it should. But I can live with it.

Very Nice Picture Quality

Too much automation. Not enough technical documentation available (even on web) on features.

Initially I thought that this deck had a over-rated picture quality, because all of my tapes looked soft and "fuzzy" with overly bright areas on reflective objects and fire scenes.
Even on new tapes, same over-compensation. Then I turned off the automatic picture correction features and set the picture to "Normal". Now everything looks GREAT. I wonder if my deck is defective, because nobody else seems to have mentioned this in this review section.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Hitachi

Picture Quality, TBC

Build Quality, Full control of features

I must say first off that I am generally unhappy with the way most new VCR's are put together these days. Compared to my older SVHS these new ones have no headphone sockets, no rec level controls and generally much less user control of features. With my Sanyo I can actually track the audio heads separately from the video tracking, has a proper variable picture sharpness control and a 100 button remote with LCD display.
Anyway getting back to this VCR, it comes as a full multisystem model in Australia (Pal,Ntsc,Secam) and gold front. The remote is comfortable and fairly easy to use. The tuner setup is very easy.
Playback of rental/old tapes provides a picture with a good signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the expense of some resolution. The TBC really enhances edges and colour noise (seen on large blocks of one colour). The BEST feature does a very good job keeping the picture stable. The TBC does NOT eliminate copyguard/macrovision during recording which it could probably do but JVC have disabled this feature (2MB frame buffer is enough for 2 fields). The SVHS-ET mode is only good value with good tapes. ie HG tapes which are about 50% the cost of SVHS tapes. However with a good HG tape the picture is within 5% of a SVHS tape. The timescan audio is weird, but it works. The dynamic drum system also eliminates interference in fast search modes (a feature invented in 1983 by Grundig for their first Video 2000 consumer VCR. A format before beta that was better than beta or VHS). On that note JVC did not even invent VHS ! Sony invented the M loading system and ditched it for beta (I'm a VCR consumer from way back). The slow-mo and "trick play" modes are very good if not a bit limited. There is no variable slow control only 1/2 and 1/3 speeds. The audio performance is very good but again I would like to set the recording levels. Overall, the video performance is very high especially with a good svhs tape. I recorded a scene from "A bugs life" and could only just tell the difference between the orig and recorded signal.
As for the build quality, I can only describe it as a "plastic fantastic". It looks like the same chassis as a standard 4 head vhs model but with different internals. Time will tell. It is not as quiet as my 6 head panasonic but better than the Sanyo. There is a significant increase in video noise in trick play modes, no doubt making use of its "digital" features (some things are better left analog).
As for price, well you yanks should not complain. This cost me $1150AUS or about $750US. It is multisystem though so that adds to the cost. There is no 9600 model.
Overall, for the multisystem SVHS and the picture quality, the money is well worth it. This is the first Multisystem SVHS model to arrrive to the oceania/euro PAL market (Instant Replay vcrs sold in the US actally did it years earlier).

Similar Products Used:

Sanyo SVHS VCR VHRD4890