Performance

Dependibility

Background: I bought a store demo at The Good Guys, a JVC 5400 S-VHS deck, and thought I was getting a terrific deal. But the motor was noisy.

I took it to the JVC Service Center in South San Francisco. They said nothing was wrong with it. I took it to The Good Guys and it came back from their repair facility with the circuit board cracked!

They let me exchange it. I traded up for a 9500. It was on sale, but it's a pricier model than I need for timeshifting and rental tapes. So I didn't get as good a deal as I once hoped.

I have a love-hate relationship with the 9500. When it works right, the performance is too good to be true. It's actually easy to program. The picture quality in S_VHS EP is at least as good as watching a cable broadcast directly. The sound is good. The remote has a powerful signal. It doesn't need to be "reminded." The freeze frame is jitter-free, which is important for reading the Vanity Cards on Dharma & Greg, which are the best things on TV. The motor is quiet.

Rewinding is slower than the previous year's models, including the 5400, because they keep finding ways to make them cheaper. But the rewinding is much faster than my old VCR, a Fisher 960.

BUT:

I've owned this VCR for a little more than a year. On half a dozen occasions, it failed to record properly. Malfunctions include:

• Recording the wrong channel.

• Failing to switch automatically to Standard time, even though it made the opposite move to Daylight Savings time flawlessly months earlier.

• Recording the sound OK, but instead of capturing the picture, merely degrading the previously-recorded image.

• Simply failing to record.

I've experienced occasional inexplicable intermittant problems with my old VCR, but not nearly as often. (I'm one of the few people who's had good luck with a Fisher VCR, bad luck with a Toyota auto.) Of course, repairmen are never able to find intermittent problems.

THE BOTTOM LINE:
This is the last time I buy a JVC product. I should have bought a less expensive Panasonic.

Similar Products Used:

Fisher FVH 960, JVC HR-S5400

Incredible picture quality on regular tape with S VHS turned off. Get's better with ET turned on but you can't loan those tapes to other people without ER! Can't tell a copy from the original! The picture sets a new standard with S VHS on S VHS tape. Sets time itself when you leave the tuner set on PBS station - nice!

Lack of inputs/outputs- 2 in (but one is on the front) 1 output. Sony has 3 and 2. Remote is ugly beige, difficult to figure out, some buttons do double duty depending on where you are. Progamming is impossible by intuition, easy once you read the manual.

I agree with what has been said in the other reviews, except you can change tracking from the remote while playing using the up down TV channel channel buttons, which is not clearly labled. Much of the cost of this unit is the editing features for copying home videos onto a new tape that I don't use or need. JVC should have all the picture quality features available without the editing at a lower price. That would be a best seller! It hasn't broken, so I can't say anything about long term reliability. The Sony has been fixed twice!

Similar Products Used:

Sony 1000, their best unit. Pricy, picture is softer than JVC. Requires expensive S VHS tape which is hard to find. Need to set clock manually after every power failure (frequent where I live). Better remote control though.

Good remote with true jog/shuttle, Great picture quality, Good editing features, great tuner.

Cannot advance or reverse frames from RECORD/PAUSE mode, only two inputs (1 on front), TimeScan feature should not be default (annoying).

Well here we go again with a JVC VCR. My first JVC SVHS unit (HR-SC1000U) lasted about 3 years of fairly heavy use then died. The picture quality was quite good and build quality was also impressive. I then went with a Sony SLV-R1000U - picture quality not quite as great (but still excellent), and this one has some great features like the most comprehensive jack-pack around (3 A/V inputs complete with S-video jacks on each and 2 A/V outputs). This unit (the Sony) was repaired twice early on in its life, but has been quite solid for the last 3 years and is still in regular service.

I then decided to try JVC again with the HRS-9400U (after reading some glowing reviews). Sure enough, the picture quality was again excellent, for the few months it actually worked. Less than 6 months after purchasing it, the 9400 failed catastrophically (would not stay powered up). After being in the shop for over 3 months, and being back to JVC National Service three times (and after persistent complaints), I was able to convince JVC to send me a new unit to replace the 9400. This is how I came into possession of the 9500.

The 9500 is about equal in performance with the 9400 - that is to say the picture quality is excellent with SVHS tapes in SP mode, and is actually quite watchable with normal tapes in EP mode for weekly time-shifting. It has an active calibration feature which tests any new tape before recording on it and adjusts the recording for the specific tape for best results. It also features a defeatable Video Stabilizer which does quite well at improving the playability of older slightly worn tapes.

The one major new feature in the 9500 over the 9400 is the inclusion of SVHS ET mode - the ability to record in SVHS mode on standard VHS tapes. Although the quality of this mode is pretty good in SP mode, I have disabled it by default. In EP mode, standard VHS tapes just can't handle the bandwidth of an SVHS signal and you get pretty noticeable speckling, particularly in freeze frame and slow motion. Plus standard VHS tapes recorded in SVHS-ET mode will not play back on other SVHS that do not have the ET feature (which means you can't lend your tapes to your friends unless they happen to have JVC SVHS ET decks). My advice - use SVHS only on real SVHS tapes. Regular VHS mode is fine for everyday non-critical recording and watching.

The TimeScan feature is interesting in that it plays audio at normal speed in while in FF scan mode (it slows down the audio from the normal audio track and plays excerpts), but having this feature on also repeats the last few seconds of audio when you place the VCR in pause mode over and over and over and over... which is *really* annoying. But it can be easily disabled so it's no big deal.

I have had mixed luck with the Commercial Advance feature (which is meant to mark the beginning and ending of commercial segments so you can automatically skip them on playback). In EP mode, it sometimes misses the mark and does not correctly skip the commercials. Plus it shows a blue screen during commercial advance (it would be nice if it would show TV channels or even just a visible scan of the commercials on the tape so you can verify its operation). I think the Commercial Advance feature is useful and I believe it works well in SP mode so it would be best to try it out and see for yourself whether the feature is worth using.

The one feature that I do miss, and is missing on many so-called 'editing' VCRs these days is the ability to go directly into Play/Pause mode from Record/Pause mode without hitting stop. This is useful when dubbing tapes when you overshoot your edit point a bit and need to back up a few frames. The older JVC (HR-SC1000U) could do it from the unit or even from the remote. The Sony can do it from the unit, but not from the remote. Neither the 9400 nor the 9500 can do it at all. When you hit stop then get back into Record/Pause, you end up recording an extraneous track mark at the edit point. Not a big deal, but it would be considerably more convenient to be able to back up and move forward a few frames while in RECORD/PAUSE mode.

Overall, despite these minor gripes, I am happy with the unit so far. It's nice having jog/shuttle right on the remote. The picture quality is excellent (as is the quality of the tuner) and the important features are all there. The ergonomics are pretty good with the caveats noted above. Assuming it holds up longer than the last one, I'm looking forward to using it for years to come.

Similar Products Used:

Sony SLV-R1000U, JVC HR-S9400U, JVC HR-SC1000U

For picture quality, JVC produces some of the best SVHS deck out there, assuming it still worked after the warranty period ended because JVC decks are plagued by poor reliability (including the infamous white-streaks problem).Having said that, I decided to buy the 9500 as an alternate deck to the two Panasonic AG-1980s I was using. In terms of picture quality, the 9500 is decent, slightly better than the Sony SLRV-1000 but not nearly as good as the AG-1980. The TBC and digital DN do improve the picture quality and the SVHS ET is nice, but not a replacement for true SVHS tapes. The slow-motion is very good, but the rewinding is quite noisy.
If you are planning to buy an SVHS deck for serious editing or want the best SVHS VCR for under $1000, the AG-1980 is your best bet.
But if you are just interested in time-shifting or archiving DSS/LD, the 9500 will do the job. Then again, so will a $300 Sharp VC-S100U, which has everything the 9500 has, minus the TBC. The picture quality on the Sharp is just a notch below the 9500, but for a little more than half the price, that's not bad.
I would have given this VCR a 5-star, but because of JVC less than stellar reputation for reliability and the Sharp VC-S100U delivering almost as much for alot less, I believe 4-star would be more just.

Just purchased it over the weekend after looking at various JVC, Sony and Panasonic VCRs. The final decision was betweeen the 7500 and 9500. The 7500 has the same features except for JLIP (computer interface)and it was priced $200(CDN) dollars less. I said to the salesman that I'd buy the 9500 because it has feet and the 7500 didn't. Funny but true... I think the 9500 has decent build quality, better than any VCR except for the top of the line Sony S-VHS which is twice the price.
From the one movie I watched (letterboxed Saving Private Ryan, I noticed that the digital noise reduction feature should be turned off. It generates a sort of zipper teeth effect on high contrast edges. This is the same effect that my TV (Toshiba RPTV)'s digital noise reduction creates (which I disabled as well).

The VCR has a lot of editing features which I probably won't use as I just use it to playback rentals and to tape broadcast shows. I did try the special S-VHS mode with regular tapes and it was very good. The tape was just a regular VHS one I have had for years. It did say in the manual that using this feature increases the wear on the heads which makes me suspect that they spin faster to get the extra bandwidth.

Lastly, rewinding the tape is noiser than I've heard before (a whine more than the scraping noise I had with my last VCR). I half suspected that the unit would fly away :)

The JVC HR-S9500U has some great technical features, from 400 line recording ability onto regular VHS tape (when using a satellite dish TV signal source)to professional editing features. In my case, the downside was the unit I received had a defective tape transport mechanism, so the videotape jammed in the machine. Great technology but no quality control, which is why JVC, the developer of VHS, is a niche VCR manufacturer. The recording quality of my now-repaired JVC VCR is super - the video stabilization circuitry does a great job. The tape transport mechanism still is not near as smooth as previous VCRs I have had. So the potential buyer has to weigh the many advantages of this unit, including commercial advance and S-VHS quality recordings on regular VHS tape against a relatively high price, questionable quality control and time spent learning the specialized features of the JVC HR-S9500U. These are the sort of decisions that make life aggravating when problems occur with a purchase. When buying this unit, make sure you know the vendor's return policy.

I have had the S9500 for over a month now and I'm very satisfied. I got it from an Internet sources for less than $500 and sold my old VCR for $100 so I did very well. I wanted it because I recently installed DSS (DirecTV) and wanted to be able to record without loss of video resolution. The results have been perfect on SVHS tape and less so on VHS tape (as expected). The audio is excellent. The VCR's digital comb filter is an improvement over the analog comb filter in my TV. I can't comment on all the features since I don't use many of them and have no intentions of editing. As a basic SVHS VCR it is superb. It looks good (champagne finish) but its build quality could be better.See the review in Video magazine where the reviewer considered it to the VCR of the year.

The first one came out of the box with dirty heads (!). Took it back, got another. Good machine, video is a bit noisy but the 9500 flew through Video Essentials with solid stable colors. I checked out other brands but the JVC was cleary sharper. You can record SVHS on regular vhs tape, but if you want the best recording, from a laser disk or satellite, use SVHS tape. The remote is the most complete since the 6700, as far as I know. JVC's transports have always had quirks and need regular maintenance via Aurora, Il, but I use them a lot and vcrs are a clunky amalgam of plastic gears, rubber bands and occassional pieces of metal. Those high rpm Malaysian motors really let you know where it was built, I buried mine behind extra plexiglass as it does run loud. Bottom line, I like it.

I have had this VCR for a few months now. The picture quality is terrific. I have it hooked up using s-video through my Audio/Visual Receiver eventually to my TV. The sound is also great (although this has a lot more to do with my home theatre system than the VCR).
The remote is really useful. The only thing missing from the remote is the ability to eject video tapes. You have to do this from the unit itself.

It is really cool to be able to record SVHS on regular VHS tapes. To be honest though, you get much better results if you use SVHS tapes. But it is nice not to have to.

The 9500 is by far the best bang for the buck in SVHS VCRs with the features it offers.

The JVC 9500 has as good a picture as you'll find anywhere; certainly as good as any of the other 4 S-VHS VCRs that I own. Playback is especially good, since it has a noise reduction system. After a year of ownership, I have discovered all its good and bad points. I'll simply list them:
Good points (compared to S-VHS VCRs in general)

1. "Champagne" color. I'm so sick of black, I might have bought it for that reason alone.
2. Excellent front panel display. Easily readable from viewing position.
3. ET technology allows making damn good tapes on regular VHS tape
4. Calibration before each recording makes the most out of whichever tape you choose.
5. Very easy to program; no menu to navigate through. Also easy with VCR+
6. Easy to use remote, can be used to operate two JVC VCRs (fortunately)

Not so good features (again, compared to other S-VHS VCRs)

1. Missing some industry standard features. No headphone jack; No return to zero; No manual index marking or erasure; No GOTO; only one video/audio output;
2. If the VCR thinks it's some other day than it is, you probably won't find out until it fails to record your program. IOW, it's difficult to find out what day the VCR thinks it is. If it gets out of adjustment you'll never know.
3. Noisy rewind. It doesn't both me, but it seems to grate on other users.
4. Slow response to EJECT. Takes twice as long to eject as any other VCR I own
5. No tracking control on remote.

Once again, I'll forgive a lot of this because the picture quality is so good.