Super VHS, super price.
Written: Nov 28 '00 (Updated Dec 03 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Super VHS, quality construction, lots of features, great price
Cons: Super VHS tapes may be hard to find, the menu system is kind of complicated
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| Ahab1973's Full Review: JVC HR-S3600 VCR |
What is Super VHS?
This section is an update to this review. I realized that Super VHS hasn't been widely hyped and some readers may not even be aware of what the difference between plain VHS and Super VHS. Plain vhs has a video resolution of 240 lines, while Super VHS has about 200 more lines than that. Around 400 or so. Not as many as DVD though. I suspect the resolution on this unit is quite a bit lower than the average Super VHS unit but I have no evidence of that. In short, Super VHS is a higher resolution version of plain VHS. The tapes for Super VHS may be a little hard to find depending on where you live. They also cost quite a bit more. Around $6 is the price I usually pay. You can probably find them cheaper if you shop around. I recommend sticking with major brand names though. You could easily destroy your vcr with inferior tapes.
I got a great deal on this vcr. I got it on sale at Best Buy for $169. That's just about the same price I paid for my Sony standard VHS vcr about a year ago. To start out with, I already had two standard vhs vcrs that I was perfectly content with. I began looking into Super VHS because I have two digital camcorders and I wanted to be able to dub my finished tapes into the highest quality format I could afford.
JVC has always packed in the features on all of their consumer electronics. This vcr is no exception. There are things on this vcr that most people will never use. The VCR Plus thing never really appealed to me. I guess I'm one of the few who can actually set my vcr for timed recordings. I rarely record from tv anyway.
This vcr is very well made. The mechanism is whisper quiet compared to my Panasonic vhs vcr. It is able to record and play in standard VHS mode, Super VHS mode and what's called Super VHS ET. This feature allows you to record with Super VHS quality on inexpensive standard VHS tapes. JVC recommends however that you use Super VHS tapes for the highest quality.
The remote control is excellent. It's very sleek and stylish. The ergonomics are close to ideal. It actually has a tracking control. (I think a tracking control on the remote of any vcr should be a standard item. Unfortunately, it's not.) The freeze frame, frame by frame advance and slow motion is pretty much effortless with this vcr. The mechanism allows you to frame by frame both forward and in reverse. That's rare on most four head units.
It should be noted here that the remote, while it looks and works great, doesn't feel very substantial. I can tell you that it won't stand up to abuse very well. It's light as a feather.
The Active Video Calibration feature that is so prominently displayed on the box is pretty much useless. It is supposed to optimize the vcr for the particular tape being used or something like that. I haven't noticed any difference at all between when this feature is enabled and when it's turned off. Don't be fooled by such gimmicks as this. Most such features are totally worthless.
To be honest, I have been a little disappointed with the video performance of this vcr. I have found the standard VHS playback quality to be less than on my older Panasonic. This is the first Super VHS unit that I've ever used so I can't compare the playback quality in Super VHS mode. It looks pretty good though. There seems to be a lot of color noise. The sharpness actually looks pretty good. The resolution increase is noticeable but not pronounced. I really tend to nitpick in the area of picture quality. Especially on a unit with the main selling point being higher picture quality. However, I can't really complain for $169. I think the average consumer would be completely satisfied with this vcr for this price.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Ahab1973
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Member: Brian
Location: USA
Reviews written: 132
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