Getting Good Head — All 4 of 'em! (DON'T HAVE SEX WITH IT! Write-Off)
Written: Oct 14 '01 (Updated May 04 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Picture Quality: |
|
|
|
Pros: Superb A/V quality, splendidly responsive and versatile navigability.
Cons: See below.
The Bottom Line: Bring on the porn! I'm armed and ready.
|
|
|
| blackmonolith's Full Review: JVC HR-S7800 VCR |
I figured out after my last write-off that, apparently, I'm supposed to include other members in the festivities. Okay, I can roll with the times. I now present you with the "Don't Have Sex With It!" Write-Off, hosted by myself, blackmonolith. Please indulge in visiting every last one of the participants in this write-off:
tootsweet824
blackmonolith
While tootsweet824 has chosen to tell you all about her exciting albeit multichannel-impaired Parasound pre-amp, I've decided to skirt the issue and evaluate my VCR, the JVC HR-S7800U.
"But blackmonolith, why on Earth would you review a VCR? Don't you know that digital recording is where it's at?" Why, yes I do. But I cannot yet afford a DVD recorder, which is just now hitting the American market in four different formats. For the same reason, I cannot buy a D-VHS (digital VCR). And although hard-disk recorders (like TiVo and ReplayTV) seem really useful for certain things like pausing and rewinding live TV to allow for spontaneous hot sex on the kitchen counter (or a knitting emergency), their small, 30ish-meg capacity is clearly not designed for archiving collections they are designed for recording on a temporary basis. Also, these hard-disk recorders are usually only compatible with satellite TV, which is something I have no interest in acquiring since I already have my swanky digital cable in place.
So, how am I gonna tape my porn? Actually, I have many uses for a VCR, and a few don't involve porn. I have two VCRs in my entertainment system this new one, and an older JVC model. I use this newer VCR quite often, but the older one is used exclusively for tape-to-tape recording (most recently, "Best Of" porn tapes for tootsweet824). I continue to tape South Park as well as TV Funhouse (if Comedy Central decides to produce new ones, that is). And I record random things here and there, like comedy specials, music videos and concert appearances of my favorite artists. And then there's the porn. Yup, if you asked me which networks I've taped from the most, I would answer "Comedy Central and Spice." I also have tons of stuff already recorded on VHS that I still like to pop in every once in a while, like older episodes of South Park, Dr. Katz, ER, and Wild Bananas On Butt Row. So the device for me, even though it's in the analog realm, is a high-quality S-VHS VCR.
Let's back up a bit. Remember how cool it was when VCRs first came out? Sooooo cool, right? I remember our first. It was an unwieldy, top-loading Quasar (is that company still around?) the unit was big enough to warrant its own zip code, and it took about 20 minutes to rewind a tape. 4 heads? Nah. Stereo? You must be kidding. But at that time, who knew? I remember the first video that my dad rented for us to watch: Mary Poppins. I loved it! And I haven't watched it since that one magical viewing. Now I've gone from renting Mary Poppins to pay-per-viewing Poppin' Mary. Times certainly do change. Along with the type of entertainment I choose to view, the quality of the technology itself has changed quite a bit.
It's all about the picture
So what's this VCR all about? Picture quality, my friend, picture quality. The JVC HR-S7800U is a 4-head, stereo S-VHS (Super-VHS) model, so it is compatible with S-VHS tapes. But more importantly, it can record onto regular VHS tapes with comparable quality (something not all S-VHS VCRs can do you used to have to drill a hole into a VHS tape to make it compatible with an S-VHS VCR). Yes, you can record a high-resolution signal onto normal, high-quality VHS tapes (my choice is the TDK DSP), and your recordings will be about as crisp, clear and true-to-color as is possible with a consumer VCR. The height of the resolution will depend on your video source, so the improved picture quality that's apparent to users of digital cable or satellite TV will not be seen as much by those who record regular cable or broadcast signals.
I haven't compared this unit to many other brands just Sony and Panasonic because when I was shopping around, these were the only brands I was considering along with the JVC. In that very unprofessional comparison done under less-than-ideal conditions at The Good Guys, this VCR's picture quality was clearly superior to the others I briefly tested.
The reason for this improved picture quality is what JVC calls their DigiPure system this includes a digital comb filter, time base correction, and 2MB frame memory. This VCR will read ahead of the tape (2 megabytes worth), and it will correct problems such as jitter and dot crawl, cleaning up the image (this works for both playback and recording). For recordings, the flying eraser head will prevent that unsightly rainbow effect that you see marking the beginning of a newly recorded segment. This makes edits so clean on this baby that, if you've made a clean edit timing-wise, you won't be able to see or hear evidence of your edit at all the transition is perfectly smooth.
Recording with a control freak
Lemme tell you a little story. At first, this VCR displeased me. Yeah yeah, the picture and sound quality is excellent yeah yeah, flying eraser head "yeah yeah, big eyes big eyes." But could it start recording from the exact frame I wanted it to? No. Not at first. Initially, possibly during its "break-in period," it was very inconsistent in this area.
You see, when recording something that demands precision, say, editing the commercials out of South Park, you have to begin recording each segment from Record/Pause mode. You can't just Stop at the end of the last segment and then hit Play/Record, because the transition will be rough and very imprecise. You have to Pause at the right moment, then hold Record and hit Play, then release them and hit Pause quickly afterward that puts you in Record/Pause mode. I'll call this point in the tape the starting frame. Sometimes, when I'm taping South Park, the black screen between the end of a show segment and the first commercial can be as little as 3 frames long sometimes it's only 1 frame of black! That's why I need a high level of precision.
For the first couple of weeks, this unit was inconsistent in that, at one time, recording would begin 20 frames before the starting frame, and at another time it would begin 30 frames after it. This drove me up the wall. I tried choosing a different editing mode though the menu (there are several, including Insert Editing and Audio Dubbing), but just when I thought I solved the problem, the inconsistency plagued me again. After two weeks, however, the problem went away by itself. Now I can Pause, then Step frame-by-frame in either direction to my desired starting frame (this nimble feature is sooooo helpful), engage the Record/Pause, and know that when I hit Play, the recording will begin exactly 3 or 4 frames after my starting frame every time. Having a differential of 50 frames was unacceptable (at 30 frames per second, that's almost two seconds!), but plus or minus 1 frame is something I can embrace. This holds true for recording in both SP and EP speeds.
What about Timer-recording? Well, even though this deck sports the VCR Plus+ feature, it's of no use to me (I have trust issues). I almost never do Timer-recording, but when I do, I like to set it up manually, which is very easy with this unit due to the dedicated buttons on the remote. Instead of drudging through the settings and hitting Enter, Select, Up and Down throughout each step (allowing for mistakes), I just hit the Program button once, then use the four Express Programming buttons, which are up/down buttons (each button has an "up" part and a "down" part, like some channel or volume buttons): adjust the Date, the Start Time, the Stop Time and the Channel via these four dedicated buttons, and you're flyin'! Afterward, you can hit the Review button to check out the programs you've set up. Though all of this is displayed on-screen, it's helpful that all of the Timer-record stuff is separate from the other functions and settings found in the on-screen menu (you don't hit Menu to get there). There's a super-special added bonus called Auto SP/EP Timer-recording: during Timer-recording, if it's taping on SP speed and there's not enough tape remaining to complete the recording, this VCR will be able to tell that ahead of time and adjust the taping speed to EP accordingly, so that you don't miss the end credits to Buttslammers 16, Romancing the Bone, Asswoman: The Rebirth, Welcome Back Cooter, or Coneheads.
An important note about tape speed: this VCR, as with my other JVCs, only has two tape speeds, SP and EP (SP records the highest quality, filling a two-hour tape in real time, while EP extends a two-hour tape to six hours). The middle speed found on some other VCRs, often called LP (four hours), is not offered here. That doesn't mean you can't play LP-recorded tapes, but it does mean that you can't make LP recordings with this machine. Those who want to record in LP should look elsewhere.
Make the connection
S-VHS VCRs, by definition, can send the video signal to your TV via the S-Video connection. As I've mentioned before, if your TV has an S-Video input, use this for the best connection to your VCR. The S-Video connection separates the chrominance (color) and luminance (brightness) information so that these signals, delivered discreetly, yield a sharper picture that's truer to color. You won't be able to see all of the benefits of this VCR's higher picture quality without making this connection. Use the S-Video along with the stereo connections (L and R), and you're ready to roll.
On the rear panel of this unit, every type of connection has one input and one output. Unfortunately, there's no extra set of outputs I find this very troublesome, but have adapted accordingly. Coming down in video quality, there's the composite-video connection. At the bottom of the barrel is the RF connection (the type of coaxial cable connection that brings the cable TV signal into your home it squeezes video and sound into one copper wire). The front panel sports an S-Video input along with one for composite-video and stereo, for camcorder connection.
Through the menu, you can determine for both the rear and front panels which signal the VCR reads S-Video or composite-video. Since S-Video is superior, you may think this to be useless, but if I'm temporarily feeding different sources to each, it comes in handy. This flexible choice is not offered on my TV if both jacks are filled, my TV always favors S-Video over composite video, requiring me to unplug what's in the S-Video jack if I want it to read the composite-video signal.
Usability How does it feel?
This unit allows you to toggle between four display options for the front display panel: Channel, Clock, Counter (done as time, not arbitrary numbers), and Time Remaining on the tape. This last feature is most useful. Sure, it may take the unit a few seconds to deduce the remaining time and display it, but once it does, it's very accurate. When there's a tape loaded in the VCR, the default display after turning the unit on is Counter; without a tape loaded, the default is Channel. Since I power up my VCRs even when I'm only watching TV (because the sound goes through them, and the S-Video goes through this one), I wish I could adjust this default setting, but I cannot. Since I usually want the Clock to be displayed, I have to toggle the Display button once or twice to get the clock up there. Being a light blue display that's bright enough but not too bright, it works well without being distracting. Ideally, they should make the display bigger to accommodate a permanent place for each Clock and Channel would always be there, and you'd only have to toggle between Counter and Time Remaining.
Some other display issues are: when inserting a tape, the counter automatically resets to zero. Some may like this, but more often then not, I'm annoyed by it and would prefer to have a choice in the matter. Also, there's no "memory" setting my older VCR used to let you hit a button that would put an "M" next to the counter. With this engaged, if you were rewinding or fast-forwarding, the tape would automatically stop at zero. This feature is absent here.
When navigating through tapes, this JVC unit offers tons of flexibility and is exceptionally responsive. Some VCRs do well in this arena, while others can be very sluggish. A friend of mine had a VCR, which, if you paused it and then hit Play again, would play a full four seconds of tape before the audio kicked in. I hate that sh1t. The same was true if he were to scan backward or forward upon hitting Play, the sound was muted for way too long before the VCR got up to speed. Thankfully, this unit performs extremely well in that respect, better than any VCR I've ever owned. Navigation commands are carried out in exacting fashion. While other VCRs might overshoot or undershoot your target when you hit Pause after scanning, this one stops on a dime in either direction. With my older JVC, if your were paused and hit Rewind, it would stumble forward for two seconds before going backward the HR-7800U wouldn't think of doing such a thing.
And as I mentioned earlier, the frame-by-frame stepping, possible in either direction, is a Godsend. You can use what JVC calls the Shuttle Plus button on the remote (a quad-directional button), and step one frame at a time (from Pause mode), or use various speeds from Play mode in either direction, you can go at 2 fps, 6 fps, 1X, 2X, 3X, 4X and 5X (regular rewinding or fast-forwarding is 5X). Or you can hold the Pause button down, and after about three seconds, it will do semi-automatic stepping at about 4 frames per second. In general, the high-speed scanning modes look pretty good, with minimal distortion and few horizontal tracking lines that are probably a lot uglier on lesser machines. 2X mode adds no horizontal tracking lines that would impede the image, and only a small amount of overall resolution is lost. Slow-motion stepping is practically crystal-clear. I love how this machine navigates options and performance are a dream come true.
This machine rewinds and fast-forwards very quickly. It goes slowly for the first minute-worth of tape, but then it kicks into overdrive rrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee! Because it can go so fast, it has an automatic slow-down feature that engages about twelve minutes before the beginning or end of a tape; this prevents your videotapes from snapping. The only problem I have with this is that if you are stopped at a point that's, say, only five minutes into the tape, doing a regular rewind from there is about as slow as doing a scanning (visual) rewind, because the rewind is initiated within that slow-down window. But that's a minor annoyance.
Sometimes, usually with store-bought tapes, if you're rewinding or fast-forwarding from somewhere where the overdrive will kick in, it might wait a few seconds before doing so (it'll rewind slowly for 1½ minutes worth of tape, then it'll kick in). I don't know why it does this.
Last, during the initial set up, you can have the VCR set the clock automatically, but this won't work if you're using a cable box. Setting the time manually can be frustrating, because you can't go backward from the date to the time you can only go forward. If you make a mistake, you have to start over.
The remote control, or The Staff of Ra
The remote control is lightweight yet solidly built. It's shaped nicely it's a bit wider at the top, and it fits well in my hand. The logically laid-out buttons are made of a hard rubber, not plastic, and they provide a very nice tactile response when you push them. The six main buttons (Play, Pause, Record, Stop, Rewind and Fast-forward) are phosphorescent they glow in the dark. This is nice, but a backlit remote is always preferred. I've dropped this remote many times, and it's held up well without any signs of damage.
The remote curiously lacks an Eject button. Sure, it's a luxury, because if you're ejecting a tape, you'll have to get up to remove it from the machine anyway. But the Eject button on the remote saves a few seconds if you're planning on putting another tape right in while you're walking toward the VCR, it would waste no time in sticking its tongue out at you. Lucky for me, my older JVC does have that button on the remote, so I programmed it into my universal remote. Therefore, even though this model lacks that button on the remote, it still responds to the remote commands of a different JVC VCR.
More about video features
Other video features found through the on-screen menu include Video Calibration, which appears to be part of the DigiPure system in that it reads ahead of the tape and compensates accordingly. Digital R3 provides detail enhancement through edge correction. Picture Control allows you to use different settings that affect sharpness and video noise reduction. With most of these settings, I've just gone with the default "on".
I've changed some video settings from their defaults: turning off Superimpose allows me to be rid of all on-screen displays (except "Record Pause" during that mode). After all, I know damned well that I just hit Play, and need no reminder intruding upon the image. Another is the Blue Black setting; turning this off allows me to see whatever signal is coming through, or more specifically, not coming through (with this setting on, it turns white noise into a solid blue screen). Another useful one is the Video Stabilizer even though this machine does digital tracking automatically, this feature further stabilizes the picture with older, crappier tapes that were recorded elsewhere. (In some cases, Video Stabilizer must be engaged in order to view these poorer tapes at all.)
S-VHS ET mode is the feature that allows you to make S-VHS-quality recordings on normal VHS tapes. It's ironic that, being the feature that attracted me to this unit the most, it's one that I rarely use. I've done comparisons, and it appears to me that when recording on my high-quality VHS tapes in SP speed, there is barely a difference in quality that speaks to how well this machine performs in the normal mode. Because tapes recorded with S-VHS ET may be unplayable on most normal VHS machines, and I may be nice enough to lend my TV Funhouse tapes to friends with these normal VCRs, I usually don't use it. The only time I do use it is when recording in EP speed recording (porn) in EP speed with this function is about equivalent to recording in SP on a lesser machine. Engaging the S-VHS ET mode can only be done
using a button on the front panel.
The same is true for the Time Base Corrector I spoke about previously. It's strange that these two features are nowhere to be found in the on-screen menu. Other functions accessible from the front panel of the unit are your normal power and transport functions, channel up and down, and the Menu and OK buttons. Rewind and Fast-forward, along with the other variable speed playback options, are controlled with a jog/shuttle dial. Some may lament the omission of this jog/shuttle dial on the remote, but the Shuttle Plus (quad) button that's provided works well for me. Personally, I think jog/shuttle dials are overrated.
The five-minute window
This machine, when first inserting a tape or when stopping a tape that was in play, enters Standby mode. Not all VCRs do this. From Standby mode, if you hit Play, the tape plays instantaneously no exaggeration. After five minutes of inactivity, however, the VCR leaves Standby mode. From this dormant state, it will take about two seconds to engage Play after hitting the button (still not bad at all). This five-minute window also applies to both Play/Pause and Record/Pause conditions after five minutes are up, it will Stop and place itself in Standby mode for another five minutes.
I'm happy to report that this VCR is extremely hushed during Standby, Play and Record modes the cyclical whirring noise I used to hear with other VCRs is almost imperceptible here.
Mmmmmmm, magnetized plastic. Yummy!
Over the years, I've had trouble with my other JVC VCRs in the tape-eating department both my secondary one and the dead one this new one replaced were ravenous tape eaters. But I suppose this was to be expected considering their age and the exhaustive paces through which I put them. I'm very hard on a VCR. But as those older two showed their propensity for gobbling tapes pretty early on, this one seems satisfied to just play my tapes without ringing the dinner bell. I'll let you know if that changes.
Stepping up and stepping down
For comparison reasons, I'll briefly tell you what you lose with the next lower model in the series, and what you gain with the next higher one. But first, I should tell you that, after having just investigated crutchfield.com, the HR-S7800U seems to be gone don't get yer panties in a wad, because the HR-S7900U is the replacement model, and lucky for you (not me), this equivalent retails for $299.95 ($50 less than what I paid for mine).
The next lower model, the JVC HR-S4800, lacks the DigiPure system and frame memory this probably results in sub-7800 video quality.
Now, the next higher model, the Champaign-silver-colored JVC HR-S9800, has deeper frame memory at 4MB. It also adds a Ghost Reduction Tuner and an improved video navigation system (I'd love to see that). Last, it augments the Shuttle Plus button with a jog/shuttle dial on the remote (a con in my book). Considering that this model now retails for $399.95, I wish I had the 9800 instead. Possibly of interest, for $100 more, the HR-S9900 adds PC-editing capabilities. Both of these higher models appear to be available only in the now-trendy silver color, and I wish that was optional, because they would stand out like eyesores in my otherwise black entertainment system.
In closing
the JVC HR-S7800U is a splendid machine. Picture and sound quality are superb. Navigation options are copious and nimble, and downright thrilling to use. The recordings I've made with it are of the highest quality I could expect from a consumer machine, and they are simply the best-looking and sounding tapes in my library. I highly recommend buying its newer twin, the JVC HR-S7900U.
By the way
don't have sex with this VCR. It probably will give you a rash. Wait
No, it definitely will give you a rash. Besides, it's too boxy.
Once your eyes have uncrossed, please visit http://www.epinions.com/content_43270770308 for tootsweet824's write-offering. Your nipples will thank you.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 349
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
blackmonolith
|
|
Member: Sky
Location: Burbank, CA
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 57 members
About Me:
"We smoke as we shoot the bird."
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.