Great Picture, Low Price
Written: Jan 13 '05
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Pros: Price, picture quality, setup.
Cons: Front-only input jacks, jittery "still" picture, lacks advanced features.
The Bottom Line: Can't go wrong at this price. Picture as good as VHS gets, works quietly and reliably. Buy now before VHS disappears.
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| PennyStretcher's Full Review: JVC HR-A592U S-VHS VCR |
I was in the market for a new VCR since the old Sharp in the living room was showing its age. The picture was not so "Sharp" anymore (groan). A good reason for buying now is, there are not that many VCRs on the market any more. DVDs, PVRs, and DVD/VCR combos are taking over. Since I have lots of old tapes, and blanks are cheap, I'd like to keep the format going for a while yet. In fact, the price was so good I bought two! I bet a year from now, any VCRs left on the market will be priced higher.
Yes, I got two of these from XS Cargo for $50 Cdn each. This retailer specializes in "refurbished merchandise" and has a 30-day only warranty. The main reasons for buying JVC are 1) owned one in the past, a 1980 model which lasted 15 years and 2) recently bought a JVC TV so the remote controls are compatible.
I didn't bother much with the owner's manual for setting it up. It is relatively straightforward. Plug the antenna in first, plug the AC in, wait a few minutes for the clock to set itself, then go through the channel setup process. The controls on the remote are logically laid out and self-explanatory. It did take a little fiddling to set the record timer. After setting, the timer must be "armed" with a button on the remote, to enable timer recording. When the timer is armed, the function buttons on the VCR itself are disabled, including "power". If you misplace the remote, you could have a problem.
In use, I found it to be very quiet, unlike one of the other reviewers here. I didn't check the REW/FF speed since I usually use a "rewinder" anyways. The picture is very clear and stable (no "retracking" as reported in another review). Sound is also good, as expected from VHS-HiFi. Tapes recorded on other (old clunker) VCRs also played back clearly with the A592U, even "jittery" ones recorded on my Toshiba piece-of-junk VCR.
I have no real complaints. It does lack some of the finer features, like commercial-advance and index searching, but aside from that it does everything else. It lacks rear input audio/video jacks, which means you'll have the cables dangling in front if you want to integrate it with a satellite/cable box. Output jacks are on the back. All JVC VCRs and combo-players are like that now. Oh well, can't have everything. At this price I can't complain. The only other problem was the "still/slow". The picture is a bit noisy in this mode, more than it should be with a 4-head VCR. In fact, one of them had a "blue screen" in this mode, and I returned it for another unit which works OK. Another quirk is, when a tape is playing or winding, the 4-digit display doesn't show "seconds", only hours and minutes. It makes it a little trickier to "cue up" but it's no big deal.
The unit is very light, not heavy and rugged like my antique JVC-7650U. Two of these should last a few years each, though.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 40
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Epinions.com ID:
PennyStretcher
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Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 1 member
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