Prerecorded Quality at Home
Written: Nov 08 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Super VHS picture, great features, the best
Cons: Learning curve in getting ready to use it
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| hroeder's Full Review: JVC HR-S7600 S-VHS VCR |
This is about as good as it gets for a home VCR. If you have a digital satelite system you might want to consider D-VHS, which is a digital video recorder; but if you've got a good satelite system you probably have that built into your system.
Super VHS is essentially a higher quality picture being sent to your TV screen. Normal VCRs record some 200 lines of video per screen. And these are interlaced to create the picture. (They slightly overlap) Super VHS is capable of recording 400 lines of straight video.
This recorder will run about $300 if you search for a good bargain. (JVC's 9600 is essentially the same machine as this with 4 meg of frame memory instead of 2 and it runs closer to $600.) With a decent 'regular' VCR going for about $100 why would you want to spend this much extra?
First: you've got a really good TV. If you've got a large screen TV or one that is capable of high resolution normal video tape looks really really crappy. In fact it looks almost like an expressionistic painting. So if you make the leap to a quality TV you're going to want a quality VCR as well.
Second, if you're really into recording and editing your own tapes, then this is the best bargain you can come up with. You can hook it up to a computer; it's plug and play compatible. It has infrared input. It will take S-video or direct RCA plugs as well as a normal coaxial cable. It has separate channel sound capability, you can audio dub any tape.
As to other conveniences, it's fully VCR+ compliant. Enter a simple code and it will record. It will also record by pushing four separate buttons on the remote. One for start, one for stop, one for channel, and one for timer set. You can turn on EP protect. If you like to record in Standard mode but the program might run over the normal 2 hour time limit, the VCR will actually calculate the time necessary and switch to EP mode so that you can fit what you want on a tape. If you have a friend who is still only at regular VHS you can also record a regular VHS tape. You can also record S-VHS on a regular tape. The quality isn't quite as good as on S-VHS tape, but it works. It has Commercial Skip, and Preview Skip. Once you tape a program it will go through and mark all of the commercials and substitute a blue screen and fast forward for commercials. Automatically. It takes a little time, but it works. And if you're editing your own tape you can actually hear snippets of audio when you're fast forwarding or slow motioning, so you can use a second sense to get the right splice. With 2 meg of frame memory you're going to have a little extra precise editing. The Jog-Shuttle is about as sophisticated as it gets.
Bottom line is picture quality. You will think you're watching a prerecorded video when you watch a S-VHS tape recorded on this machine. The results with regular VHS tape are only a little less in quality. (It should be noted that the Super VHS recorded onto regular VHS tape can only be viewed by certain machines. It is possible to record a regular VHS tape in regular VHS mode on this machine as well.)
Finally, if you're one of those people who have a blinking 12:00 on your screen you don't want this VCR. There is a learning curve in getting used to it. Everything is very very simple, it's just that there is so much more here than with the run of the mill VCR that it will take some time.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hroeder
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Member: Harry Roedersheimer
Location: Ft. Thomas, KY USA
Reviews written: 109
Trusted by: 8 members
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