I am seriously thinking about taking this one back. Anyone have suggestions for a reasonably priced good quality SVHS recorder?

FWIW, the primary problem is notching of semi-vertical lines. Think of stairstepping on steroids and you'll get the idea. The recorder that went bad had a similar problem, but not this bad.

Sony premium grade tape

This recorder sits near the the top of a six foot stack:
3-D interlace adapter and antenna rotor control.
New SVHS recorder
DTV receiver
DVD player
Tivo
Second recorder
old Radio shack amp used for surround sometimes.
Right Speaker

To the right is all the audio equipment, to the left is my Hitachi 53SBX59B TV 1000 lines horizontal res. and a YC comb filter doubling or tripling apparent vertical res. (I forget which, but "Lawrence of Arabia" looks stunning. A bad VCR really shows as poor quality, where it wouldn't matter on a smaller set.

Cables are mid-grade S video cables rcvr>tivo>recorder>tv

The picture on the set is outstanding (for television), both from satellite/tivo and the DVD player. Picture from the old recorder is very good. Playback on both machines of prerecorded tapes is very good.

The problem is getting a good recording on the new unit. I'm going to try some other brands of tape, but I suspect problems in the recorder itself. I haven't been able to find good VCR comparisons on the net. Epinions shows only about five, and reports on the next model down the JVC line from this one.

Ignore the ET mode and try to make sure that it never accidentally gets turned on. If it does and you loan the tape to someone, they are screwed.

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I am appalled to see 19 micron heads advertised as if they're a good thing. If you have a pair of 19 micron heads and a pair of wider heads, then the 19 micron pair can be used for EP and the wide pair for SP. Nowadays, since most people don't seem to record in SP because they'd rather record 6 hours of poor quality than 2 hours of better quality. The companies have responded by making some machines with only 19 micron heads. Recording in SP mode on such a deck is pointless, since two thirds of the tape will be blank when you're done, and you'll have practically the exact same area of the tape used for the recorded signal, except instead of the tracks being packed together, they'll have a 39 micron gap (guard band) between them in SP, spreading the same tracks (with maybe a very slight angle change) over the length of the tape rather than one third of it. This makes SP and EP quality become the same (EP quality).

The last good VCR I bought was in 1991. It was a JVC HR-SC1000U SVHS. It still works like new, is very heavily built, and it has all of the controls that VCRs used to have. Both the unit and the remote have the buttons to perform nearly every operation that can be performed, which I really like. Most VCRs built today are barely usable (if usable at all) without a remote. "Power", "Play", and "Stop" are all you're likely to have on modern machines.

If you want a really good machine, it might be worthwhile to check into some of the higher-grade models intended for commercial use. I don't know if they've suffered the same fate as the consumer models.

Of course, I seldom use my VCRs anymore, except when I have Three Stooges Parties. Once you get used to DVD, it is really hard to watch VHS anymore.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site

Until recently, I had a small TV/VCR repair business called INTOWN TV SERVICE. I shut down after TV's got so cheap, and VCR's went out the bottom of the barrel.

Most consumer machines are now made out of plastic/nylon parts, and are designed to last as little time as possible. The new JVC's, SONY's (dont get me started on SONY,) Mitsubishi's, Panasonics are not like they used to be.

When they started putting functions on the remote, and not on the machine, it was the beginning of the end.

Believe it or not, I still get alot of Hitachi-built RCA VCR's from the early-to-late 80's that only need a belt-kit installed to make them run like the wind. Older ones always need the FF/REW idler replaced, too. Now that I am out of business, I only work on the older machines. When a newer one comes in, I usually reject it. They can buy a new one cheaper than I can fix their current one.

Anybody besides me think that the manufacturers are just killing off video recorders now that DVD has come on the bandwagon? When DVD is replaced, think how cheap they will get...

Jerry Chase: is your 53" Hitachi an ULTRAVISION? God, I love those TV's! I'd own one if they were not so expensive right now!

*Note: I have heard that some people actually call the new Sony TV's "Vega" and not "Wega". If that was the case, wouldn't they have spelled it with a "V" instead of a "W"? If it is a "V" and not a "W", is that supposed to indicate double vision or bad convergence?

HOWEVER... the Ultravision has two on-board tuners that are _not_ properly shielded. If you use both tuners, you get diagonal banding from interference. This is not just a problem with my set, I had the store replace the first one that did it, and confirmed the problem with Hitachi tech support. Since I pump the RF into the Tivo box, I don't worry about it anymore. I guess if I still used the picture in picture feature it would bother me. My other big gripe is that f___ing childproof screen that has an obscene amount of glare. You almost have to sit in a dark room and paint your face black to avoid it. As soon as the warantee is over, that puppy is going into the trash. The first Ultravison I had didn't have the screen and was MUCH easier to watch. Like all Ultravisions of that vintage, it went through a complete set of caps, then died a year later from an overdose of all the crap on tv.

It pains me to find it's cheaper to toss a VCR in the trash than repair it. Likewise, I have outlived 9 computers and numerous peripherals, whose carcasses probably now reside in landfills because even charities didn't want them. The "planned obsolescence" of today's electronic gear should distress any environmentalist.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

quote:

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Note: I have heard that some people actually call the new Sony TV's "Vega" and not "Wega". If that was the case, wouldn't they have spelled it with a "V" instead of a "W"? If it is a "V" and not a "W", is that supposed to indicate double vision or bad convergeance?

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Bad convergence. Most Sony "Vega" or "Wega" (whatever) TVs I've seen have rather bad color convergence at the corners. Most sets do have their worst color convergence at corners, but the problem diminishes away from the corners. My Sony XBR (bought in 1993) has excellent convergence except within a couple of inches of the corners. Several of my friends have bought Wegas (or Vegas) in the past year and I am appalled by the convergence I've seen. One of my friends sets is so far off that when a dot test pattern is displayed, in one corner, one of the colors makes a totally separate dot. The bad convergence is noticeable a good 6 inches from the corners. That's just plain ridiculous.

I believe that VCRs are being cheapened not just because of DVD, but because people are so apathetic these days when it comes to quality. In fact, VCRs began being cheapened long before DVD came out. Unless people start refusing to buy the newer, cheaply made VCRs that are easily outperformed by models of 15 years ago, the companies will keep cheapening them. When it comes to home electronics, most people want something cheap as they can get it, even if it of poor quality. Customers bought the VCRs when featueres were removed from the front panel and were only accessible from the remote. People bought them when they were cheapened. If people had not bought those units when the companies started doing that, then all VCRs today would have all the features on both the remote and the unit, and would be built in a quality manner, and I'll bet they wouldn't cost too terribly much more than they do today as things evolved.

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