Barely more than a week after buying the JVC HR-S10000U, I picked up another Super VHS video recorder, this time an HR-S9900U. Although not nearly as nicely built as the "10k", this one seems to be an even higher-performing model, with a built-in time base corrector. I hooked it up, and it works just fine as found. With a good pre-recorded tape (Genesis - Visible Touch), the video and Hi-Fi stereo audio are superb (within the limits of the VHS format, or course). The lack of noise in the color reproduction is impressive, even with the TBC turned off.

Here is the real surprise: This VCR was sitting on the curb, a half block from my house! A friend who stopped by thought it was a DVD player, but I saw the "Super VHS" logo and decided to grab it and look at it at home. It is a bit scratched up, but not bad for something left out for a trash pickup. Now, I just need to get a proper remote control for it, and decide which of these two machines I should keep handy for video tape playing.

Wow good for you Chris!!!!

Its sad ppl get rid of these beautiful things and replace them with garbage!!

Barely more than a week after buying the JVC HR-S10000U, I picked up another Super VHS video recorder, this time an HR-S9900U. Although not nearly as nicely built as the "10k", this one seems to be an even higher-performing model, with a built-in time base corrector. I hooked it up, and it works just fine as found. With a good pre-recorded tape (Genesis - Visible Touch), the video and Hi-Fi stereo audio are superb (within the limits of the VHS format, or course). The lack of noise in the color reproduction is impressive, even with the TBC turned off.

Here is the real surprise: This VCR was sitting on the curb, a half block from my house! A friend who stopped by thought it was a DVD player, but I saw the "Super VHS" logo and decided to grab it and look at it at home. It is a bit scratched up, but not bad for something left out for a trash pickup. Now, I just need to get a proper remote control for it, and decide which of these two machines I should keep handy for video tape playing.

Nice find. If you decide to turn loose the one you are not going to use I'd probably be a buyer.

Ah, the 9900 with the dynamic drum. When they work they are great. But the drum tilting motor gear mechanism occasionally would jam, then the machine will not stay powered on because every time you power On the unit the drum tilt mechanism does a reset. You can hear it do it's thing when you first power it on... zzt-zzt (for lack of a better description!)

If it happens you can usually unjam it by carefully turning a little gear with your finger, visible with the top off, down on the lower drum. Parts were NLA back in 2007 last time I tried to order a new drum for one.

Nice find. If you decide to turn loose the one you are not going to use I'd probably be a buyer.

Tom, I will let you know if I decide to let go of either machine.

If it happens you can usually unjam it by carefully turning a little gear with your finger, visible with the top off, down on the lower drum.
Ed, thanks for the warning and advice about the jamming. Is it the whole video head drum assembly that moves? I had the cover off when I first powered the machine up, but I did not look closely at the actions of the transport.

Tom, I will let you know if I decide to let go of either machine.


Ed, thanks for the warning and advice about the jamming. Is it the whole video head drum assembly that moves? I had the cover off when I first powered the machine up, but I did not look closely at the actions of the transport.
It tilts the whole drum very slightly to change the angle of the scanning heads which changes with the velocity of the tape. Result is you get noiseless forward and reverse search; no noise bars in the picture when FF or Rev scanning.

It does a little reset routine every time it's powered on, and if the syscon doesn't detect that reset function, the unit will power off.

Got it. I did notice how clear the forward and reverse scan are.

Crowd chants..."keep the tbc...keep the tbc."

Dave, your advice is highly respected by me, so I will likely do that. I do have an external TBC that I bought specifically for playing with VCRs, so I might even do some kind of side-by-side tests of these and others that I have at some point.

Chris, most of the 80's era TBC's (Harris, et al) required separate signals from the deck to operate mostly in the 3/4" day.
Video, advance vertical and RF from the head is needed to make them work if I remember...and if my memory is still functional. Other elders around here can correct me.

Your VHS is stand-alone with it's built-in TBC. Go with that because it does not have the big TBC connections. I have an earlier version and the playback is great.

Somebody threw away a VCR that fetches $200+ on ebay. :D

I have a few JVC decks from this era. The Digipure TBC/DNR unit is one of the best out there and these decks hold their value because of it. It does an excellent job at removing chroma noise and its a true line TBC that stabilizes video. An external full frame TBC, depending on the model, is still recommended if you plan on capturing video to a computer from this deck (or to... ahem, disable Macrovision). The on board TBC doesn't provide continuous sync to prevent frame dropping on a capture card.

The dynamic drum is a bit of a gimmick though. I'm guessing JVC had reliability issues with it and dumped the feature on the 9911U and their DVHS decks. One of the gears starts to split and jam the whole thing. This thread covers the causes and fixes (including neutering the system if the gears break!): http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vcr-repair/4425-jvc-s7600am-keeps.html

Dave-

Thank you for the notes on TBC connections and use. The time-base corrector I have is a more recent device called a Key West Big Voodoo. It works entirely with composite-video input and output. I do not (yet) know how to judge the quality of its performance, other than to compare with and without it in operation, which I will do when I take time for some experiments.

NJRoadfan-

Thank you for notes, and that link to the dynamic-drum discussion. Ed had earlier mentioned possible issues with it as well.