Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M
You can record S-VHS quality on regular VHS tapes if you put a hole in the cassette in the right place, or if you get an S-VHS-ET VCR. S-VHS-ET was my favorite format for TV archiving (it is hard to tell the difference between it and live cable) until I switched to DVD-R a while back when blank tapes began becoming hard to find.
The remote situation depends on the VCR. Some of my JVC units have all user adjustments available on the front thru the menu buttons, others do not need an original remote to access anything except the timer recording functions. I got all my S-VHS decks from the local thrift shops for under 10$ a piece...They show up quite often here.
As a fellow otaku I'm sure you have found your self playing parts of tapes with the still frame function. In my experience a JVC with a good still frame JOG knob (especially the ones that boast a Pro Speck Drive) do a much better job tracking a still frame or scrolling thru frames getting much less video noise or snow than any normal 4-head HIFI VCR I've owned. Most S-VHS/-ET decks I've owned (And I own at least 6 S-VHS/-ET decks) tend to give better playback on normal prerecorded VHS tapes than my regular VHS machines.
You must have had an interesting model of JVC for the remote to cost a C-note. The remotes for mine cost me 30$ on ebay (which after using my machines regular for a couple of months I considered a worth wile entertainment expense) a couple of years ago and 1$ from the thrift stores later on when I found more remotes. I've also found that the remotes for the newer models work on the older ones.
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I actually no longer have the JVC S-VHS VCR I was referring to in my previous post, I donated it to Goodwill because it was such a huge unit and also because it didn't have its original remote (which for this unit it did need to have the original remote to do all of the extra functions), it was a model from 1987, and had solid wood panels on the sides of the unit, its model was HR-S8000 U, and yes the remote for that unit was $100.
Although actually though I do have a Pro-Grade VHS unit by Sony, a model SLV-575UC 4-Head HiFi VCR that has its original remote and even has a Swing Shuttle and D/A Pro 4-Head with High Speed Rewind (basically an early version of the modern 1 minute rewind that the Toshiba VCRS from the early 2000s touted) and On-Screen Display/Programming and basically all of the Bells and Whistles that every S-VHS VCR came with except on a regular VHS unit. The Sony VCR was a $10 Goodwill score.
IMHO I wasn't really all that impressed with the playback quality of my VHS tapes on that old JVC S-VHS unit, the picture quality was very grainy and the colors were a bit off compared to my Toshiba Model W-544 4-Head Hifi unit I also had at the time which was a freebie that I got from the High School that I went to/Graduated from. The JVC Also didn't have Digital Auto Tracking, or Digital Tracking in General, the Tracking had to be adjusted via a little control knob in the front panel.
Here's a link to an auction site listing showing the VCR that I used to have including a picture of it and apparently its extremely high going rate for it being a used 26 year old VCR.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/JVC-HR-S8000...-/330916874120
P.S. the link above is NOT endorsing anything its just being used as a point of reference so that the person I was writing this reply to knows what the VCR I was talking about looks like by seeing the picture of it.