JVC HM-DH40000U D-VHS VCR Help! - Videokarma.org TV - Video

Chan Tran · #1 11-19-2011, 11:19 AM

I had this VCR for a while and at the time I had Comcast cable and I could record program via the Firewire connection to the cable box. I wonder if there is an ATSC tuner that have Firewire output so I can record of the air program without cable. Now that I have no cable of any kind

Electronic M · #2 11-19-2011, 11:36 AM

Some ATSC boxes have VGA or component outputs that will give an HD signal (never heard of one with firewire, but it is possible that they made one). There are boxes avalable that will convert VGA and or component inputs to digital output. I don't know for a fact but some may have firewire output.

If you are not using a HD TV or computer monitor to watch your tapes I'd reccomend switching to S-VHS which is designed to accept composite inputs which are found on most DTV boxes and has much better picture quality that regular VHS.

Chan Tran · #3 11-19-2011, 12:07 PM

I do use an HDTV to view from the VCR. My HDTV has firewire but only for input so I can play tape from the VCR and watch on my TV. The VCR has component output and the TV has component input so I can watch tape this way too. Of course, the VCR also has composite video in/out, S-video in/out but these do not support HD. So the VCR has component output or firewire for HD viewing. For recording HD programming the only way is via firewire.

NJRoadfan · #4 11-19-2011, 11:32 PM

There were some very old ATSC tuners that had firewire out. The Samsung SIR-T165 and the Panasonic TU-DST51A are two of the most popular. Both use ancient ATSC tuners that require a really strong/clear signal to get anything unlike today's much improved units. For playback from my JVC SR-VD400U (Pro version of the HM-DH40k), I simply use firewire to my computer and VLC to play them back. You can also dump your DVHS tapes to MPEG-2 PS files on your computer using a program like CapDVHS if they are not copy protected. Windows has drivers for the VCR built in.

Honestly for recording over-the-air TV its now affordable to ditch the tape and go with a PC based tuner and capture software that directly records the ATSC MPEG2 program stream. The only reason why I have a DVHS machine is for its superior analog tape playback capabilities and the fact that I can use it as a passthru time-base corrector.