Buyer Testimonials
Average Buyer's Review:
-
nice unit, but complicated
I'm pleased with the VCR, but it took about an hour to get it set up properly. Plug & play didn't work. I finally ended up setting the channels and clock manually, and the initial configuration is relatively complicated. I am a little bit disappointed with the remote. One reason that I selected a JVC VCR is because I hoped it would interoperate well with my other JVC components, but the remote is awkward to use with my TV and DBS. Overall though, it has a lot of nice features for the money, and the picture quality is good.
Buyer's review: 
-
Super VHS Rules!
If you've never had an S-VHSVCR,as most people have not,this would be a good one tohave.Super VHS is an improvedversion of VHS and nearly doubles the picture quality!All S-VHS decks also record and playback ordinary VHS too.Actually this deck supportsthree formats VHS,S-VHS,andS-VHS ET.S-VHS ET (ET standsfor expansion technology,notextra terrestial!) allows oneto use ordinary VHS tapes tomake S-VHS recordings.If youuse very-high quality VHS tapes,your results will beclose to full-fledged S-VHS!You will lose only 2 to 4 %picture quality as opposed tousing higher-price S-VHS tapes.S-VHS ET works best forS.P. (standard play) speedrecording.If you want to makeE.P. (extended play) tapes,Ireccomend you use S-VHS tapes.Super VHS at E.P. speed looksbetter than regular VHS doesat S.P. ,hands down! This VCRwill make tapes off sateliteand digital cable that areatleast close to the originalbroadcast,unlike ordinary VHS,the difference isn't obvious!This deck is feature-ladden too.It has VCR Plus +,which takes about a half-hour to set-up but allows you to program very quickly via the VCR Plus + codes found in most all TV guides.If you program using the onscreen menu,that's easy too!On the remote the keys used for programing are inside a lined-off area and steps are numbered on the remote so it's hard to make a mistake.Other notable features include automatic clock set( if your PBS station is doing this service),automatic clock adjust for daylight savings time,multi-brand TV control,and skip search (each push of the button fast-forwards your tape thirty seconds,I think you know why!).The remote is an excellent design in the best JVC tradition.Other VCR manufacturers should copy their remotes,they're that good! With today's improved video sources like DBS,S-VHS recording is the ticket! You can buy just any VHS recorder real cheap,but if you want a really good one,pay a little more for this unit.
Buyer's review: 
-
Nice Features but mine died after 1 year
I've had two JVC VCRs - the first one was excellent, and lasted for many years of top notch service. This one has excellent features, very good picture. The control layout on the front of the unit and the remote leaves something to be desired, though.
The real killer is that my machine died just after the warranty expired. Boy, was I pissed. One day I found it just sitting there, dead. I don't know if it was just this one, but I am now without a VCR, and I'm trying to figure out if I should try another JVC or not.
Buyer's review: -
Simplifies Hookup
I bought an S-VHS unit simply to get the s-video in/out plugs. Now I can have just one wire (s-video) going to my TV. The JVC VCR has a nice feature in that when you change channels up/down, included in the list is Line-1 (where I input from my dish). So, after the highest TV channel it just goes to the dish input -- nice! I don't need the TV remote except to turn the thing on. Also, any time I want to play a tape, I just put in a tape and run it and it just takes over the TV picture. The instructions were not clear on the 'plug/play' hookup. It didn't seem to be working but I left it alone for a while and it was OK. It just needed to find the time signal from my local PBS station which is only sent once per hour -- I hope that's helpful. I haven't tried it with an S-VHS tape. A complaint I have is that when useing S-VHS ET with a regular VHS tape, there is no indicator that shows the quality that it allowed itself to record at. One could argue that one could just observe the tape, post recording. However, I'd like to try a tape to see if that important movie will record on *that* tape in a high quality.
Buyer's review: 
-
A Moderately Priced-High Quality VCR
This is a very good unit. It cost me half of my previous machine and it's better. Of the many useful features on the JVC, perhaps the best is the programming which is simpler than any other I've seen. The quality of the recordings is uniformly excellent as well.