Home Video Asylum

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Comment on JVC S-VHS & hard disc drive video recording

The gods are not smiling on this house re the switch to s-vhs. When the two (admittedly "ancient" in video terms) Panasonic s-video machines broke down electronically (all other VHS machines broke down mechanically with worn heads), they were replaced with the only S-VHS machines still available here - JVC.

Now I had previously assiduously avoided JVC having had a prejudice about their reliability, and guess what, one new machine is proving unreliable and a second is suspect!!

It was with some trepidation I handed the unit in for repair as Murphy's Law often comes to play with intermittent faults as they refuse to show up outside the home. Well this one did show up and is driving the technician nuts as all "normal" tests are failing to reveal a fault. JVC Australia could not help so he is now trying out suggestions from Japan. Looks like a suspect IC and I fear the second machine might be blessed with another faulty one - maybe from the same faulty batch.

Anyway I also succumbed to a combined S-VHS hard drive JVC video recorder that the local store discounted heavily but have not been using that hard drive much as yet. I find the video quality superb, but no more so than on XP TDK tape. I guess it would be extremely useful for editing for those who take home video but that has never interested me. And, as for standard time shifting, I do not find tape too inconvenient. Anyone else tried hard drive video recording?

As a general postscript I should add that I feel using the added fidelity of S-VHS is usually wasted on "free to air" broadcasts. The slight smudging of the picture is faithfully recorded with results no better with EHG tape with a good standard recorder. It is only from digital satellite broadcasts that we get crisp "film quality" or better video reproduction. Free to air digital broadcasts are not due to start here for another 6 months and even then, it is unclear whether they will be broadcast from repeater stations for awhile.

John

Peace at AA


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Topic - Comment on JVC S-VHS & hard disc drive video recording - John C. - Aussie 15:23:02 11/05/02 (0)


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