Video Asylum

Posted by PinappleN on August 27, 2001 at 21:27:13

Could anyone out there give some recommendations as to which brands of SUPER-VHS VCR and/or models out there with a "better than average" tuner (for recording of analog cable)???

I'm sorry for the following long message but I should first explain that I have been getting horrible reception from my damn cable company. They put my favorite channel on slot #13 which causes the images from channel #8 to bleed over. (Sorry I don't know the technical jargons to describe this better, but I suspect it has something to do with 13 being a threshold between broadcast and cable channels or UHF/VHF) I CANNOT RECEIVE SATELLITE by the way.

I'm wondering: Is this a problem with just my state or is this signal bleeding common throughout the USA???

Also: Will switching over to digital cable (thereby having my favorite channel on a different station) solve this 13/8 conflict problem???

I am currently using a JVC S-VHS HR3500 and its tuner is worse than my Sony VHS. It doesn't filter out the noise and I also see a lot of diagonal streaks across the screen on many channels. I'm tempted to give the Toshiba W808 a try since I figure all JVC's tuners are the same. Am I wrong to think this way??? Right now I've more or less narrowed my choices down to the Toshiba W808 and the JVC HR9800 (with its promise of a "ADVANCED GHOST REDUCTION TUNER"). But I am open to other brands if enough people give them good reviews.

I cannot afford the Sony SVHS (at $1000) as that is way out of my price range.

My need is perhaps different from most other people in that I use my VCR mostly for recording TV programs and not playback (which is why I haven't switch over to DVD yet) so I desperately need to know which currently available Super-VHS models' tuners will manage to filter out at least some bad signals.

Any and all advice/recommendations are appreciated very much. THANK YOU ALL.