Be Excellent To Each Other

As I often have to convert VHS to DVD for people, I've been thinking I could do with a good quality VHS player.

I currently use Panasonic VHS recorders from just before they stopped being made. They seem pretty good quality but are slightly prone to breaking down.

Any advice, Mr Chinny?

STATE YOUR NAME, CALLER!

I have a Panasonic DMR-EZ47V sitting next to me at this moment. Got it as a refurb from Ebay about 18 months ago. It has a timebase corrector so, basically, the copies it makes are stable. Only seen it foxed by one tape. Generally does a super job when it is pressed into service from time to time.

The only downside is that it has the worst remote in the world. Too many buttons all of which are poorly labelled.

Not sure why you are having problems with a Panny. I have one at home that I rescued from the dump. Early 90's model that just needed a proper head clean. Generally they just run and run.

What about something like this?

Chinese shonk flogged by Maplins. A cheap as chips VCR inside there.

The Panny has the best VHS playback I've seen on a home model. It outputs VHS via the HDMI! DVD playback is pretty sweet as well and better than my expensive Pioneer Blu-Ray.

I've got about 3 in the loft that have had software and hardware issues.

Anything you'd suggest DVD recorder wise? I've got a Philips which seems to do the job but has started to have issues with RW discs lately.

As for your suggestion Grim... I'd just suspect that to be of inferior quality.

Supposedly the JVC HR-S9700 or JVC HR-S7965EK were the best UK VHS players ever made, if you can find good refurbs/second-hand models on eBay. If you want US models, JVC HR-S9911U or Panasonic AG-1980 are seen as the best (knowledge based on research made when I used to remaster VHS tapes to DVD about 4/5 years ago).

I really would suggest that Panasonic I mentioned. It's a full combo unit and it does a great job. The MPEG encoding for DVD is better than my other boxes and it's also the best VHS I have. It also has DV in and all sorts of other ports. In short it was the pinnacle at the time I got it and is probably still ahead of most other boxes.

If you just want a plain DVD recorder I just used to order whatever was second cheapest off of the discount sites. Quality wasn't important as I only used stand alone units for quickly burning off reference copies of footage. Can't do that any more now everything is HD. My standalone is a Yamada which probably cost about 40 quid and isn't too shit. Had the ability to play all sorts of formats from a memory stick which I have never tested.

Speaking of which, have one of these arriving to play around with:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/242215

We used JVCs for the station log tape at the local radio station I volunteered at as a kid. These did HQ dolby stereo in LP mode, so 8 hours a tape.

This was, in fairness, 20 years ago, but those machines were still going 10 years later in daily usage IIRC.

You'll be lucky to get an AG-1980 in decent nick (there was a UK variant, we had them at uni). Yeah they were bloody brilliant* but the places they tended to be found means any examples will have been hammered. Few if any home users would have bought them, they were expensive and not found on the high street.

* They had VU meters and you could control the input volume via two mini faders which was really neat and useful for recording audio onto tape.

Quite common. Everyone logged onto VHS. I have some VHS loggers in my cupboard. At one station we used 5 hour tapes.

All sorts of models got used. Often whatever could be got hold of in Argos as if a machine broke down it needed to be replaced double quick.