My SLVE1000 dies 2nite RIP - I need a replacement

nunew33

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I have no idea what to get and will be buying in next 48 hours. Short listso far is:
Sony SLVE820
Tosh 852 I think

No idea what is out there but here is wish list:
Must have Satelite compatability
Must be easy to operate (family!!)
Must have PDC
Must have audio/composite out at rear (tosh doesnt but my SLVE1000 did dont know about sony)

Have been to JVC, panasonic, Tosh and sony websites all of which dont tell me what I want to know unless I am willing to spent 8 hours downloading manuals to get specs.

Ideal budget £150 but will stretch to £200. B4 I get old technology replies, my 2.5 year old son will kill me if he cant play his Thomas the tank VHS collection by the end of the week. He is already going off his Clangers DVD so time is running out!

Any help would be gratefully recieved
 
I've got an SLV-SE820, and I'm really not sure I would recommend it.

Bought it to replace my trusty Mitsubishi HS-M60V, which is still going strong, but no longer looked right with all my new silver AV kit. Most of my other stuff is Sony, so went for it.

In theory, it should be pretty good, but it has let me down a few times by not recording TV from the timer list, which is it's prime purpose. The timer list shows the programs, and the timer light comes on in standby, but just does not record - 'kin annoying!

It has 'Smartlink' to communicate to the TV, but this doesn't add much.

Oh, by the way, it does not have any STB control functions, so may be off you list anyway!

Super7
 
Just looked around and it now seems that Sat controlm is on Toshiba sharp and JVC

A Contender seems JVC 6856 with SVHS ET sat control and Videoplus deluxe.


Is this a good buy? Anything else I should look at?

Must buy by tomorrow!!! Cant find it on unbeatable or empire direct, any other sites worth looking at?
 
qed-uk.com have a fair selection and empire etc. all try to beat one another.
 
Looks like JVC HRS7955 @£168.38 from qed unless anyyone else thinks I can do better (there is a note of desperation in my voice as I hate panic purchases!
 
I got a 7955 recently but it was faulty - scratchy sound on playback. Having said that I hated the thing as it was loud, slow at starting record and had obvious joins after i.e. stops for ads. The remote was fiddly especially in that you need to press record plus play to record - no one handed affair. If you have 'BEST' on it takes about 7 seconds before it'll record while it scans the tape and then may be one or two more for marking it, or plays a fresh one back. Its recordings seemed soft. Just about every time after a tape is started the image shakes for a couple of seconds while it reseats itself even if the tape hasn't been removed. No eject on the remote and no channel change on the unit, only the remote. Flimsy dial thing for rewind/ff on the unit. Sound is clear but perhaps a bit too clinical. Pauses for a couple of seconds before sound starts with each channel change. Oh and if you turn it on and don't get sound it's because you either have to switch on the remote from monitor to vcr or enter/start a tape. OSD is cumbersome in that its search bar is large and stays up while winding. I think that's the/my gripes with it.

Apart from that I loved it! In all fairness it did play back stuff from my other machine very well with it making good use of its time base corrector which must be on or stuff starts to wobble. But as above, weirdly my other machines recordings looked superior to its own on it. Useful connects in that it has 2 scarts plus an s-video port at back and av on front. Big cycle through front display - not stuck with counter can change to clock.
 
Is that a good review or a bad one?

It passed the look at it in comet test and it looked ok! Though they didnt have a remote to see if its simple enough for wife!!

Im used to fiddly records with a Tosh703 and the old dead sony required a flap to be lifted as well as 2 buttons (I tend to use my amops remote for one touch record which I assume will still work on JVC.



What is BEST?

Not bothered about unit buttons (the less the better with 2 kids under 3)


What worries me is what you say about audio and video quality. Is the SVHS ET no good? Claims 60% better (and I believe every statistic!!!) so assuming that there must be some improvement.

Encaser, would you not buy it again given the choice? And if not what else is there of a similar spec? Do you use it for Set top box control? If yes is it any good?
 
I wouldn't buy it because its joins/edits are poor - you get the blank tape effect snap if you stop record for an ad and in my book that's not good enough. If you just pause on record for ads you avoid the snap but that means keeping on pause for upto 4 mins with satellite and even then it may roll back a bit as it's designed to do so. As I said above, it's things like this and the picture shake near on every time you hit play that had me hating the thing - I never felt at ease. It's also all palstic pretty much and with your sprites they may have it running in circles with the little wheel at the front supposed for edit functionality.
Plus bear in mind that that 60% picture hike will not be seen with normal off air records unless you have, say, an rgb to s-video adapter between your satellite box and it - in short it won't turn composite (RF) into s-video standard 400 lines, unless i.e you have Sky+ and set to S-video out to it. You may however gain on s-video being better heads.
I don't know how good the satellite control thing was cause I never used it - most what I record off sat' I watch, or rely on Sky autowatch to turn box on and set video for same time.
It has, of 30 mins ago left my doorstep and I now have a Panasonic NVHS830BS to hook up later. It doesn't have a doofry to control the sat box - but some ext link button, whatever the hell that is! All I can say is it's metal, has a flap hiding most buttons and looks ok. I'm off to bed now as I work odd hours, so I'll not demo till later on. It's pennies dif to JVC btw.
My advice is not to rush - I often sit on the fence reading etc. then get tired of waiting and snap buy and have regretted it in the past.
These are just my views and I may have just had a bad unit as far as picture/sound goes - but it felt like some bored technomage had created it to annoy. I personally hate buying new stuff with regard to being use to something prior...
 
Looked at that (next to it in comet). Is it right that it has all the SVHS and SVHSET ? So all I would be losing would be the STB control.

Whats Video plus deluxe? And does the panny have it?

Let me know your opinion of the 830. As Ive noticed that the 825 is only a bit more and you get a 30 tape library system. Are tape library systems worth it?

I can feel a panic purchase coming on despite your warnings, I need one soon and withe cheap VCRs at £100 it seems silly to not spend an extra £60 for a few bells and whistles)
 
Originally posted by encaser
Plus bear in mind that that 60% picture hike will not be seen with normal off air records unless you have, say, an rgb to s-video adapter between your satellite box and it - in short it won't turn composite (RF) into s-video standard 400 lines, unless i.e you have Sky+ and set to S-video out to it. You may however gain on s-video being better heads.

I think I may have misunderstood SVHS and SVideo. But my understanding is the "S" isnt related.

So SVHS or the ET version is a "Super" version of VHS and records 400 lines of detail instead of aboutt 240 for VHS regardless of the input wether is be s-video or composite. If the source is analogue aerial or Sky then regardless of the connection the VCR will recieve a broadcast quality image of 625 lines.

S video on the other hand is simply a better method of sending a video signal by seperating video signals that interfere with each other as opposed to composite which simply puts all the information in a single lead.

Therefore I should be able to record SVHS quality from Sky or Analogue TV regardless of how they are connected, the colour quality and contrast will be slightly better if I use Svideo, but the detail improvement of 400 lines should be there no matter what.

Could someone tell me if this is right or wrong as it may influence my decision to go for SVHS.
 

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