i ordered some maxell blacks s-vhs tapes from pricebusters maxell xr-s professional master grade 180 4 off £17.25 with postage, (s-vhs tapes) tried bog standard vhs tape with panny 830 (sp-vhs mode) and taped live football, then tried s-vhs tape (sp-svhs mode) slightly better picture quality with s-vhs tape, then taped clueless on itv (vhs tape ,then s-vhs mode +s-vhs tape) s-vhs tape and s-vhs mode give the best quality playback, but to me it is not that big a differance, picture quality playback seems far more dependant on a good (source) rather than vhs or s-vhs, saying that pan 830 seems quite a good vcr, for the price of decent vcr say year ago, ps i was taping from tv arial source not sky etc,