Price Paid:  $250.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I have had this machine since Summer 1998, and it has truly been the most reliable and longest lasting consumer VCR I have ever owned. It has slowly developed a very slight flaw in the video playback that seems to be a misaligned or scratched head, but does not show up very often. This machine is a dream to service as well. Very few parts, all assembled in an intelligent manner. It is easily disassembled, and easily re-assembled, with very few specialized tools (perhaps a Torx key here and there). The video heads can be easily replaced with no soldering. In other words, if you need it serviced, find out from JVC how much the part is, and add 40 bucks for labor, because thats all the work is worth!
As for editing, this is a great starting level VHS machine. The edit points are smooth and seamless, and the audio dubbing and insert buttons are right on the front panel...no remote control bull**** with this unit!
I once briefly owned a newer HR-S5900U from JVC, and it was crap. The insert and dub buttons were on the unit, but the audio monitor had to be switched EVERY time an edit was performed!! I returned it. Don't buy a new JVC!
If you are going to buy a JVC video product, stick with an older model from ebay or a swap meet or something. In the end, the older unit will be more reliable, and easier to operate. Probably cheaper to service, too.
Need advice on this product? Send questions to editman21@hotmail.com

Strengths:
Durability, dependability, ease of use, easily serviced.

Weaknesses:
Audio meter is inaccurate, plastic parts, too lightweight, and doesn't connect to an edit controller.

Similar Products Used:
JVC HR-S5900U Sony SLV-920HF Panasonic AG-1980P

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Yhe Wiz

Summary:
This has been a quirky machine for me. At the time it was a good price for a vcr with flying erase head however it surprises me that this vcr will not do a clean edit unless you are in the insert edit mode. Any other brand vcr I've seen that has a flying erase head is able to do a clean assemble edit. At the moment I am not using this vcr because it will not eject the tape. I haven't had time to check it yet so I'm not sure what the problem is. I've only used this machine for about a year as I was using another vcr as my editing machine.

Strengths:
flying erase head, editing features

Weaknesses:
poor build quality, no assemble edit

Similar Products Used:
Hitachi VM137, JVC S4800U

Summary:
This is probably the 6 th VCR I owned thru the years and the best so far. This unit was easy to set up.The picture in the play fast forward mode lets you hear sound bytes and when your in freeze frame the sound repeats until you hit the play button. This is an interesting feature but not very useful. Other then the slow ejection of the tapes I find the picture is very good. The JVC products I owned were very durable. I had a portable unit for years that never gave me a problem I would recommend this VCR.

Strengths:
Auto picture feature stabilizes the tracking for every tape.
Never had any problems with this unit. Good picture freeze frame as good as a DVD.

Weaknesses:
Tape ejection is very slow

Similar Products Used:
A JVC portable unit I used to own.

Summary:
These videos have execellent picture and sound, but plastic machineparts makethis video tricky when rewinding without picture or when ejecting.The rewinding options with picture contains: -7 -5 -3 -2 -1 +1 +2 +3 +5 +7 and the picture will be shown stable all the time. And afterall this video is the best i've ever had.