Please don't laugh - Recommend me a new VCR

[Mr Flibble]

My trusty Sony VCR has been going downhill more and more - it's starting to chew up more tapes than it plays now :(

So, enough is enough - I need a new VCR. The basic features it MUST have are videoplus and PDC - I'm not even bothered about it being Nicam.

It will only get used very occassionally, so I'm not looking to spend a fortune here, anything under £100 would be great, and here's another bizarre request, it would be good if it were black, because it would match my other gear :nuts:

Can anyone help :)

[SOUNDSTYLE]

My Philips stopped working a few months back and I only wanted a cheapish vcr.

I went for a Philips VR608 which cost about £125.00

Excellent picture and sound and it's easy to programme aswell, easier than my brothers Sony Vcr anyway.

The only problem is that it's silver.

[petegee]

I've recently had the same problem and was tempted into buying an Aiwa Nicam '6' head video, with PDC for £105 delivered ...BUT... I've just sent it back as the picture quality was v.poor and the PDC didn't seem to work.

I bought it from Unbeatable:

http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/

and although the video was poor the customer service was excellent, one phone call and they agreed to swap it for a Panasonic for £119 no questions asked - sometimes its worth paying that little bit extra for a bit of quality - and you can get them in black too!

[ade]

anything with a panny label on the front

[cheekster]

Bought meself a spanking new Panasonic NVHS-820S SVHS ET VCR today. A little more than what you wished to pay mind! ;)

Cheekster.

[Ridcully]

Have you thought of Sky+ or Tivo? Alternatively if you want to stay with a VCR I can wholely recomend the Panny 710. More than what you want to pay but it has videoplus, PDC and Set top box control and a tape libray system

The last two make it the closest thing you can get to a PVR without buying one

[Mr Flibble]

Some good suggestions there -thanks :)

I was thinking about a Tivo - you can get them for about £200 now can't you?

Thing is, the VCR is very rarely used, but its handy to have 'just in case'

I'll look at a few panasonic ones. Does anyone have a JVC VCR? My JVC W/S set can control JVC videos - so it would be one less remote to clutter up the place I suppose - thanks everyone :)

[Flimber]

I've got a pair of S-VHS JVC's which are 10+ years old and still going strong. User interface of JVC gear is always first-rate IMO and the build is always top-notch too.

I'd expect the current SVHS-ET machines to be equally as good, if not better than my two and don't dismiss S-VHS too readily as 400+ lines of resolution makes for very nice DVD backups.

I think the new-uns can be had for ~£150 but I dunno about black. Though on the plus side (again) EP mode might be worth having for ultra-long-play (albeit not-so-good fidelity) recordings.

Mike.

[Psychic Cookie]

Originally posted by ade
anything with a panny label on the front
Most people seem to agree that Panny machines are the buisness but I have to disagree, maybe I have just been unlucky?

I blew £1100 on a top flight SVHS model about 6 years ago and it was nothing but trouble then a couple of years ago I replaced it with my current machine, an NV-HS850, and had to have new heads after three months and even then have never been really that happy with the picture.

If I was to buy another video today I think I would give one of the JVC machines a try. The look & feel a bit tacky but I would put up with that for a reliable machine with a decent picture.

Like I say though I might just of had bad luck because it seems to follow me around :/

[Quey]

I'd go for a TIVO myself :-) If your lazy like me then its a MUST :clap:

[LV426]

Originally posted by Psychic Cookie

Most people seem to agree that Panny machines are the buisness but I have to disagree, maybe I have just been unlucky?

I blew £1100 on a top flight SVHS model about 6 years ago and it was nothing but trouble then a couple of years ago I replaced it with my current machine, an NV-HS850, and had to have new heads after three months and even then have never been really that happy with the picture.

If I was to buy another video today I think I would give one of the JVC machines a try. The look & feel a bit tacky but I would put up with that for a reliable machine with a decent picture.

Like I say though I might just of had bad luck because it seems to follow me around :/ No you are not alone. I had a Panny SVHS machine 9 years ago and it NEVER performed as it should. Pic quality was never up to par, despite its being looked at under warranty. And it was the ONLY machine, out of several, that I've ever had to clean the heads on. When I replaced it with a newer, much cheaper JVC job, I confirmed what I had been missing. The Panny was a mistake.