i got loads of vhs tapes.

I would kindly disagree with you. Many conversations about images style/quality between the Panasonic AG 1980P and other JVC's. It would seem that the images are slightly softer in the JVC's as I have found. I like the DNR/TBC in the Panasonic AG 1980P which tends to almost overdue the sharpness to a point of plasticity. That is just fine because when I go to remaster the image with Adobe Premier using the Neat Video plugin it will get softened and cleaned up. No VCR has a true TBC. They are mainly line TBC's.
Thus when I do have skipped frames, picture jitter or any noise not attributed to flagging, then I will use a TBC between the Panasonic AG 1980P and my black magic hub. The good thing about the TBC is what noise it does add (but corrects some other major ones) gets taken out with Neat Video plugin. I've gotten some fantastic finalized captures from VHS both NTSC and PAL that rival my average LD captures.

Elvis

i use one of those combo decks.

couldn't agree more! I have tested a bunch of svhs players against each other, and the ag-1980 seems to come out of it as the best player each time. From some video captures i've seen, the last high-end jvc dvhs player do a better job, but the common jvc svhs players doesn't match up to the detail level the ag1980 outputs

Well, for some home videos recorded on other decks, Panasonic can be better. However, the other day, I recorded a song from the Lion King on LD from my D701. Played it back on two machines: a JVC HR S6900U and a Panasonic AG 1970. The HR S6900U had more vibrant colors than the 1970. The 1970 was duller, regardless of the setting the slider was in. Another tape I did a comparison on is a family members tape I'm dubbing and the PQ looked better on the 1970 than the 6900U simply because of that slider. I've onwed JVCs and Panasonics and JVCs have always had the best PQ (If hooked up to a CRT of course). Don't get me wrong, Panasonics can be good, but the way I've seen it, JVCs have faster transport mechs and better PQ than Panasonics. I even owned the Panasonic AG 5710 once, and overall, I wasn't that impressed. I will admit that the Search sound feature on Panasonics is cool though. Even better than a 1980, a deck you outta check out is a JVC SR W5U. I wish I had a fully functioning unit, but right off the bat, the PQ did look better than the Panasonics.

I have a Panasonic S-VHS deck that is a rebadged JVC. That should tell you something.

Panasonic's best gear is usually a fluke, but also usually developed entirely in-house.

I have most of the Panasonic flukes.

S-VHS: Panasonic AG-1980
LD: Panasonic LX-900
DVD Recorder: Panasonic DMR-ES10

The DMR-ES10 has a frame-sync in its video processor IC that can fully stabilize even the mostly wobbly signals from 2nd+ generation VHS tapes. It's amazing!

Again, I would kindly disagree with your assessment on the Panasonic SVHS players. That Panasonic AG 1970 is a much different player than the 1980. The 1970 is an excellent player known for it's great transport that can work miracles with home made videos or commercial thin tapes. Of course playing back a tape on the original SVHS player that taped it is always preferable. The 1970 lacks the DNR/TBC found on the 1980. I will say this much. No SVHS player does it all. Especially when you start capturing a variety of home made tapes. A variety of SVHS players both JVC and Panasonic will help you find the best image for you. But overall for commercial tapes, which is what I am interested in, the Panasonic SVHS AG-1980 fulfills my needs the best. PAL version Panasonic NV-FS 200. CPIX, interesting assessment on that JVC dvhs player. Never tried one. How reliable are the units?

Bottom line for VHS, IMO, looking back now, no they weren't great but I grew up with them. We got our first VHS VCR in either '82 or '83. Quasar top loader. We rented Conan the Barbarian, it was the bomb, me and my brother were so stoked we watched it 3 times in 2 days. I'm 43, younger people today do not realize that back then, if it wasn't on TV, you just didn't watch it. The VCR revolutioned home entertainment. It is what made it possible to have a choice other than what was on the TV. So I will always look back on VHS with fond memories. And still watch tapes today.

And do not forget, concerts rocked on a VHS hi-fi. Lots of concerts out there that have not and most likely will not make it to DVD or Bluray. I own several on VHS and always looking for more (and finding)!

In my box at work yesterday someone put the Star Wars Trilogy on VHS. It was my boss who thought I liked Star Wars. Why do people confuse it and Star Trek?
Oh, it will look pretty sitting on my shelf, but I think it's the remade version with all the extra stuff, with the pretty covers and PURPLE titles or RED, and big faces of YODA and DARTH VADER, and etc.

The "Faces" set was the last non-SE release.

Might as well put this here rather than make a new thread. Found this article on a video store closing and it brought back another wave of nostalgia for me . . .

The day the video store died

Reminds me of this one video store I used to go to, "Hollywood Video" (not the national chain, this was a mom-and-pop) that had a large store in this one little plaza that rented VHS and a pretty extensive LD selection. In '99 they moved to a much smaller store, and all the LDs were gone. Talked to the owner and he was thinking of selling them. I gave him my phone number to call me if he ever wanted to sell. Never called me though.

They had a huge VHS collection like this Videoscope place did. Tapes were stacked tightly so they could pack more into their little store:


Beryl Yaffa picks out both VHS tapes and DVDs looking for historical films and documentaries during Videoscope's closing sale, June 11, 2013

Ahhhh, those were the days. But thanks to Netflix and Redbox, they're gone.

Wish I could go to the closing sale and load up on VHS.

Same here.

I'm actually a big fan of VHS. I have built up quite the hoard due to a local thrift store chain selling them for 10cents each. At some point I'll probably donate a lot back so I can make some room in my closet.

Some of the later 90s releases look really good on a CRT. I also like that I can just stop a movie and pick it up weeks later at the exact point I left off. With optical formats you have to remember where you were.

Some players have the "Last Memory" function, where you can store where you left off on several discs. Even my CLD-R7G LD player can store where you left off for one disc.

But yeah, VHS is always where you left off.

I went to Videoscope's closing sale and just thought I'd mention that that massive library of VHS you see in that photo spanned almost that entire wall (the photo starts about 2/3 down I think) and was not alphabetized.

It looks like it was a great store. I love those places that just put the stuff on the shelf and move on, but then again I'm a browser and rarely look for anything specific.

Just curious. Can vhs benefit from 3d comb filter? As far as I know vhs has luma and chroma well seperated so a decent 2d comb filter can do the job. I have a couple of dvhs decks jvc hmdh5u and 40000u. 5u model has hdmi out. I compared 480i out on hdmi vs composite out, composite beats hdmi by a mile(on sd vhs) .hd vhs tapes you have to use component or hdmi.