JVC HRXVS44U DVD/VCR Combo , Silver
Good SVHS DVD Combo
On the surface this unit seems like a good idea. After trying several other DVD/VCR combos and being very disappointed with the VHS quality this seemed like the answer. The good news is that for the most part it is. The VHS picture quality is good and of course the DVD quality is DVD quality (no surprise there!).<br />After several weeks of use I feel comfortable recommending this unit to those looking to replace aging VCRs and save some cabinet space in the process. I can't give this unit five stars because of the remote and the way JVC has implemented VCR programming. I could give it five stars for image quality.<br />Remotes and the programming interface (how you set the unit to record) are my pet peeve with VCRs. No one has done it well and JVC seems to have gone out of their way to over simplify it. They have decided to take up half of the remote with single purpose buttons to do the VCR programming. I guess their engineers never heard of the 'less is more' approach to user interfaces. The result is an unusable remote in the dark.<br />To recap the pros: the VHS picture using SVHS ET on standard tapes is excellent (slightly better than my old Sharp HQ VCR), the DVD quality and operation is exellent, you can record non-commercial DVDs to tape on this unit (it is not a single step process like GoVideo; you must start record on the VCR, then press play on the DVD), and like most of the other combo units you can use this unit to play DVDs on older TVs (not sure why anyone would, but it is an interesting benefit of these units).<br />The cons: pricey compared to two seperate units and the remote is difficult to use.