JVC HR-S3900 Super-VHS VCR
Excellent Picture, Provided You  Use S-VHS Tapes
Just got one for Christmas. I like it. Picture quality in EP mode, using S-VHS tape, is better than SP mode in regular VHS machines using regular tape. That means you can get 6 hours of very good resolution on a single tape, making it very good for timer recordings. S-VHS in SP mode is near DVD quality, if source is, for example, a DVD. But you only get two hours in SP mode.<br />My only gripe is that the much touted S-VHS-ET is a joke. With regular tape, I get better quality using the regular VHS setting . In fact, the picture is quite good in regular VHS mode, though nowhere near S-VHS quality. So just plan on investing in S-VHS tape (about $5, nowadays) if you want to get a genuine improvement over regular VHS. And it really is an improvement.