JVC HRS3912U VCR, Silver
Pretty good
Last year when we reconfigured our a/v system, I replaced an old Sony VCR that was on its last legs.  At the time I bought the Sony, it was a pretty high-end deal - as I recall, I had paid more than $400 for it.<br />I had decided I wanted something with S-video inputs coming in from the cable box and S-video outputs to the TV.  Locally, I could find only one machine, a Panasonic.  I paid $200 for it, and boy was it a piece of junk.  The first one, the S-video output didn't work.  I returned it to the store and got another.  All of the input and output jacks were attached flimsily; it felt like they were about to break anytime anything was attached.  The usuer manual was incomprehensible.  The menu system was convoluted.  Most of all, the picture quality was terrible.  On most tape rentals (we have a really great quirky rental place here - all VHS, no DVDs, believe it or not), there was always a distorted area at the top of the picture.  About half of the tapes watched refused to track properly, even with constant manual adjustments.  And black and white pictures (most of our rentals are of old movies) showed a lot of wierd artifacts in the boundaries between black and white areas.<br />As long as I was pulling everything apart this year to add an HDTV cable box, I decided to replace the Panasonic, and with some trepidation ordered this machine from Amazon.  I couldn't find any reviews of the specific model, but from reviews of other machines it seemed as if ALL VCRs are now cheaply made afterthoughts.<br />I've been very pleasantly surprised.  The unit is made of plastic, and the buttons on the machine itself feel pretty cheap and minimal.  But the input and output jacks are well seated, no wiggle room for the cables.  The manual is relatively understandable.  (It took me a bit to figure out I had to separately configure both which and what type inputs and outputs I was using, but it wasn't that big a deal.)  The menu system is vastly simpler than the Panasonic's.And best of all is the picture quality.  No problems playing any of the rental tapes that gave the Panasonic such heartburn.  Manual tracking adjustments from the remote are a bit clumsy, a two-button process.  But this unit's automatic video calibration seems to set the tracking fine, so far no need for manual adjustments.  And the sharpness and clarity of the picture are great.  It's still VHS, not DVD or HDTV, but it's a quantum step up from what we've been suffering over the past year.<br />We don't tape much, so I can't yet speak to recording ease or quality.<br />Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase.