The popular (but unsupported) claim is that as VCR sales have tanked, the VCR transports are being farmed to very low cost producers who have introduced more and more plastic parts.

Actually, Ralph, it has been well documented in many news items since March of 2003. Sales and rentals of DVDs have eclipsed that of VHS for nearly two years, now. Also, far more DVD players are being sold than are VHS players.

The only area in which this may not be the case is in educational institutions where they have so much money tied up in VHS players and titles.

Tanked? Maybe not completely, but they are rapidly approaching the inevitable.

Jay

Personally, I would stay away from JVC. I've had 2 units fail on the DVD side within 6 months of purchase (thought not the same model you're looking at). Basically the output from the DVD side would start to go - noise, strange picture, etc. then eventually no output at all and the unit just sits and blinks "loading" on the front panel. VHS still works though.

--Scott

I wish I had read this post a year ago. I purchased an Akai 27" flatscreen TV with the combo VHS/DVD player in it. It was perfect for the bedroom for a corner wall mount without having wires strung all over the place. My wife and I tend to fall asleep alot watching movies and decided the bedrooms a more comfortable place to fall asleep. Anyways I had this thing for 2 weeks and used the VHS probably 4 times within that time when it crapped out on me. Now the tracking is all screwed up and it makes a loud clicking noise whenever I try to play a tape. It was a tough task lifting this thing over my head by myself and putting it on the wall mount as well as I had already thrown the box out, so I basically said f**k it. So I can confirm the tape mechanisms are crap in these things. 2 months ago I purchased another Magnavox combo deck that my wife will use to dub home videos to send to her family in Brazil...I haven't even taken it out of the box yet, but I guess I'll be expecting the same behavior on this one too.

I had a Zenith DVD/VHS combo that I would use to copy DVD's to VHS (without using my camcorder). It worked great but only for a few months. In this case the DVD went out. The motor stayed on all the time if the unit was plugged in and wouldn't turn off--locking up both the DVD and VHS.

I paid $149 for it at the time (now they are about $119). I still liked the idea but I also wanted to get a better VHS. So, I replaced it with a Panasonic DMR-E75V. This was a VHS/DVD recorder and has won numerous editor's pick for its quality DVD burns.

I picked the unit up (new) at a pawn shop for $225 (lists for $399). The VHS is a "SuperDrive" that also reads SVHS and has a good reputation as a duplicator VHS unit. The DVD recorder only writes 4X -R, but they are more compatible anyway. It does not have a firewire in (like some), but it has SVHS and component out and SVHS in (so I can transfer video to the unit with an SVHS cable--which is just fine).

This is a beefy unit (also has a fan (very quiet)). It also has image stabalization out plus several digital filters. It pretty much has ever feature I would want in both a VHS player/recorder and DVD player, with the added benefit of being able to record to DVD directly. So far I have dropped several old VHS tapes straight to DVD that I might never have used the hard disk space for.

In addition, I had one project where they wanted to transfer 8 hours of VHS to DVD to determine cuts for editing (so they could view on their office laptop during work hours rather than having to work at home). It would have been a big job to transfer the tape to the harddrive, then render then burn to DVD's, versus just presssing the "copy" button.

An additional advantage is that I can record off air directly to DVD -R or DVD - RAM. I can also program it to record automatically with the Plus codes so it works as a PVR.

I have since purchased (traded for a short video project) another exact unit from a friend who owns 4 pawn shops--it was also new.

I have seen this unit on e-Bay for about what I paid for it, which was about the same cost as a high-end Panasonic SuperDrive.

You can look the unit up to see all the possible output connections.

One problem with this unit though is that is that the instructions are VERY bad. You must go through the manual with a fine tooth comb to figure out all the options. I read it was tough, but I thought I was techy so could figure it out--not without the manual.

I hope this helps.

Yes, combo units are convenient, but I prefer to keep all my components separate. I have heard too many stories (and read a few here on this thread) where one part of a combo unit failed which dininishes the usefullness of the rest of the unit. Plus, using individual components makes it easier to upgrade just a single device.

John

VHS quality control has gone into the toilet. There isn't one single brand or model that is built as well any more. You will have to settle for the lesser of the evils. Believe me I have researched this endlessly as I have tried to add to my duplicating rack. The rack consists of Panasonic run of the mill consumer decks from a few years ago. No problems despite heavy use.

The newer Panasonic units (the few there are) are all garbage.

The Sharps used to be good and are the lesser of the evils despite the fact
that they too have declined in terms of quality.

The Sony's always had poor quality control and still do.

The JVC's always had poor quality control, but had slightly better quality control in their SVHS/VHS units. I bought one of JVC's so-called professional units two years ago and it has been OK, but I did have to send back the first one I received because the color calibration and sharpness were so far off it was pathetic.
I would NOT get a combination unit. I would get seperate units. That way you can attempt to replace the VHS unit when it fails and you won't have to throw away the whole thing or send the whole thing out for repair. Panasonic DVD players seem to be good.
The Sharp VHS players are sort of OK. I bought a VC-H960U a year ago for my rack and it has been working well.
The RCA VR546 is OK (probably made for RCA by a company making it for JVC who in turn is selling ot to RCA)
I bought a JVC HRS5902U for my mother and it seems to be holding up.
Hitachi units will "probably" work well for you, but may be hard to find.
If you must have a combo unit, I would suggest the Panasonic units with the DVD recorders. A few of them seem to have "older" VHS components inside. An example would be the Panasonic DMR-E75VS. It goes for $330 from Amazon and has decent customer reviews. It also has a $50 rebate and free shipping + no tax bringing your final cost to $280 delivered.
I would also look in Walmart because of their 90 day return policy with no questions asked.

John

Here's one thing to check before you buy - will the unit let you copy from DVD to VHS?

I bought Sylvania combo deck last year so that I would be able to do quickie copies. When I tried to do my first copy, I couldn't figure out how to record from DVD to VHS, so I finally pulled out the manual. After about an hour of messing around with it I finally found one sentence, buried in the middle of the manual, that casually informed me that you can't copy from DVD to VHS with this unit!

I have three VHS VCR's, Panasonic, JVC, Sony and the first two are SVHS units which have had no problems. The JVC has a better video signal to noise and looks cleaner than the Panasonic. Both units were in the $500.00 range. The Sony was about $100.00 and the quality is so-so. Only one person I know with a combo and it had problems. I believe it was a "GO" something or other.

JJK

Hmm.... I'm not alone in my opinion then, in that most of the models I've seen in stores regardless of make look rather flimsy. Ditto for many scanners, printers. It seems while the prices are down, so is the quality. I remember my first laser printer, about 15 years ago. It was build like a tank. They ain't no more.

Didn't want to spend lots of money, just stumbled onto the model I mentioned since it was the only one I could fine that had a component out for the VHS side of things.