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What a ridiculous question.....!

Only joking. If you use a S-VHS recorder to make VHS dubs, they will only be VHS resolution, BUT, using an s-video cable, rather than composite, separates the chrominance and luminance and therefore carries a slightly better signal to tape.

I'm a keen user of SVHS despite all the 'pros' telling me it was a waste of money being a dead format. Obviosuly as has ben pointed out it is a much much better format than VHS. If you want to record in SVHS the you are up for more expensive tape stock although the unit I have claims it will record SVHS onto good quality VHS stock. Haven't tried this as it seems a foolish risk anyway.

Although an increasing number of VHS machines will play SHVS I'd doubt there's that many of them out there so for general VHS distro you'll need to record in VHS mode. But there are a number of pluses doing this on a SVHS machine. As has been pointed out you can in at S-Video and every little bit has got to help. Also though SVHS machines write a wider track so you'll get slightly better playback and less risk of tracking errors when the tape's played back on a VHS machine.

Apart from that though they are a good machine for getting stuff off VHS, again you can come out S-Video and that's probably only a small help but VHS needs all the help it can get. Also most SVHS machines come with a TBC. Now you shouldn't do this, but a TBC will defeat most Macrovision systems. Also the TBC gives you more stable playback with less line jitter. If you spend more on your SVHS machine you also can get dropout compensation, external sync, real audio level controls, seperate audio to linear and FM tracks etc.

The other thing I like about them is because they are built more for the pro market they spool the tape at a sensible speed. Most domestic VHS VCRs seem designed to cause edge damage at the speed they spool at.

Weeeell, all I know is that ordinary VHS lacks a little hole in the bottom (the side facing downwards) of the tape housing and the SVHS has one. (Or was it the other way around?) This is a mechanic way of telling the recorder which tape you put in. Drill a hole in your ordinary high quality VHS tapes and you'll save some money. Still, there might be some advantage to the tape itself when bying SVHS that I don't know about.
Best/Tommy :)

Could we gently twist your arm to think seriously about DVD? It's better quality than even S-VHS, and chances are your friends you refer to are probably eyeing those inexpensive DVD players in the stores at this very moment.

Another benefit: the DVDs won't wear out in 10 years, as long as you keep them out of the sunlight.

S-VHS decks have to be able to record closer to the tape than VHS. As a result, they are built to tighter tolerances. Even if you are only going to create VHS tapes, you should get slightly better results on a tape deck that can create S-VHS.

You should definitely get a deck that has S-Video input and outputs. This feature is completely independent of whether the deck is S-VHS (although most decks that are S-VHS also have S-Video output).

farss correctly points out that an amazing number of very low-end decks can now playback S-VHS tapes (even if they cannot record them). Unfortunately, the people you are sending tapes may not even know they have this ability.

As for drilling holes in VHS tapes so that they will record as S-VHS, most modern S-VHS tape decks let you do this. They have a feature called S-VHS ET technology that gives you "S-VHS-quality" recording and playback using high-quality standard VHS tapes.

Finally, I too would encourage you to consider going the DVD route. Most of your friends have (or soon will have) a DVD player (they are way under $100 now). DVDs are cheaper (cheap blanks approaching $1.00), and you can reproduce them much faster than tapes.

Wow, thanks for all the help. I've got some things to look into now.

I'm thinking about DVD also, good points.

Thanks again for the good info,

Jon

One thing about SVHS-ET - consumers reports have done tests and found that although resolution increases, video noise does also, with a net effect of no better overall picture quality according to their "trained panel of testers". They don't publish specs or details, so it doesn't tell a great deal, and the only SVHS machines they tested were the $300 cheapos. But still, a data point, and I've never seen a good comparison anywhere else.