Home > Consumer Reviews > Sharp VCS100U S-VHS Hi-Fi VCR

Okay, I have purchased this VCR and have received it. It's got some pros and cons.

First for the pros...

1. Better sound than regular Hi-Fi VCRs. Noticed some better effects with like echos and left or right channel voices.

2. Sharper picture. Can't really tell if 400 lines are really there on Widescreen movies. But still, picture is better than with standard VHS. Using RCA cables. Probably better if I use S-Video cable, but my TV isn't S-Video compatible.

3. FF and REW dial is kinda nifty. Two FF and REW scanning speeds. Rapid 360x FF and REW speed is awesome. Rewind a full tape in about a minute. Speed is adjusted as the weight on the spools change to prevent snapping at the end of tape.

Cons

1. No way to reset the counter to zero.

While the counter is displayed hit the "cancel" button on the remote and that will reset the counter to zero.

I bought this for my 4DTV system, and the recorded video in SVHS is simply AMAZING. If you use normal videotapes, you can record in SVHS ET mode, which is much better than VHS, but I keep some real SVHS tapes for shows that I want the best quality from. If you don't use real SVHS tapes, you should use the higher quality VHS tapes, otherwise SVHS ET will flicker a little.

Recording to normal videotapes was really a downer, but I can barely tell the difference between SVHS recorded video and the original. I highly recommend the use of the S-Video connectors for best performance.

The 4DTV I mentioned is a digital satellite system that works on C-Band satellites (i.e. big dish) and so I get DVD quality video from satellite (not like the overly compressed DSS/DiSH video), and laserdisk quality video on the analog (totally uncompressed) channels. These are the feeds that DirecTV and Dish get many of their channels from.

The main purpose to buying this product was that I needed aS-Video output so I can switch all S-Video in my home theatersystem. $ dollars is a bit steep for that feature, but there are the other advantages, recording at S-VHS quality, the auto clock setup etc etc.

Now the best and worst feature... The FF and REW speed is great if you use a T120 tape, it zips through a tape in no time. However our family watches lots of kids video's which are usually 30-45 minutes long. Rewinding these is agony, it is sooo slow. I had to use my old VCR just as a rewinder. I'm not sure why it can't rewind at a normal speed in these cases. If you use a VCR for full length movies and time shifting on T120 tapes then this won't be a problem.

I haven't purchased this VCR yet, BUT I do have a HUGE home library of purchased movies (90% of them in Widescreen format) and I'm not ready for DVDs even though I have a DVD-ROM drive on my computer. Besides when was the last time you could record on a DVD? Hmm? And when we'll be able to, you can burn a laser disc only once! They make CDs and DVDs from Master TAPES!! The 400 lines of resolution should be more than adequate to display Widescreen movies acceptably. The FF and REW dial looks like and interesting feature for "What was that? Rewind it a bit!" occurances.