Home > Consumer Reviews > JVC HR-S3600U 4-Head S-VHS VCR

If you've never had an S-VHSVCR,as most people have not,this would be a good one tohave.Super VHS is an improvedversion of VHS and nearly doubles the picture quality!All S-VHS decks also record and playback ordinary VHS too.Actually this deck supportsthree formats VHS,S-VHS,andS-VHS ET.S-VHS ET (ET standsfor expansion technology,notextra terrestial!) allows oneto use ordinary VHS tapes tomake S-VHS recordings.If youuse very-high quality VHS tapes,your results will beclose to full-fledged S-VHS!You will lose only 2 to 4 %picture quality as opposed tousing higher-price S-VHS tapes.S-VHS ET works best forS.P. (standard play) speedrecording.If you want to makeE.P. (extended play) tapes,Ireccomend you use S-VHS tapes.Super VHS at E.P. speed looksbetter than regular VHS doesat S.P. ,hands down! This VCRwill make tapes off sateliteand digital cable that areatleast close to the originalbroadcast,unlike ordinary VHS,the difference isn't obvious!This deck is feature-ladden too.It has VCR Plus +,which takes about a half-hour to set-up but allows you to program very quickly via the VCR Plus + codes found in most all TV guides.If you program using the onscreen menu,that's easy too!On the remote the keys used for programing are inside a lined-off area and steps are numbered on the remote so it's hard to make a mistake.Other notable features include automatic clock set( if your PBS station is doing this service),automatic clock adjust for daylight savings time,multi-brand TV control,and skip search (each push of the button fast-forwards your tape thirty seconds,I think you know why!).The remote is an excellent design in the best JVC tradition.Other VCR manufacturers should copy their remotes,they're that good! With today's improved video sources like DBS,S-VHS recording is the ticket! You can buy just any VHS recorder real cheap,but if you want a really good one,pay a little more for this unit.

I have used this model for 8 months and it has plenty of audio and video (including SVideo) inputs. It can record and play S-VHS and VHS tapes, with the former providing superior playback using the 2-hours recording mode and an S-VHS tape. It auto detects the tape type and has an easy to use remote. The best S-VHS machine in this price range.

This is a very good unit. It cost me half of my previous machine and it's better. Of the many useful features on the JVC, perhaps the best is the programming which is simpler than any other I've seen. The quality of the recordings is uniformly excellent as well.

I've owned an S3600 for about six months. It's my third JVC SVHS deck (the other two are 8 and 10 YEARS old, and both still work) and I am completely satisfied. Aside from the ability to go to a particular time mark on the tape -- which only my oldest unit has -- it is wonderful. Highly recommended.

I'm pleased with the VCR, but it took about an hour to get it set up properly. Plug & play didn't work. I finally ended up setting the channels and clock manually, and the initial configuration is relatively complicated. I am a little bit disappointed with the remote. One reason that I selected a JVC VCR is because I hoped it would interoperate well with my other JVC components, but the remote is awkward to use with my TV and DBS. Overall though, it has a lot of nice features for the money, and the picture quality is good.