Rating: 
Summary: You get what you pay for...pay more.
Review: After about 30 days of use, this unit ate tapes and the timer did not work. After sending it away for 7 weeks to an authorized JVC service location, I got it back and the auto tracking (and the manual tracking for that matter) could not provide acceptable video output. Also, a tape got stuck in the carriage and when I went to pull it out, it caught on the cheap plastic cover on the tape opening and broke it. JVC will only reimburse me for 1/2 of the product cost for a product that I got little to no usage from. Oh well... Stick with Sony.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible product
Review: After about 30 days of use, this unit ate tapes and the timer did not work. After sending it away for 7 weeks to an authorized JVC service location, I got it back and the auto tracking (and the manual tracking for that matter) could not provide acceptable video output. Also, a tape got stuck in the carriage and when I went to pull it out, it caught on the cheap plastic cover on the tape opening and broke it. JVC will only reimburse me for 1/2 of the product cost for a product that I got little to no usage from. Oh well... Stick with Sony.
Rating:
Summary: Okay for the money, but it has some annoying factors to it
Review: First off, this isn't that bad of a machine. However, it had some annoying features that caused me to return it. I would really rate this between 2 and 3 stars, but since you only get whole stars, I went 2 on it. But, that 2 is just because of what I found wrong with this machine as far as what I wanted from it.First off, the picture is not that bad. Also, playback is not noisy and the picture and sound is pretty good. Having audio inputs on the front is great. Also, the programmeable timer options are great. But, I had some problems with this machine. Two of them are not fixeable due to the design. The other might be due to a bad machine, but I'm not sure. However, the first two points I cover are the reasons why I returned this unit and gave it a 2 star rating. Reason 1 why this machine went back - in order for the timer recording to work, you have to press a TIMER button on the remote. Hello! This is NOT the 1980's. Yes, that is what the OLD VCRs did, but in this day and age, you normally just program the time you want to record and then turn the VCR off. It wouldn't be so bad with the timer button IF it were on the machine as well, but you have to do it from the remote. If you lose the remote, you're out of luck. This alone was the major deciding factor in why I returned this unit. Plus, since my wife is the primary user of this machine, she found that to be annoying. She doesn't want to have to hunt for the "other" remote just to turn off the machine and put it back into timer mode. You see, I have it set up to record her Y&R on a daily basis. If we stayed with this machine and she just hit the power button on the remote (as she has done for 10+ years on our previous VCR), the timer would never kick off and record the show for the next day. Oh boy. If THAT happened, I would NEVER hear the end of it! ;) Reason 2 - The remote ONLY works with JVC TVs. You CANNOT program it to work with other TVs. On top of that, I could NOT for the life of me get this VCR to work with my universal remote that I already own. I use that remote for my TV, the cable box as well as the old VCR. Now, I normally probably wouldn't care too much about this, but since my wife is the main user of this VCR, she DOES care about it. She doesn't like having to hunt for multiple remotes. Reason 3 - This didn't necessarily cause me to return it, but it is an annoyance and possibly, it was due to a faulty machine. But, reasons 1 and 2 had already made me decide to return it, but I wanted to let people know about this possible problem. The auto-tracking is VERY slow and some tapes that I have that I KNOW work fine in HiFi mode apparently could not be adjusted to stop noisy playback. The tracking seemed off and the HiFi sound was awful for some tapes. Playing them in another machine resulted in clear playback. Also, it seemed at the beginning of a recording, the picture was bad for about 10 seconds as if the tracking were off and then it finally fixed itself. This is kind of annoying if you can't see the beginning of your recording. Normally, when I program the timer, I give myself 5 minutes before and after the program's time. However, there are times when something comes on that I want to see and I have to hit the record button right there. With this machine, I would possibly have to sit through 10+ seconds of snowy picture before it clears up. This seemed to happen time and time again as I tested the recording function. Again, this might be due to a faulty machine. I even ran a head cleaner through the machine and that didn't help. However, if annoyances 1 and 2 mean nothing to you, then this machine is not that bad of a buy. Some stated it ate tapes as soon as they got it home. Others have stated noisy playback from the machine itself. I experienced no such problems, but of course, I only had the machine for 1 night and exchanged it for a Panasonic, which DOESN'T require you to hit a timer button AND it's remote could control my TV AND my universal remote can be programmed to control the Panasonic VCR. I guess the best bet is to try it out for yourself. I myself didn't like some of the "features" it had and returned it promptly.
Rating: 
Summary: Good value for the money. Great for 2nd room or spare TV.
Review: Great unit. Reliable. Good picture and sound. Bought it to replace 10 year old [X] JVC Hi-Fi VCR that performed well under adverse condtiions. I have 2 of these - one is the source for VideoCD creation on my Mac. One's my primary VCR.
Front panel buttons are hard to read in the dark - my only complaint! Otherwise, a good VCR for the money.
Rating:
Summary: Buy a different brand!
Review: It was great while it lasted. After 5 months it ate a tape and stopped working. Emailed jvc and they sent back a call us at message... Called and they said try a service center. Service center said $$ bucks to take a look at it. So, basically a waste of money and time. Next time I'll go with something like Panasonic. They have been pretty reliable for me in the past.
Rating:
Summary: Trouble with some tapes
Review: Just purchased this unit today and when we tried to play a few commercially recorded tapes they wouldn't work(tracking problems). We then tried some recorded tapes we made at home (same problem). All the tapes play O.K. on another JVC VCR we own. I plan to take the unit back to C.City and replace it with another unit of the same make and model.I'll update this review when I do.
Rating:
Summary: Rewind failed when it was just out of warranty
Review: Rewind failed when it was just out of (6 month)warranty. Fixing it is not an option because it cost more than the unit is worth. The remote only works with JVC TVs. Would not buy a JVC VCR again. Does anyone make a reliable VCR any more?
Rating:
Summary: You get what you pay for...pay more.
Review: Sure, it works, but I would rather just use it for playback and forget the recording part. The LED display doesn't show you nearly as much as with more expensive machines. You can't tell if you're recording SP or EP, for example. Just record something and see how fast goes on Rewind or Fast Forward. Another interesting "feature" is that when I hit the "menu" button on the remote, it doesn't work unless I hit "play" first. That's just plain weird. So, the lesson is that if you want a cheesy, minimal machine that's a pain to use, spend a little money. I which I had spent more and I will on my next VCR, if I buy another one.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Sound and Playback
Review: This JVC unit is an excellent VCR. It records and plays back in "Hi-Fi" sound. It also has Quasi-S playback so you can play back tapes recorded in the "Super VHS" mode. A good unit.
Rating:
Summary: Great Sound and Playback
Review: This JVC unit is an excellent VCR. It records and plays back in "Hi-Fi" sound. It also has Quasi-S playback so you can play back tapes recorded in the "Super VHS" mode. A good unit.
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