JVC SR-VS10U/HR-DVS1

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The unit is a dual deck recorder, with MiniDV and SVHS transports. I have owned this nice machine for 7 months now. I am happy with it, as it serves a need, but I have to say it is not a professional unit. As a high end consumer unit it is suitable. If that meets your production needs, then purchase the HR-DVS1 which is the consumer version of the unit. They are electrically identical. The cosmetic differences consist of the word "Professional" on the SR-VS10U.

The main issue here is simple...how good are the dubs ? Well, it depends on your frame of reference.

Anything that is played on the deck can be losslessly sent down the IEEE-1394 port. This includes any video sent into the deck from any source. This can be really great for recording from air, especially from digital sources like satellite or digital cable. Recordings I have made from air onto MiniDV LP mode tapes are flawless and match the original airing almost precisely. It is also invaluable when your client has something acquired in either SVHS, VHS, or any analog format you can get a consumer output from. Normally you'd have to do an analog capture with its quality loss, something you can hardly afford with VHS material.

The VHS/SVHS to DV dubs are delightful you will be able to make a DV dub for editing, and capture it to your computer's hard drive simultaneously. That kills two birds with one stone for many editing applications. In addition the machines integral TBC on the SVHS transport can really help improve the look of such video.

The DV to SVHS/VHS dubs are another matter. You really see that this is a high end consumer deck here, and not a pro/industrial unit. If your data originated as DV, you will be disapointed in what you see, even though it is close to the max that SVHS orVHS can produce. You can not transfer video to SVHS/VHS via the IEEE port.

Effects

The effects on this unit are only available if your source is the DV playback. You can not use effects on SVHS, air, s-video or IEEE inputs. Considering the simple effects included, this is a no great loss. No one with an NLE will ever want to use them. While professional decks rarely have such features, it is a serious shortcoming in a high end prosumer deck.

If you are using this unit as a feeder to an NLE then you should never use the effects settings, ever. Most of the effects are atrocious. The ones worth the effort are Black and White and Sepia. Black and white simply removes the color information. Sepia makes the image look like an old photograph. While all but the simplest NLE's can do an adequate job with these effects, having the recorder do them during transfer will be a timesaver, giving you one less element to render later. Even with a real time editing board, with hardware color correction this can give you extra headroom. One intriguing possibility for this effect type is to recreate the colorized look. Send black and white into the NLE, Then add back the colors. This will give an old time look, while retaining the impact of color if used wisely.

There is an intriguing zoom effect. This allows you to zoom and pan around the image on playback. This can be of use when the area of interest is simply too small too attract attention. Be forwarned that the image becomes very coarse very quickly. At best you can use a 2x magnification. If you have a zoom filter on your NLE it will do a much better job. Further, if you know a subject is too far away, use of a digital zoom feature is recommended over use of this feature after the fact.

Edit Accuracy

The machine is equipped with a Flying Erase Head on the VHS transport, which allows reasonable accurate edit positioning. Unfortunately there is a pre-roll of about four seconds on the DV transport. The worst part is that the pre-roll seems to vary slightly in length, so that you can't get an accurate edit to or from the DV deck. When outputting to the deck from an NLE, placing the deck in pause mode gives somewhat better results. Frame Accuracy, it almost goes without saying, is impossible on this deck.

Reliability and Compatibility

The deck has proven fairly reliable. Compatibility is another issue. DV Tapes recorded in SP or LP mode on this deck display serious digital artifacting when played back on other DV decks. The greater the motion in the image, the greater the artifacting. This is exhibited as blocks of solid color on playback. The deck plays back tapes from other decks flawlessly. I have played back a number of tapes from an XL-1 and a TRV-900 without any difficulty or artifacting.

The deck also seems to have difficulty accurately detecting SVHS cassettes. It has not detected any SVHS cassette I have used. I have used a number of SVHS cassettes from different manufacturers. All the cassettes are accurately identified in other SVHS decks, including ones made by JVC, Sony and Mitsubishi. I have tested Maxell XRS Black SVHS, Maxell ST126BQ Pro SVHS, and Fuji Master Grade double coated SVHS.

UPDATE: I found out that disconnecting power for an extended time will corect this error. Normally errors that are found in the deck can be cleared by disconnectig power for five to ten minutes. This does not work. I took my whole rig with me on "vacation" and had the deck disconnected for about 8 hours. When I reconnected it, it detected SVHS tapes automatically by default just as the manual suggested. I seriously doubt that a full 8 hours is required, but you should try a longer period of disconnection than the manual suggests, maybe twenty minutes or half an hour.

SVHS ET

SVHS ET is a mode that supports SVHS style color encoding on VHS cassettes. This mode significantly improves color registration versus VHS. Color registration remains poorer than SVHS. S/N ratio seems to be about the same as VHS recordings, or perhaps worse. Image resolution is improved. It is not as sharp as SVHS, but sharper than VHS. Perhaps 300-350 lines, a very significant gain. Still images are abhorrent. While technically this mode isn't much better than punching a hole on VHS cassettes and using them in an SVHS machine, it does come without risk. I will perform more serious tests when I receive higher end test equipment than my eyes.

Conclusion

This is a fine deck, so long as you have appropiate expectations. You can use it to feed your NLE. Don't expect to use it in any type of linear editing suite, including tape to tape DV to SVHS. It is really meant for better than consumer quality straight dubs. The other features seem to be an afterthought. Again, the deck is an excellent piece for hobbyists and anyone who merely wants to feed tape into and out of an NLE.

UPDATE 6/21/2001
Some time ago, JVC introduced the HR-DVS2 and SR-VS20U recorders. These units feature the same features as the SR-VS10U, but they have on deck consumer style jog & shuttle controls. They also allow for recording from the IEEE 1394 (Firewire, i.Link) port directly to the SVHS transport, unlike their predecessors.

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