High Quality VHS Capture on a Budget in 2020 - Part I: Choosing a VCR

Introduction

I recently inherited a few dozen family videos on VHS and VHS-C going back to the early 1980's. Along with this haul came a request to capture anything worthwhile in a digital format to share with the family. This set me on a path to identify a reasonably good VHS capture setup for the year 2020 to digitally archive the tapes. In this post, I will walk through my objectives and detail the VCR selection process. In future posts, I will go through the capture setup and the post-production & sharing process.

TL;DR 

Search the secondary market (eBay, friends & family, etc) for a high-end consumer S-Video VCR from JVC in the HR-S7500U & up, or HR-S9500U & up series. Plan to use its S-Video output. Read on for all the details.

Objectives

• Mac or PC capture flow
• High quality digital video
• Relatively inexpensive

These objectives led me down a rabbit hole. I will bring you along on my journey and share some findings, which I hope you find useful!

Part I - Choosing a VCR

Before we dig into the capture aspects of the system, let's look at how to play VHS tapes in a high-quality and digital capture-compatible way. Similarly to how I approach many new problems, I started with reading and following links. I read quite a few articles and forum posts, and watched several YouTube videos on the topic. Below I summarize my findings towards an application-appropriate VCR on the secondary market, as the time for new VCRs is in the rear-view mirror.

S-Video 

VCRs typically have two options for output: Composite Video and S-Video. S-Video provides separate channels for the black-and-white (Y or luma) and coloring-in (C or chroma). Separation of these channels results in better picture quality. We want a VCR which provides S-Video output. Some VCRs can only provide composite video output - those devices are no good for this application. Next!

Super VHS (S-VHS)

S-VHS or Super VHS is an improved standard over VHS for consumer recording. Although the tapes I have to convert were all recorded as VHS on standard VHS tapes, Super VHS players have higher performance playback circuitry, with higher signal bandwidth. These units can read both both standard VHS and S-VHS tapes, and generally out-perform standard VHS decks in playing back VHS tapes. We want an S-VHS VCR for its high performance playback. All S-VHS VCRs also have S-Video output. So far, so good.

Time Base Correction (TBC)

Consumer VHS equipment naturally records with instability in the timing signals on the tape. These timing errors are mostly caused by mechanical instability, coupled with the nuances of an analog recording medium. When playing back on a TV, this instability may cause visual distortion that makes vertical lines look wavy, as well as cause errors in the coloring of the content. When digitizing these signals, severe timing errors cause the capture system to drop frames and lose synchronization with the source. Time Base Correction cleans up the timing of the signals coming off a VHS tape to make them compatible with modern digital systems. There are several options to provide TBC, including stand-alone TBC boxes, DVD recorders which perform TBC in pass-through, and high-end S-VHS units with built-in TBC. To keep things simple, let's choose a VCR with TBC built-in.

Summary of Derived Requirements

Based on the above, we can further refine our requirements for the VCR to be an S-VHS unit with built-in TBC, and we will plan to use its S-Video output.

Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) Models

At this point in my Internet research, some themes begin to emerge. The term "high-end JVC" tends to appear quite often when discussing the best ways to capture VHS content digitally. There is a range of late model JVC decks which "check all the boxes" we are looking for: S-VHS decks with TBC and S-Video output. This article on the Best VCRs to Convert Tape to Digital has a good overview of the JVC features. Here is a Panasonic vs JVC thread which is worth a look. The following models are JVC Super VHS VCRs and JVC Professional Super VHS VCRs with built-in TBC. These units often come up on the forums. This is not an exhaustive list but should get you started in your eBay search.

• JVC HR-S7500U, S7600U, S7800U, S7900U
• JVC HR-S9500U, S9600U, S9800U, S9900U, S9911U
• JVC HR-DVS1U, HR-DVS2U, HR-DVS3U (with MiniDV)
• JVC SR-W5U, SR-V10U, SR-V101US (Professional series)

The main difference between the 7-series and the 9-series is the 2MB vs 4MB frame memory, respectively and the 9-series has ghost reduction. Some of the in-series differences revolve around automatic commercial skipping, which is not relevant to my capture application. The DVS models include both Mini-DV and S-VHS playback which can be useful if you have a combination of media to digitize, although many Mini-DV recorders can directly output a digital version to a PC on USB or FireWire. 

Professional VCRs and SP/LP/EP Tapes

The Professional V10U and V101US models are similar internally to the x800 and x900 models. The SR-W5U model is often heralded as the crème de la crème for VHS capture, but it is hard to come by as it was originally a $3,000+ unit! 

Some professional VCRs are designed around a workflow which assumes high quality Standard Play (SP) recording modes. This may cause hiccups when playing back tapes which were recorded in lower quality LP (Long Play) or EP (Extended Play) modes, or that change modes during the recording. For example, the professional Panasonic AG-MD830, which was a unit produced for the medical industry, works great for SP, but has trouble with LP and EP tapes (thanks for the note, Matt!). That unit also does not have TCR, so it is ruled out from our process in either case. The Panasonic AG-1980 has "full-field" TCR, and according to this forum post, it handles LP and EP alright. There is also the Panasonic AG-DS555 Superdeck to consider, but I could not find information about how well it handles LP/EP.

It seems that going with one of these JVC units would be a safe bet. Since the JVC V10U and V101US models are similar to their commercial counterparts, they should all be OK, but it may be worth some additional forum-diving to make sure if you decide to go down that route.

Comparisons Between JVC Models and Features

Some of the differences between the JVC units listed above are subtle. For example, the 7500 does not have a NORM/SOFT/SHARP/EDIT Picture Control option like the newer JVC units, only a Dub Mode setting. Setting the VCR to DUB or EDIT, equivalently, disables the smoothing filter. On the later models, setting the mode to SOFT or SHARP adjusts the presets in the filter - this adjustment is absent on the 7500. DUB/EDIT may be the correct setting for capture if you are looking to capture as much detail as possible. Take a look at this comparison of the NORM/SOFT/SHARP/EDIT modes in the 7600 and 9900 units. This page has a comparison of the 7500 vs 7800 including the impact of the DUB/EDIT setting (free registration required to look at the images). 

The Digital R3 setting available on these units provides edge sharpening, which looks great on animated content, but should probably be turned off otherwise. Ultimately, some may prefer the visual appearance of the unfiltered, filtered, or edge-sharpened output, so it is up to you to decide what setting looks best for your content. 

In all cases, TBC should be turned on for capture, unless you are dealing with a damaged tape, then the Video Stabilizer option might help recover some content. The TBC and Video Stabilizer are mutually exclusive, with only one or the other able to applied at a time.

And the winner is...

At any moment you should be able to find a smattering of the above devices on eBay. From my research, they are all quite similar with the most important feature being a unit in good working order! You will probably be happy with any of the units referenced above. I was able to get my hands on a JVC HR-S7500U (pdf manual) unit which is fully functional. 

Part II - Digital Capture

Part II will cover the following topics in detail. In the short version, I will recommend a capture setup including the hardware, software, CODECs, and settings to ease your workflow.

• Capture device selection and options
  
• Capture software
• NTSC details and video capture format
• Lossless video CODECs and archival
  
• Storage media and data rates
• De-interleaving for buttery smooth 60 fps output
  

Part III - Post Production

Part III will cover the following topics:

• Post-processing tools
• Media encoding
• Video sharing

I will update Sections II and III soon. Thanks for reading along!