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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Mediocre
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 56 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Dual tuner lets you record two shows at once; sharp recording quality in four-hour LP mode; chases playback with DVD-RAM discs; progressive-scan VHS playback; FireWire input; custom recording speed.
The bad: Difficult to use; dual tuners won't work with digital cable/satellite boxes; inconvenient to watch VHS over component video or S-Video; no chapter stops in recordings; IR blaster sold separately.
The bottom line: JVC's promising but confounding VCR/DVD combo recorder is saddled with too many quirks.
Specifications: Audio output mode: Stereo ; Remote control type: Universal remote control ; DVD additional features: JPEG photo playback , Progressive scanning , Block noise reduction ; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 03/02/2005
- Released on: 09/15/2004
Editor's note: We have changed the rating in this review to reflect recent changes in our rating scale. Click here to find out more.
Some of the combo VCR/DVD recorder decks we've seen go for the understated, darker color scheme, the better to hide their size and bulkiness--not so the JVC DR-MV1S. While it's about the same size as other combo decks in its class (17 by 13 by 3.5 inches), its bold silver front, broad silver stripe, and long neon-blue LED strip that glows when the unit's on (you can deactivate the blue light in the settings menu) all make it look that much bigger.Along a beveled silver stripe you'll find VCR- and DVD-eject buttons, play and stop buttons, and the VCR/DVD dubbing controls. Flanking the LCD is a pair of doors that hides a set of A/V inputs with S-Video and additional playback controls, plus a FireWire input.
Anyone impatient with complex electronics will find plenty to complain about with the DR-MV1S. During everyday use, we constantly referred to the manual since few of the functions are intuitive or well thought out. The midsize remote crams in a dizzying array of buttons, many of which have multiple functions depending on the situation. After some trial and error--and some hints from the JVC's onscreen menus, which show annotated diagrams of the remote's keypad--we ultimately got the hang of it.
The JVC's myriad menus are almost as overwhelming as the remote, but we again grew familiar with the various screens over time, and helpful hints abound. Strangely, the menus changed personality when we switched from DVD to VHS mode; the VHS interface has the crude blue background and block letters of a Reagan-era VCR.
Unfortunately, the deck's setup gets clunky if you want to use high-quality video connections. If you're content with the RF or composite outputs, you can switch back and forth between the VHS and DVD modes with no trouble. But if you want to use the S-Video or component-video outputs, get ready for some exercise. One of the DR-MV1S's big features is its ability to play VHS video in progressive-scan over the component-video out, but to do so, you have to get up from the couch and press a button on the unit to switch to VHS playback mode (and the same goes for watching over the S-Video output in interlaced mode). Want to go back to DVD mode? You'll have to get up and push the button again. It's annoying, to say the least.
The JVC DR-MV1S arrives on the scene with an ace up its sleeve: dual tuners, which let you record two shows at once (one on VHS, the other on DVD) or record a program while watching a DVD, a videotape, or live TV. To make full use of the dual tuners, however, you must split your cable feed (a splitter is included) and hook the two RF cables into the back of the deck. That means digital cable users can forget about the second tuner unless they want to go with the low-quality RF output and record only whatever unscrambled channels their service offers on the second tuner; furthermore, the second tuner won't work for satellite users at all. Much like a TV with two-tuner picture-in-picture, the JVC's two-tuner functionality works best with analog cable and antenna connections.In addition to manual recordings on both decks, you can program timed recordings through the setup menu or use VCR Plus. You can plug in an IR blaster that lets the recorder change the channel on your cable/satellite box, but for some mysterious reason, JVC neglected to include one; you'll have to order it from the company. You can also set up the DVD recorder to automatically turn on when it detects a video output, say, from a timer-activated satellite box.
Dubbing from VHS to DVD (or vice versa) is a two-step process: you press one of two arrow buttons on the deck itself, then press the Dubbing button. The JVC will record on DVD-R/-RW/-RAM discs, and the usual recording speeds are available, including XP (for an hour of DVD recording), SP, LP, and EP modes.
We also loved the custom recording speed, which lets you set the speed manually at 5-minute intervals anywhere from 60 to 480 minutes--a great option for recording, say, a 130-minute show at the highest quality. And like the Panasonic DMR-E75VS, the JVC lets you chase playback, that is, watch a program from the beginning as it's being recorded midway through, provided you're using a DVD-RAM disc.
The DR-MV1S has all the usual editing functions, except for one unforgivable omission. The deck lets you snip sections out of titles or create playlists with DVD-RW VR discs, but you can't add chapter stops to a title. Even worse, the deck won't add them automatically, which means none of the DR-MV1S's recordings have chapter stops--unbelievable.
The JVC's connection set is pretty solid. Behind the deck, you get component-video and S-Video outputs, an S-Video input, two composite-video outputs and a composite input, optical and coaxial digital audio outs, and the dual RF ins/outs for the dual tuner. Up front you'll find a set of A/V inputs with S-Video and FireWire inputs for a camcorder.
We were impressed with the JVC DR-MV1S's VHS-to-DVD dubbing. We dubbed our 12-year-old VHS test tape to a DVD-RW in SP mode, and the resulting copy looked great. Much of the video noise from the aging tape was gone, and the picture looked reasonably sharp. Colors were a bit duller and the picture looked a tad dark, but overall we were thrilled with the results, the lack of chapter stops notwithstanding.The deck performed quite well in our resolution tests. Using a DVD-RW from the front S-Video port, the JVC captured about 450 horizontal lines in the one-hour XP and two-hour SP modes. In the four-hour LP mode, the deck scored an impressive 325 lines of resolution, almost 100 more than we've seen on other decks. In EP mode and below, resolution dropped to a much softer 250 lines, as expected. In our test recordings of Star Trek: Insurrection, the peasants fleeing the deadly probes looked solid in the XP and SP modes, with minimal background blockiness, and we were pleasantly surprised by the picture quality in the four-hour LP mode, which looks a bit soft but is still sharper than other decks' we've tested.
The DR-MV1S had no trouble with our 2:3 pull-down test, rendering the ragtag fleet in the 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries without jaggies or shimmering. In terms of playback compatibility, the deck handled the majority of discs in our test suite, although it choked on a couple of DVD-R and DVD-RW discs, including one that caused it to hang so badly we had to unplug it and reboot, a lengthy process. On the plus side, it handled three out of four DVDs filled with MP3s, a rare feat among standalone decks.
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