VCR opinions sought

[unixronin]

This move has been something of an eventful one for us in terms of turnover of electronic equipment.  We've had to replace our DVD player and receiver, both of which failed in North Carolina in an apparent murder-suicide; we've replaced our TV with a HD-capable LCD flat-screen, since paying $400 for another replacement front screen for a 12-year-old, non-HD-ready back-projection TV just didn't seem like a sensible plan; and now it turns out my 16-year-old Pioneer PD-M530 CD changer has failed.  (I tried to repair it yesterday, but after solving the mechanical issues, it appears there's logic-board issues as well, and I'm not solving those without a full set of service manuals and a logic analyzer.)

We most likely won't be replacing the CD changer, because with 36GB of MP3s on minbar, and with the ability to play single CDs in either our DVD player or our LD player, I think we can do without it.  However, we still have a lot of stuff on VHS tape, and we are going to want to look for a VCR, since our existing Sony VCR is now connected to the small TV in the kids' playroom.

So ... is there a particular VCR that any of you would currently recommend for the best possible image quality (short of insane prices)?  And if so, why that specific VCR?  I've been pleased with the Sony we have, and the SLV-N900 looks like a decent unit, but I'm not much inclined to buy Sony right now after Sony's recent shenanigans with putting rootkits on audio CDs (a fiasco from which, by all accounts, Sony has learned little, if anything).

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Update:

This JVC SVHS-HiFi 6-head¹ model looks like it might be a pretty good choice, actually.  Amazon.com has them in stock for $82 with free shipping, and it'll record in SVHS mode on regular VHS tapes.

[1]  Four video heads, two audio heads

Comments

[arasirsul.livejournal.com]

Of course, then there's the annoying question: Of the stuff on VHS, how much of it is stuff you'll ever watch again, and if there is any, can you replace it on DVD for the cost of VCR + hassle?

I found the answer was, "No."

Of course there aren't short people with shrill voices wandering around my house, either...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Good questions. However, quite a lot of it is stuff we'll watch again, and the cost of a VCR, it turns out, would cover replacing 4 to 6 tapes ... out of about 150. Most of those are movies etc. we're going to want to pull out again. I've already discovered that some of them appear to be available only as region 2 discs. And that doesn't even start counting all the Babylon 5 episodes -- which I can get on DVD, and eventually intend to, but at last count I think it'll cost me a couple of hundred bucks.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

The short people have their own VCR and TV up in their playroom. That's why we are looking for another VCR to put in to our stereo rack. Most of their videos are Scholastic's The Magic Schoolbus which I could replace with 3 DVDs but that's $30 each (IIRR) which is a 1/3 more than the VCR replacement he found for us.

(I also need to find a channel that broadcasts The Magic Schoolbus and record all the episodes that Scholastic doesn't sell.)