JVC DRMV1S Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder and VCR Combo , Silver

by JVC

Product Details

• Item Weight: 13.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 13 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0002325XK
• Item model number: DRMV1S
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,066 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Merging operationally independent DVD and VHS videocassette recorders/players in one space-saving component, JVC's DR-MV1S is a must for 21st-century media mavens. You get hassle-free, 1-touch dubbing from VHS to DVD or from DVD to VHS tape (where Macrovision copy protection allows) and the ability to record to DVD while playing a VHS tape--or to record to VHS while playing a DVD. With its 2 NTSC tuners, you can even record 2 different programs simultaneously: one to DVD and the other to VHS. For the first time, progressive-scan video outputs extend to both DVD and VHS playback via JVC's VHS Progressive technology, which upconverts VHS material to 480p resolution. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD or VHS picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

With its front-panel inputs and multiformat recording and playback, the DR-MV1S is perfect for archiving home videos. For DVD recording, the unit can record to DVD-RAM, DVD-R, or to video-mode DVD-RW, letting you pick the format that's best-suited to a given application. As a player, it handles everything from VHS and multiple DVD formats (including DVD+R/+RW) to VCD/SVCD to recordable CDs filled with MP3 music files and JPEG digital images. And, to simplify advance recordings, the unit comes with VCR Plus+ and a 1-month, 8-event scheduler.

DVD-R is like a higher-capacity CD-R--and almost as widely playable. DVD-RW is rewriteable up to 1,000 times, and--like DVD-R--offers the widest compatibility among existing DVD players and computer drives. Rewriteable discs are superb for time shifting your TV viewing, since you can use the same disc week in and week out. DVD-RAM (DVD random-access memory) is a rewriteable format that uses magneto-optical (MO) technology to offer superb access times, making it great for on-disc non-linear editing. The DR-MV1S lets you fast-forward, rewind, and play a DVD-RAM disc even as you're still recording a program in progress.

Blank DVD media comes in 2 capacities: single-sided, 4.7 GB (holding about 17 times as much as a CD and around 2 hours of high-quality audio and video) and double-sided, 9.4 GB.

The DR-MV1S offers several technical features to boost image quality, including JVC's Super MPEG encode pre-processor, a 3-step process that takes place before MPEG-2 encoding of a given input signal. A time-base corrector eliminates jitter, a frame synchronizer provides frame normalization, and motion-active noise reduction provides a clearer image than do conventional frame-noise reduction techniques (such as 3D noise reduction).

Super MPEG Post-Processor enhances playback image quality through block noise-reduction circuitry. Color DigiPure provides 3D noise reduction along with color and detail enhancement, and Hadamard noise reduction eliminates so-called mosquito noise.

Conveniences include live memory, which allows fast forwarding, rewinding, and slow replay even during recording (DVD-RAM only), and DVD Navigation, which stores information for around 1,300 recorded programs. Navigation data includes disc number, title, and other details. Load a disc, and DVD Navigation will display a thumbnail of recorded programs to help you easily identify content. The thumbnail image can be animated with sound when selected with the cursor.

Other DVD features include quick skip for skipping 30 seconds forward, instant/one-touch replay that replays the last 7 seconds of a given program, natural reverse playback, and a multi-brand remote control.

Connections include an IEEE to i.LINK (DV) input for direct digital connection with a compatible camcorder; front and rear S-Video and composite-video inputs with accompanying stereo analog audio inputs; video outputs for component-video, S-Video, and composite-video; and one each optical and coaxial digital-audio outputs for Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1-channel passthrough to a multichannel audio/video receiver and speaker system.

Product Description

DRMV1S DVD Unit with recording capability with VHS Progressive, Dual Tuner Recording Capabilty ( Silver )

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

151 of 156 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For those curious about all the features, November 9, 2004

By 

C. Fernandes (Columbia, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: JVC DRMV1S Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder and VCR Combo , Silver (Electronics)

What caught my eye about the JVC DR-MV1SL was that it boasted VHS playback in progressive mode! There are S-VHS VCR players that will playback an S-VHS tape in S-VHS mode (400 lines of resolution). But these VCRs will play regular VHS tapes like any ordinary VCR player, with just 230 lines of resolution. When you have an HDTV (mine is the 50" Samsung DLP HDTV), the lower resolution VHS tapes really start to look bad.
So, coming back to the DR-MV1SL, the specs say it can play a regular VHS tape in progessive mode, which is 480 lines progressively scanned (not interlaced, like S-VHS or regular VHS). This should account for a really good picture. And that was my primary reason for buying this DVD/VCR combo. Here's some very useful stuff I found out:

1) The unit does indeed play a VHS tape in 480 progressive mode. But the quality was not always much better. The picture was somewhat sharper, and more full of color. But I also started to notice a lot more jagged lines. In defense of this unit, there's really only so much you can do with a lower quality signal. This unit tries its best to upgrade that signal - but the end result was not so spectacular. A little better, but not much.

2) Limited use of dubbing VHS tapes due to copyright protection. You were probably aware that this unit would not dubb VHS tapes onto DVD if the tape had a copyright signal on it. But did you know that ALL Disney and Pixar tapes are copyright protected? My wife has almost a 100 of these Disney animation tapes and I thought I'd pick our favorite ones to backup onto DVD. Surprise, surprise, not ONE could be copied. Even the old Disney tapes like Cinderella, Lion King, etc. - none of them could be copied.

3) But if you're lucky enough to find a tape that you can copy onto DVD, the results are very good. I managed to find 5 VHS movies that I could copy onto DVD (Mission Impossible, Jumanji, etc.). 4 of them came out perfect, just 1 of them had a 3 second skip in the middle of the movie. But that VHS tape was very old and poor quality.

4) Recording TV programs onto DVD is nice and easy. The resulting picture also looks quite nice, sometimes even better than the original TV broadcast signal.

5) The unit will only record on DVD -R, -RW and -RAM formats. It won't record on any of the +s (I tried a DVD +R and it didn't work). Also, the recording speed of the discs doesn't seem to matter (nothing is mentioned about disc speed in the manual). I tried a 4x and an 8x - no difference in terms of recording time and end quality. Also, the unit will playback almost ALL the formats (I tried a recorded DVD +R and it worked fine).

There were few more minor details (like the blue light, which can be totally dimmed, the remote which can get confusing since the buttons double up for the VCR and DVD - but this is probably true of all VCR/DVD combos and you eventually get used to it). But I figured the points I mentioned above were the most important and most useful (at least to me) and they were not really mentioned clearly anywhere else.

Summarizing: Picture quality is great with the DVD, VHS tapes look a little better using the progressive output. Copyright protection of tapes (like with Disney) make it impossible to backup tapes onto DVD.

Overall, I think this is a very nice unit with lot of packed features in it. However, I returned mine back to BestBuy primarily because I couldn't backup my Disney collection, because VHS playback was only a little better, and because the price I paid was a little too much (around 400). If this ever went on sale for less than $300, I'd seriously consider buying it and keeping it.

UPDATE (11/17/04):

I still think this unit is very nice and I'm sticking to my 4 star rating. However there were some things I forgot to mention before and some new information about OTHER products (from JVC) that I think would be useful to those shopping around.

1) I forgot to mention that NO AV cables come with this unit (No RCA cables, no S-Video cables). Only 3 (that's right, three) RF-cables and an RF splitter. At first I thought this was a mistake, but then I checked the manual and it confirms the same.
I thought that that was bad of JVC. This unit is noted for its progressive output - they should have at least included one component video cable!

2) JVC also has another new model out right now - the DR-MX1S which is basically this unit (DR-MV1S) + an 80GB hard drive. So essentially, it's a 3 in 1 - sounds very nice. Depending on where you look, the MSRP of the DR-MX1S varies - the JVC website has the MSRP at $999, Amazon has it at $1099 and I've seen some other websites that list it as high as $1299. Of course, MSRP doesn't matter that much as long as you can get a good price. Amazon currently has it listed for a fairly competitive price of $699. I suspect it'll go lower in time.
I would love to try out the DR-MX1S since I think a hard drive is best for daily recordings of TV shows. But I'm waiting for it to be available at my local store first.

3) JVC also has an OLDER model - the HR-XVC37U that supposedly does the SAME thing as this unit (the DR-MV1S) in that it can display VHS in progressive mode! It's also a DVD/VCR combo like this unit, but it's also a lot less expensive since it does not have the capability of a DVD recorder. Amazon has it listed as the HRXVC37U, in case you want to search for it here.

So, there ARE other options. An older, less expensive JVC model (without DVD recording capability) or a newer, more expensive JVC model (with an added hard drive). Just thought some might find this information useful. Happy shopping!

61 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great Features - Many Problems, September 12, 2004

By 

Ls "LS" (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews

This review is from: JVC DRMV1S Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder and VCR Combo , Silver (Electronics)

This unit has many great features. The problem is that there are way too many problems with the VCR. First unit, a VCR tape got stuck within one month. Took unit to dealer. Unit was repaired. Within 2 weeks another VCR tape got stuck. Dealer replace the unit with a new one. Within one month a VCR tape got stuck. I was told by the dealer, that 3 other people had similar problems with their units. Appears that this is way to common.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Major problem, short warranty, don't buy JVC, October 23, 2004

By 

M. Sowka (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: JVC DRMV1S Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder and VCR Combo , Silver (Electronics)

We purchased this JVC unit in early June from Crutchfield. The first problem was dubbing from video to dvd-the manual was wrong. We got help from JVC on the phone and worked that out. Then, about a month ago (past the short 90 day warranty) the unit would spontaneously start flashing "loading" at various times. We might be watching a video or dvd-it just starts flashing. We can't turn it off-the unit had to be unplugged and cleared before it stops. If it happens when set to timer record, it stops recording-so we've lost programs we wanted to record.

Crutchfield says it's not their problem. JVC doesn't anwser emails and the customer service people just say mail it (at our expense) to the service center with a $50 check before they'll even look at it.

This is obviously a problem others are having but JVC won't deal with it. I've lost all loyalty for JVC products-and I've filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Consumer Protection Department.

Don't buy this unit-it's buggy!