Customer Reviews

JVC HMDH40000U D-VHS HDTV Digital Video Recorder

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The JVC HMDH40000U D-VHS DVR is a great next-generation VCR and high definition media player. Under certain circumstances it's a good archival system for HD broadcasts. Unfortunately, between the recording industry's paranoia and JVC's mistakes those circumstances are rare. But it's now cheap enough so that you're basically paying for a great VCR with a HD option. On that basis, it's worth 4 stars.

While wonderful to watch, HDTV is clearly still in its early adoption stages. One problem with early adoption is that until standards settle down it's very hard to find critical support technology - like storage. Currently, the main option is to buy or rent a cable/satellite-brand specific integrated DVR/HDTV tuner. This also presents severe limitations: the box is useless if you switch providers, there's typically little storage space (typically 8 hours - HD takes about 4x the space of regular broadcasts), you can't burn programs to DVD, and they're wildly expensive. Until Tivo and others finally figure out the technology and come out with standalone HD units sometime in late 2005-2006, your only real alternative is a DVHS recorder.

For neophytes, DVHS is a remarkable update to 30 year old technology - it uses the the same tapes that VHS always did but records digitally. This is wonderful for backwards compatibility as VHS and SVHS tapes play and record perfectly in a DVHS VCR (and if you've got money to burn you can record an outrageously priced DVHS tape with a VHS signal.)

The good news is when it works it's a perfect digital copy of HD content. The bad is that after losing billions on pirated DVDs the recording industry put so many restrictions on digital recording it basically cripples this VCR and the DVHS format. In very simple terms they nerfed things so badly that it's: 1. very hard to record in HD format and 2. even more difficult to copy HD media.

So why bother with the JVC HMDH40000U?

First, you can in fact record HDTV broadcasts, and when it works its spectacular. The problem is that JVC is so paranoid at offending the studios that the only HD input is a Firewire/I-Link digital one - there are NO component video or HDMI inputs. Only a couple manufacturers provide I-Link outputs from HDTV tuners (Hitachi and Mitsubishi, along with a handful of models from others like Samsung and Sharp) which means for many people subscribing to cable or satellite HDTV this is useless. In addition, there are numerous documented cases where an tuner or camcorder has a nominal I-Link connection that's incompatible with this VCR. Even with a compatible I-Link connection, you can still run into periodic crashes with this largely due to poor compatibility with copy protection standards; I have hard reset (unplugged for 30 minutes) this unit more times than I can count to get it working again. But...when it works the results are a perfect copy and while DVHS tapes are outrageously expensive they're still cheap compared to what it would cost for 5 hours of HD stored on a hard drive.

Second, there is a very small (about 100 or so) selection of extremely high resolution (1080i) movies in a format known as D-Theater. Between this and the 25 or so Muse-HiVision laserdiscs that ceased being produced in 2001 and are only playable on obscure Japanese-only equipment which costs 10 times this VCR, this is about the only way you're going to see a movie in more than 480p on your home screen until HD-DVD/Blu-ray comes out in late 2005/early 2006 at initial prices that are 5-10x that of this VCR. Unfortunately it looks like D-Theater is going the way of Muse, but I've seen a couple movies this way and your jaw will simply drop if you find a movie you like in this format. Even when you lose a ton of resolution by letting the JVC downscale a D-Theater movie to 480i to play on your old Trinitron, this brings out details you won't see in a DVD. Most HDTV broadcasts simply don't compare to the detail you'll find on a D-Theater movie.

But the real reason to buy this is that it is what a 2005 VCR should be. It has component video outputs, an optical digital output, multiple SVHS inputs and outputs, and a range of features (like marking chapters on tapes so that you don't have to find scenes by time) that even good VCRs don't. Better yet, playback and recording in regular VHS and SVHS mode (and you can do both) are noticeably better than my 5-year old SVHS model. (And while it doesn't display video except in spurts while fastforwarding in DVHS mode, in VHS and SVHS mode it does it just as well as any standard unit.) As a VCR it's sleek and highly functional.

Unfortunately, there's a good chance that if you're buying this for HDTV recording its not compatible. Check very, very carefully first before buying. But now that JVC appears to be ready to give up on this model as it doesn't have an HDMI output, it's available at prices directly comparable to good SVHS VCRs. As such you get next generation technology for the same price. And if you're lucky, you get a lot more. For laser disc fans I'd compare it to a bargain basement HLD-X9 - the new technology didn't catch on but the upgrades on the old made this well worth it. Just know what you're getting!

I recently purchased a Sony HDR-FX1 1080i high-definition camcorder through Amazon (with which I am extremely pleased, incidentally), and have been looking for a way to archive my edited high-definition home movies and show them on my HDTV set. The JVC HMDH40000U, at the current low price, is the ideal solution.

The only other option at this point would be to use my camcorder as a VCR, but I hate putting all that extra wear and tear on my precious high-def camcorder.

With this JVC D-VHS VCR, you can shoot beautiful high-def footage with your HD camcorder, then upload it to your computer via FireWire, then edit it to produce a finished high-definition movie, then record it in digital high-def format on D-VHS tape via FireWire, then display it on your HDTV set.

Eventually, you'll be able to do all this using the Blue Ray or HD-DVD disk format (whichever one wins out, or maybe both). However, until the HD optical disk technology crystalizes and becomes affordable, a cheap D-VHS recorder such as this one is a great solution for home video enthusiasts.

On the one hand, the JVC D-VHS units are actually state of the art. I own two different units and they do a great job. On the other hand, they are pretty much obsolete and you will likely be much happier with an HD DVR.

If your plan is to record OTA HD programming then do realize that your HD tuner must have firewire output. The only way to feed HD signal into this VCR is via firewire. If you want to build up a library of pre-recorded D-Theater titles, forget about it.

Buying one of these now is sort of like buying the latest in 8-track players. JVC, along with the studios, appear to have abandoned the D-Theater format. The quality of the D-Theater tapes is spectacular, better than CD and even higher bitrate that broadcast HD. Unfortunately, the last titles released were "Master & Commander" and "Passion of the Christ". Those will probably be the last ones ever. Even blank D-VHS tapes are becoming harder to find.

Most of the better D-Theater movies are no longer available. This will leave you shopping at that big auction site. You will find mostly stuff not worth owning. You will also find that some rare titles such a Bourne Identity and Alien are selling for prices that defy any sort of logic. Look at what you can purchase these on DVD for and multiply by 10 or 20 and you will get the idea. You would really have to be insanely obsessed with seeing these pics in HD to purchase them at that price. Of course, with BlueRay or other HD DVD right around the corner, those tapes will soon be worth less than a buck on the same auction site.

I purchased two separate units, neither would work out of the box. Received the same error message: 201 calibrating, please wait. I waited hours, reset, ect. Could never get them to work, called JVC, they were of no help. I have used the earlier model 30000 for years with no problems. Purchased the HMDH5U after giving up on the 400000. The HDMI out does not work on the HMDH5U and now play back without problems is sporadic. Every 10 minutes it shuts off comes back on after 20 seconds.

I have to disagree with some other reviews I've read. I've owned this VCR for about a year now and very rarely, if ever, use it. First, there's the almost impossible task of getting HD content into the thing. Second, as a regular old everyday-use VCR, it sucks. It's very slow to start playing a tape, it's tracking is terrible, and it doesn't even show a picture when you fast forward. My $99 Mitsubishi VCR is far superior for everyday VCR use. Although with TiVo and Netflix, I really don't use VCRs much anymore! I miss the awsome VCRs they made in the early '90s...with frame advance, jog shuttles, etc. I thought this would be the best VCR they make these days, and if it is, I think it's safe to say the days of the VCR are drawing to a close.

The HD recordings in this JVC DVHS is very high quality. However, timeshifting or schedule recording in HD using the FireWire/iLink does not work without the aid of some external device. I use this DVHS to backup HD recordings from a Motorola DCT6412 HD DVR.

Who knew you could record HDTV on Super VHS tapes?* JVC performed a minor miracle when they designed this machine. This unit can:

- play all your VHS and S-VHS library
- record upto 4 hours HDTV from a Firewire/I.Link set-top box
- record upto 8 hours standard definition
- record upto 40 hours compressed video (near-DVD quality)
- and when the tape is full, you just switch to another tape! No need to worry about running-out of space on your machine, as is true with DVRs. The capacity is UNLIMITED.



The quality coming out of this machine is truly beautiful... never have I seen such crystal-clear recording from my previous VCRs.

* (To use S-VHS tapes you need to drill a second hole in the cassette; easy procedure. High-quality VHS tapes work too, if you are willing to accept the occasional pixelated image.)

WARRNING.... Do not buy this unit. I have ahd to send it back to JVC three times and they still won't send me a new one. The VCR tapes won't come out when you push eject. JVC service people won't refund shipping charges even when the unit is broken. I am out over 100.00 in shipping too. Don't buy anything JVC. BAD SERVICE.

If your set top box doesn't have a firewire output, forget about recording HI DEF. There is no DVI or component video "in" to this VCR. I'm not even sure if firewire will carry the HI DEF signal...I can't get JVC to answer my e-mails. I paid $750.00 for a VCR that isn't any better that my $200.00 Sony.