JVC HMDH40000U D-VHS HDTV Digital Video Recorder

Other products by JVC

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 20.4 x 8.3 inches ; 17 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 18 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000ACY2B
• Item model number: HMDH40000U
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank

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  Electronics > Televisions & Video > Digital Video Recorders

• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 2, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Record high-definition television broadcasts with the JVC HMDH40000U D-VHS digital video recorder. Using special D-VHS tapes with a 50 GB of capacity, you can record up to 3.5 hours of high-quality video and Dolby Digital audio. Features include 5.1-channel Digital Dolby audio, FireWire/iLink connectivity, VCR Plus+ instant timer programming, and playback of D-Theater prerecorded movies.

Thanks to its high read/write speed (28.2 Mbps in HS mode), D-VHS produces up to six times better quality than DVDs. And you'll get powerful home theater sound with the 5.1-channel Dolby Digital audio output (and support for 2-channel linear PCM output). With the JVC HMDH40000U, you can record any type of broadcast, including HD, SD (standard definition), and analog. You can also play your old VHS and S-VHS tape library, as well as record analog video signal to those older formats.

The JVC HMDH40000U has two FireWire/iLink ports so that you can connect to a digital set-top box. If you have a digital camcorder, you can download video footage to a D-VHS tape (using the MPEG-2 video standard) via the second FireWire/iLink port. The Video Navigation System feature enables you to store title, date, and storage information on up to 2,000 tapes.

Other features include:

• Time Base Corrector removes jitter from fluctuating video signals
• Digital YNR/CNY improves signal-to-noise ratio by 3 dB
• Record up to 24 events, up to 1 year in advance
• MTS stereo reception
• Remote control featuring multibrand compatibility and glow-in-the-dark buttons

Recording modes include:

• HS (28.2 Mbps; 210 minutes max with DF-420 cassette)
• STD (14.1 Mbps; 420 minutes max with DF-420 cassette)
• LS3 (4.7 Mbps; 1,260 minutes max with DF-420 cassette)
• LS5 (2.8 Mbps; 2,100 minutes max with DF-420 cassette)
• SP (210 minutes max with S-VHS or VHS cassette)
• EP (630 minutes max with S-VHS or VHS cassette)

Tech Talk
D-VHS: The D-VHS (or Digital VHS) format offers the highest consumer video resolution for recording and playback. It stores digitally encoded video signals and accompanying multichannel audio from high-definition TV (HDTV) to a tape format. You can record up to 3.5 hours of video at either the 1080i or 720p HDTV formats. For audio, D-VHS encodes Dolby Digital at 576 Kbps (compared to DVD's 384 Kbps and 448 Kbps data rates), which can mean higher sound fidelity due to less compression.

HDTV formats: There are two common video formats for HDTV. The 1080i format displays video at 1080 vertical by 1920 horizontal pixels and it is interlaced (which means that a video screen scans the odd-numbered video lines first, then the even-numbered lines). The 720p format displays video at 720 vertical by 1280 horizontal pixels and it is progressive (which means that all video lines are filled at the same time).

What's in the Box
JVC HMDH40000U D-VHS player/recorder, remote (LP21036-013), two AA batteries, S-Video cable, RCA audio cable, coaxial cable, head cleaning cassette, and instruction manual.

Product Description

JVC is one of the world's leading developers and manufacturers of sophisticated audio, video and related software products. Building upon a wealth of technologies the company is moving decisively to offer appropriate solutions for the multimedia age. To remain at the forefront of the audiovisual industry in the 21st century, JVC is marshalling its resources to create the ultimate in appealing, cost-competitive products.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Iffy as an HDTV recorder. Great VCR especially for price, March 14, 2005

By	D. Parvin "dparv" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

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!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ideal for HD home movies, April 6, 2005

By	N. W. Clayton (Sandy, UT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars D-VHS An Orphaned Technology, October 17, 2005

By	Michael A. Israel (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

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.