Sony SLV-R1000 S-VHS VCR

I had some old SVHS tapes with concert footage I shot 17 years ago. I had them packed away and they were forgotten until recently. I wanted to digitize them right away before they completely disintegrated with age.

The Sony deck I bought from Harry performed beautifully. It was so well maintained it seemed like new right out of the box. I plugged it into my DVD recorder and was able to digitize all but one tape. Now I can pop the DVDs into my computer and edit them with my Pinnacle Studio 14 software. My YouTube channel will soon have some vintage music videos to share.

I am also going to purchase an older SVHS camcorder to begin shooting future videos for YouTube. The Sony deck is perfect for editing new footage with it's flying erase head. I can do simple edits on the deck first without loading up my hard drive with excessive space during my final editing.

This is a good set up for less money than buying expensive digital equipment to start out with. I can now produce some quality videos and build my business.

These things are really built well, which means longer life and fewer problems with alignments and component wear. The S-VHS works great and all controls are fairly easy to use. One big plus for me is that it has two sets of audio/video outputs (including the s-video output). You can connect it to a TV or receiver and also connect it to a video capture card or to a retransmission device. It DOES have a couple of idiosyncracies, though. One of the tape counter modes, for example, only runs/advances when there is video on the tape. I can see the rationale (time counter doesn't start until the video does) but it can make things difficult when you are trying to locate different segments on a tape. Also, the unit takes a long time to start rewinding. Most VCRs just pull the tape away from the head and start rewinding. This unit spends a good 10 or 15 seconds ensuring that all is well before it starts to rewind. (No, this is normal for the unit.) In spite of the high quality of the unit, don't expect miracles with old tapes. If the tape was recorded in LP or EP mode on a misaligned recorder and you have tracking problems, the R1000 may not be any more successful in playing it back then some cheap recorder. (In fact, I have an old Mitsubishi that I use for tough tapes. I tweak the take-up guide post position in an effort to track badly recorded tapes. This often works.) Overall, a great unit and a classic!

After playing a VHS Tape on this SVHS Player I am very impressed. The picture quality looks alot better than my regular VHS Tape player. The onbox controls are some of the best I have encountered on an VHS player. Anybody that is lucky enough to get one of these SVHS Players will be glad they did!

The SLV-R1000 is one of the best VCRs made by Sony and one of the few super VHS models ever manufactured by any company. I bought it as a backup unit for one I already owned, because these VCRs are getting harder and harder to find in good-working order, and parts are no longer available from Sony. This particular VCR is in excellent condition, both cosmetically and functionally, better than the one I already possessed.

I bought a VCR because that I like SVHS. This is a very good video recorder. There are many functions.