About
Retired aerospace engineer. BE degree, Magna Cum Laude, Vanderbilt University, 1960. Born in 1938 in Luverne, Alabama. Married Mary Fennell in 1967. Still married to Mary. Three boys.
Reviews (1)
Feb 16, 2018
Well Made and Functional. Tracking Performance Depends on the TV Set
The rating would have been five stars, except for the TV-dependent tracking problem discussed in the following paragraphs.
This Sharp VCR is well made, its remote contoller is in good condition, and all of the functions tried so far have worked. Portions of several VHS tapes (EP speed) have been played by the Sharp VCR into two TV sets: an older Samsung 720P LCD set, and a new Sony 4k HDTV. With the Sharp VCR playing into the Sony, there is a bit of a tracking problem that manifests itself as a random, periodic horizontal jerk of the top 5-10% of the displayed image. This problem has not been seen when the Sharp VCR plays the VHS tapes into the Samsung TV. And, an older Zenith VCR/DVD combo has played the VHS tapes into both TV's with no tracking problems.
So, it seems that the Sharp VCR may be borderline insofar as its ability to transmit a sufficiently strong and stable signal for all TV's. The Samsung TV can handle the signal OK, but the newer Sony has not dealt perfectly with the signal.
Not counting the occasional horizontal jerks at the top of the image when played into the Sony TV, the image quality produced by the Sharp VCR is very good. There is no noise at all, even though the tapes were recorded at EP speed on a now-gone VCR over twelve years ago.
Recent result: Just this morning, after fooling with the Sharp VCR's manual tracking and reverting to its automatic tracking, stopping the playback, and re-starting the playback, there was then no horizontal jerk during the several minutes that the playback was observed on the Sony TV. There may be a reliable, repeatable procedure such as this that will remove the horizontal jerk. Hope so.