JVC VCR/DVD combo - Worst VCR I've ever owned. OK DVD.

This review really applies to several JVC model numbers
This review applies to the JVC combo DVD player/VCR machines advertised as HR-XVC19, HR-XVC19B, HR-XVC19S, and HR-XVC19SUS. The B or S just indicate black or silver. The US appears to point to being preset to the US (Region 1) for DVD copy protection purposes. My machine as delivered was an HR-XVC19SUS.

Why I bought this JVC combo VCR/DVD player
My old VCR died, and I wanted a replacement, so I could tape TV shows and watch them at a different time. Also, my old DVD player didn't support newer formats such as the DVD plus R that I burn on my computer. (I'm spelling out plus because plus doesn't come through in this text!). Anyone would hate to spend much money on an obsolete technology like VHS, so I looked at combo devices. I bought this one quite a few months ago.

I bought the machine because it supported reading a lot of DVD & CD formats, has progressive scan output, and has outputs for digital audio and component video, unlike cheaper models.

Having the VCR and DVD in one box cuts down on clutter, in terms of physical space as well as wiring clutter. This also makes it simpler to operate, and reduces the number of remotes. I was also attracted by the theory that I could show jpeg photographs easily on our TV, instead of having people huddle around a computer in a cluttered study. (But see later comments.)

But JVC built a real clunker of a VCR into this combo
Unfortunately, the VCR portion of this machine is the worst I've ever owned in 25 years. The most annoying feature is that even a brief power dip causes it to lose all its settings. Not just the scheduled recording times, but also basic settings like Cable channels vs. broadcast channels. The default setting is broadcast even though most people have cable. So, after a power dip, it forgets about the cable channels. Any schedule you have set up is lost. Even if you realize that and reset the programming, you might forget that the basic settings are also lost, and record nothing. I live in an area with a lot of trees that must drop limbs onto power lines, because at least once a month I have a power dip of 1-5 seconds or more. Each time, I lose my programming. Worse, there's NO indication that this has happened on the display. This is a bad user interface - you never really know if you're program is going to record without going into the programming mode.

The rewind is horribly slow. The last 10 percent might take 10 minutes. Worse, the stop display indicating it's done rewinding only shows briefly. So, unless you're willing to stare at the machine for a long time, you'll come back and not be able to tell it's done. You eject the tape to take a look, put it back, try again, etc., etc. This is way too painful for such basic required functionality.

The video & sound quality for the VCR part of the machine is average. There's probably not much variation among manufacturers, and they don't appear to have improved over the years. Like many VCRs, it only supports full speed SP (chewing up a lot of tape) or the extra slow SLP speed (with its low quality). It's a pet peeve of mine that the compromise LP speed isn't common these days. Oh well, we'll all go to DVRs soon enough and be done with this tape business! One clever feature is that it can automatically decide how much you can squeeze on the tape at LP speed before automatically switching over to SLP.

One other minor quirk. When the power is turned off, the input cable TV signal is not passed on to its output, unlike the case with every other VCR I've owned. So, you have to split the signal (cable), running part of it directly to the TV, and part to the machine's input (unless you are willing to leave your machine on all the time). It would have been simpler if this was like every other VCR, so you could have routed all signals through the VCR/DVD player, with just a single connection to the TV. You also end up fiddling with remotes a lot, selecting between "cable" and "video" inputs on your TV and TV/VCR on the remote. If the signal could just pass through, you'd only have to fiddle with the TV/VCR button on this machine.

I don't know if anyone makes a decent VCR these days. This is the end of life for that technology. The best VCR I ever had was probably about 25 years ago - one of the first Hi-Fi VHS VCRs made by Panasonic, that cost $600 at that time. The mechanical parts of that machine finally gave up about 4 years ago, although the tuner still works fine. I've replaced it with a cheap Panasonic model and a Toshiba model since then. Neither did as good of a job of recording as the old one, and each broke within a few years.

The DVD player part and the so-called jpeg photo viewing
The DVD player does read formats I've tried, mainly CD-R, DVD video, and DVD video on DVD plus R disks burned on my computer. I don't have any source of DVD-R, and haven't tried CD-RW or DVD plus RW, but don't have any reason to doubt that they would work.

You can display jpeg photos stored as files on DVD plus R or CD, but it takes so long to index them, and then display them, that the feature is almost useless. (I haven't tried the DVD minus R variant). I wouldn't use this to show pictures to anyone. You can't do anything while the machine takes minutes to index the pictures, and then each picture comes up slowly, visibly painting the screen line by line.

I haven't tried dubbing from DVD to VHS tape. Why bother? The manual says that copyrighted material would be blocked in this mode. But that's probably the only use for dubbing. Starting with DVD quality, it would be a shame to downgrade to VHS quality. Use a computer for copying video materials and preserving quality!

The DVD video and sound are fine. And, unlike my older DVD player, I have no trouble with computer-generated DVDs, or some DVDs of tourist places in China that must have used some newer formats than the old standards.

Be warned that the digital audio out only works if the input source has digital audio (e.g., CD or DVD-Video, not TV or VHS tape.) This is inconvenient if you were planning to route your sound to a good audio system just via the digital audio no matter what the input source. You'll have to also run ordinary audio cables in parallel and maybe have to select the sound source, depending on your equipment.

Summary of this review of the JVC HR-XVC19S DVD Player/VCR Combo
Having a combo DVD player/VCR makes sense. But it seems clear to me that JVC loaded up this machine with lots of features like jpeg photo viewing and digital sound output that sound good on paper to help sell the box. But, the execution is poor, and JVC must have little regard for their customers. Short power dips kill your VCR recording schedule, the jpeg viewing is too slow to be useful, and the digital sound output only works when the input has digital sound (resulting in having to use more cables to hook the thing up). The user interface is bad - JVC didn't seem to care about how people actually use the machine. (e.g., being able to tell when rewinding is done, being able to tell when power dips have cost lost settings, etc.)

Don't buy this thing, even though its price now has dropped as low as $80 or so.