Price Paid:  $139.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
This is to clarify my review below. Apparently, the VCR that I bought does not seem to have macrovision enabled. I have received emails from a few people saying that they could not get it to work. THEREFORE my correction is that this vcr will NOT allow you to dub from dvd to vhs. It still is a good VCR, and one that i would recommend for purchasing if you want to get good picture and sound from VHS tapes, but it looks like we all still will have to wait for DVD recorders to drop in price :(. Sorry if my review confused anyone.

Strengths:
See Below

Weaknesses:
See Below

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic

Price Paid:  $139.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
This VCR is cool (and well worth the $139 Best Buy charges for it) for three reasons:

1) It has S-Video out which looks great, and pretty good picture quality even if S-Video is not used.

2) Sound quality is great. I upgraded to a Dolby Pro Logic II receiver recently, and VHS tapes that sounded pathetic (essentially mono with the occassion sound effect here and there) on my older VCR and Pro Logic system now have soundtracks that are closer to Dolby 5.1 (though still nowhere near as good).

3) You can avoid macrovision and record DVD to VHS. I have component video going from my dvd player to my toshiba widescreen tv, and then S-Video (and stereo audio) going from my DVD-player to the JVC VCR. If i want to make a copy, i just hit play on the DVD, and record on the VCR. If you use SVHS tapes (which arent compatible with regular VCR's, but give substantially better picture quality), this VCR can give you a very good copy of a DVD that is a good movie, but isnt quite worth buying. (Cost of this is about $5 for the tape and rental as opposed to $20 buying it brand new).

I was very pleased to figure this out. I am not sure whether DVD player manufacturers choose not to output macrovision through the S-Video Jack, or whether this VCR merely ignores or doesnt recognize macrovision. I have heard that other SVHS VCR's allow you to copy DVD ==> VHS, so my guess would be that it is the S-Video connection and not the player that allows me to do it. But for anyone who is possibly looking into DVD-Recorders that can cost you $1000 - $3000 and is still in its primitive stages, you might want to look in to this VCR first, as it is only $140-$180 and can give you just a slightly lower quality duplication.

Strengths:
Exceptional picture and sound quality. Tolerable motor noise (way better than panasonic 4520). Ability to copy DVD ==> VHS :). Decent quality when recording cable. DVD's recorded on to SVHS tapes look and sound amazing (...for VHS).

Weaknesses:
Remote is slightly counter intuitive, but otherwise no major weknesses.

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic PV-4520