i'll admit, the Mitsu HS-U80 that i positively adore the design of seems an inferior performer to my rather spectacular JVC HR-S8000U S-VHS, on certain levels.
my copy of the U80, at least, was very well cared for, and little used by it's original owner, and it's mechanical performance has been flawless so far.
in fact, it's "Twin Digital" tracking system perfectly tracks tapes that even the otherwise almighty 8000U will not.
it is really too bad that the MITSUBISHI's raw video performance seems so... Noisy.
and that in direct comparison to the JVC it seems to suffer a serious case of "Crush" in it's BLACK LEVEL.
i mean, i really, REALLY LOVE the MITSUBISHI HS-U80. to my personal eye, it's the most perfectly beautiful VHS VCR design i have ever seen,
and i've literally seen nearly all of them. it would be nice, if the decks' apparent tendency to crush blacks and emphasize VHS' inherent video noise
was merely due to driving fine adjustments that needed re-calibration, but i doubt i'd be so lucky.
in any case, for such a poor performing TOTL S-VHS Prosumer Editing Deck, the U80 sure makes for a mighty pretty snapshot of it's own DVD/S-VHS recording.
bear in mind, folks,
this is 1988 video recording technology tackling a 2011 DVD release spun on a 2001 DVD player;
for direct comparison, the same scene from the JVC HR-S8000U's own S-VHS recording;
- you know... now that i look at it again, the U80's recording does in fact appear generally sharper than that of the 8000U.
perhaps this explains my perception of of it's seemingly above average video noise?
perhaps the U80 is in fact extracting a marginally higher degree of the recorded detail than the 8000U is actually capable of?
or perhaps it is merely disparate performance in the decks' comb filters, DIGITAL NR and/or other video processing electronics?
all the same, i cannot understand where the U80's seeming black crush comes in.
i mean, that Black Crush, while not the most evident from these Animation screenshots, is definitely quite significantly notable
during every live-action film i've yet passed through the deck;
perhaps it's merely the low-res truth of VHS shining through, but i can swear the JVC displays far superior BLACK detail.
i haven't gotten around to getting direct screenshots for comparison, apologies for being so lazy about that...
