lakan kildap

I have a VHS player on its last legs. I don't plan to do much upgrading in this format, except perhaps to replace the unit when it finally refuses to play a tape - I'm starting to get into DVD - but I need the tape player for those movies I can't get yet in DVD. I'm mostly just after the 'movie' itself (I don't even regularly watch DVD supplements), especially those old ones I've never seen, so if I really feel I have to watch "Sgt. York", I won't wait for it to come on DVD (although of course I'll get the DVD version when it does come out, for a myriad reasons). But I've been spoiled by DVD video quality and would accept any improvement in the picture quality of a VHS player.

Please don't laugh, I know I'm probably just better off buying an S-VHS player with S-video output/s (and there are many), but like I said, I won't be doing much upgrades on VHS anymore.

My friend thinks the CSVA-1 is probably a waste of money (US$100) since I have no guarantee that its chroma separator will be better than the one already built in my TV (the one that separates a composite video signal). Does anybody have experience with the CSVA-1 and can he please comment? Is my friend technically correct? I'd appreciate all help. Thanks.

ZenerDiode

I agree with your friend. From what I understand, a S-VHS VCR (or DVD or Laserdisc for that matter), separates the chroma at the source...hence the difference in picture quality. No matter how good the Monster is, it's still resolving a "mixed" signal.

I think it's somewhat analogous to Pro-Logic vs. Discrete. With Pro-Logic, the effects are matrixed into 2 channels, and split out again at the receiver. With Discrete, it stays split into it's separate channels from the source. IMO, use that $100 towards a S-VHS player!

However, note that a S-VHS player won't make any significant impact on a regular VHS tape. The high res it can output only comes from S-VHS sources...and from what I've seen, there aren't too many S-VHS pre-recorded tapes around.

lakan kildap

Thanks. You are right I probably should just use the $100 for an upgrade. Although an S-VHS player will probably be used to play mostly ordinary VHS tapes (like that Sgt. York), it will most likely do very well in that role.