Sharp VC-H965U 4-head Hi-Fi video cassette recorder has front A/V jacks and auto clock setting in addition to EZ setup for both air and cable systems. Sharp Super Picture enhances the fine detail of the image and outlines of the object it contains. VCR tuner channels and clock are automatically set for both air and cable channels. Universal Remote operates the VCR and basic functions of various TVs, cable boxes, and some digital satellite receivers. The VC-H965U also features 19-micron Exact-Track Heads for clear pictures in EP mode and built-in front A/V jacks for easy connection of audio/video equipment.
The VC-H965U from Sharp offers all the convenience of VHS recording and playback--a great way to time-shift TV viewing and share camcorder footage with loved ones, and the only way to enjoy an extensive library of videocassettes. Your camcorder or gaming console plugs right into the VC-H965U's front panel for hassle-free connections.
This model's four-head design ensures smooth slow-motion play (forward and reverse) and clear still-frame images, while hi-fi sound records and plays back stereo audio tracks. If you route the stereo output to an AV receiver, you can even enjoy four-channel (left, center, right, and monaural surround) Dolby Pro Logic mixes from TV and Dolby-encoded cassettes. Sharp Super Picture enhances fine image details, while 19 micron Exact-Track heads ensure the clearest possible picture when recording or viewing in EP (extended-play) mode. With EZ Set Up, all VCR tuner channels and clock are automatically set up for both air and cable channels.
With Skip Search, the VCR zooms forward in 30-second intervals to bypass commercials, while Instant Replay quickly performs reverse scanning in 20-second intervals, then resumes playback. Rewind speed is approximately 54 seconds with a T-120 tape (the speed may be slower for tapes other than T-60, T-90, or T-120). The unit comes with a universal remote control, which operates the VCR and basic functions of various TVs, cable boxes, and some digital satellite receivers.
1 What's all the shouting about?
I bought this unit based on the 4-star and 5-star ratings found here, ignoring the one-stars about defects (not all new VCR's have factory defects, but it's getting a little worse every day). The Sharp's tuner is visibly noisy -- not too bad, but not as clean as several VCRs in this price range. Playing tapes, the picture is atrocious at both speeds: SP is noisy and ghosty (it looks as if even the ghosts have ghosts!), detail is poor for SP and the picture isn't at all crisp. There's a lot of tape slippage, poor resolution, and so-so contrast. EP record and playback is truly awful -- extremely dark, with obscured detail, video jitter, loss of midtones, murky and/or jet-black shadows. As a spare VHS, it is totally unacceptable. The Auto clockset doesn't work and the channel scan takes longer than my old 1986 RCA. This is my 2nd copy of this unit (I thought the first was defective and returned it). I couldn't even steady the unstable image with a $400 professional Time Base Correction unit. I won't bother to send this one back, I've wasted enough time on it. Chalk it up as a $90 loss, it's even less than one would expect at this price. Many Sharps of a few years back were actually decent machines. This one is a dud.
2 "A well-pleased customer"
I recently brought a Sharp VC-H965U 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR through Amazon.com and it is one of the smartest decisions I've made in the field of home entertainment. This VCR does EVERYTHING right. The time recording is easy to set up. The recording and playback looks BETTER than the original picture due to the quasi-4head Sharp super picture playback. Hooking auxillary equipment up, such as a camcorder, is a snap due to the front loading ports. I've owned VCR's made by Sony, Sylvannia, Zenith and Panasonic - and THIS one produces a better picture HANDS DOWN.
Other features: Super fast rewind and fast foward. I love this feature. Due to my busy lifestyle, I don't have all day to wait for the tape to rewind. Zero back: This feature is real neat. All you do is reset the tape counter to "0:00.00" with the CANCEL button on the remote BEFORE recording Begin recording; then when the recording is over, press ZERO BACK and the tape will return to the place where the recording started - real neat feature. I could go on and on ...JUST BUY THIS VCR!
Thanks Amazon.com for carrying Sharp products. This brand is very hard to find for some reason. Maybe QUALITY products take more time to make and therefore fewer are made.
3 LOVE THIS VCR!!!
This is a great VCR. I have had it for a few months and I had the previous version for several years. I probably use the VCR for recording or playing something two or three times a day. It has a super fast rewind, which is fantastic (for when you are trying to make it to Blockbuster by noon).
I just wanted to write a review to say that there is a way to reset the counter, but clearly people have trouble figuring out how to do it. It is rather simple, you just make the display show the counter (by pressing the display button the the remote) and then you press the cancel button (on the remote) and it resets the counter to 00:00:00.
Another thing, I noticed when I was reading deciding which VCR to buy that a reviewer or two said something about this not having a manual and I was very concerned by this. Well, it's not true at all. This VCR DOES come with a manual, when you buy it new. I would guess that some others buy it used or from other sellers, and well, at that point, it's really their own responsibility to make sure it includes a manual. Also, when I spoke with Sharp, and if you have proof of valid purchase of the machine, they will send a new manual.
All in all, this is a truly excellent VCR, especially for the price. I have had more expensive VCRs that just have not been as dependable, they broke down much sooner, something happens with the clarity of the picture, or a problem starts to develop with the rewind or fast forward. I have had no problems with this VCR or its previous version. I would highly recommend this for anyone who is looking to save a little money, but wants a good, dependable machine.
4 A good no-nonsense, dependable quality machine.
We've now had this Sharp VCR for about 4 months now. The Sharp VC-H965U 4-head VCR is a good no-nonsense, dependable quality machine. I would NEVER have thought when I had to replace my Panasonic VCR (after just two years) that it would be so difficult to find a good quality VCR. Apparently it is getting harder and harder to find well-engineered ones, even those made by the more well-known manufacturers. I had always been told about Panasonic's quality in regards to its VCRs, and how "JVC had invented the VCR tape", and therefore I reasoned that my first Panasonic which died prematurely must have just been a lemon, or something of a fluke. So I (unfortunately) bought yet another Panasonic. After buying it, we had to return it within a week since it mistracked every tape I put into it almost immediately out of the box. Same with a "super-high quality" JVC "S-VCR"; I didn't even have it for 24 hours before I saw permanent tracking lines on everything I taped & watched. (Those tapes were forever damaged by that VCR and my second Panasonic.) After trying a VCR/DVD combo which ALSO didn't work properly, I purchased this Sharp unit and a Sanyo VCR hoping that ONE of them just might work. To our surprise, both units work flawlessly, were easy to program, and played all of our older tapes without any problems. And the price was less than half the price of the JVC and Panasonic units.
This VCR is not by any means perfect, but it is a very, very good and a safe bet. As someone here wrote, it does sound a little louder during the rewind function than some VCRs, but it is not unreasonable to live with. There is a slight problem in programming cable stations where the picture went out after the process, if you happen to have a live signal on channel 3, but the manual does address this. And the very polite customer service staff walked me through the problem after this first happened when I used the Auto-set feature. (This contrasts dramatically with JVCs "Customer service number" which was just a voicemail box, with no option to even leave a message) And the Hi-Fi recorded sound on this VCR is very clean. When viewed on my digital set, and the recorded picture is also clear, though an improvement it could use is that the Sharp is just a tad darker in the shadow areas than my two Sanyo VCRs. However, all around it is a solid performer, and exceptionally easy & reliable to program your favorite shows. I would buy another in a minute. Yet another winner from Sharp, whom I've come to respect more over the years...
5 Good points, bad points
Good points: great picture and great sound. That is what you buy a VCR for. Bad points: the motor is very loud (to me, but my wife insisted it was acceptable so I did not return it). A minor (to me) inconvenience is the remote--it does not work with my brand of T.V., and two universal remotes would not work the program function of the VCR; so when we program this one we use the original remote and use a universal remote for all other functions. But you don't buy a VCR for its remote.
6 Great picture quality - but too many annoying details
When one of my 2 Sony VCRs died I decided to buy a non-Sony brand. I did a lot of research before deciding to buy this one. In part, some of the other reviews mentioned facts that I thought would be plus points for me. Sadly, after trying out this VCR for almost a month (and really wanting to try and keep it) I decided to return it back to Amazon. Here's my experience:
Pros:
1) The video quality is superb. It recorded and played back very well, even with old tapes. It also played tapes recorded by my surviving Sony VCR with no problem at all. And the picture was always great.
2) The display on the VCR can switch between 'Tape Counter', 'Clock' and 'Channel' anytime you want (while playing a tape, or even if you're just using the VCR as a tuner). To me this was important and, in fact, the biggest reason I decided to try out this VCR. I can't do this with my Sony VCR - it will only show the tape counter on the display when a tape is in, and I find that annoying.
3) Great search feature. It has this 'DPSS' feature where you can search for the start or ending of a recorded program on the tape. Most VCRs have this, but I must say that this one worked very well and was very intuitive to use.
4) Two speeds for fast forwarding and rewinding. I quite discovered this by mistake. While playing a tape, if you push the fast forward (FF) button once, it forwards at a slower speed. If you push FF again, it forwards faster. There are only 2 speeds and it toggles between the 2 when you push the FF button. Same for rewinding.
5) It can play S-VHS (Super VHS) recordings - doesn't give S-VHS quality (400 line resolution), but it can play it back in Standard resolution (230 line).
Cons:
1) The display. I know I've mentioned it above as a plus that you can change the display on the VCR. But the display itself is quite unattractive. I really don't know why they didn't stick to the standard green LED display that most VCRs use. Instead, they use this yellow light in the backgroud - has that old look to it. My wife just couldn't stand it. I'm not usually picky about the looks myself, but even I thought it was rather unpleasant.
To add to the display problems (and another review mentions this) - the display is practically invisible when you turn the power OFF. It's showing you the time, but you can't see anything! You'd have to shine a flashlight, or put this VCR in a very, very bright room to see the display when the power is OFF.
2) Auto clock didn't work for me - and I think I know why. When the power goes off for more than 5 minutes, this VCR turns to its default settings. The default setting for the channels is 'AIR', not 'CABLE'. Since most of us will probably have cable hooked up to this VCR, it almost guarantees that Auto clock will NOT work.
You can get auto clock to work once you set the channels to 'cable', but this would require manual intervention.
3) Tape jumps forward before rewinding (also mentioned by another reviewer). If you're playing a tape and decide you want to rewind a little, the tape first jumps forward before it starts rewinding. It's annoying, especially when you fast forward through commercials and then want to rewind after going too far.
4) There's no download for manuals on the Sharp website. Better make sure you don't lose the one you have! Certain things like setting the VCR output to channel 3 or 4 have to be done in a special sequence and you'd never guess it unless you had the manual.
Miscellaneous notes:
I thought it would also be beneficial to mention facts that are neither bad nor good. Since there's little information on the Sharp website, these notes may come in handy.
1) Tape counter does not reset to 0000 when you remove a tape and put in a new one. I don't think this is so bad really, especially if you push the eject button by mistake.
2) The manual says that there's battery backup for 5 seconds. However, I found it to be more like 5 minutes when experimenting with this. The good thing is that all your timer recordings stay in memory for those 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, everything is lost. Also note that the time remains the SAME during those 5 minutes (E.g. if you lose power at 9:00am and it comes back at 9:04am, the clock will still display the old time of 9:00am). So again, Auto clock is very important - if it works, then the time will correct itself eventually. If Auto clock doesn't work, you'll forever be off by 4 minutes (in this example) until you change the time manually.
Hope this review helps. I really wanted to try and keep this VCR. Perhaps I was a little too picky, but I just didn't like how it looked. That, along with the Auto clock problem were the main reasons I decided to return it. If you can live with the drawbacks mentioned, this is a great VCR for $71.
7 Never Again!
This machine is the worse! It works when it feels like it, but when it does it does play pretty well. All-in-all I wish I had bought something else
8 Great VCR, Great Price
It was time to replace my old Sanyo VCR, and I went on the hunt for a new one. I read many reviews, compared prices, ratings, features, and finally settled on this particular Sharp VCR. All I can say it I love it so far.
It is light, at least, lighter than my other. It rewinds super fast, but slows down before reaching the end of the tape which prevents it from getting yanked apart. It automatically sets the time (what a time saver too). It does an automatic channel scan and time set the first time you turn it on.
The one thing that pleases me more than anything is it plays tapes perfectly that wouldn't play correctly on my other VCRs. Especially EP recorded tapes, and older previous rental videos that I could get the tracking to work. Another thing I really like is the double fast forward and double rewind you can use when you're actually watching the tape.
If you are going to buy a new VCR, definitely do research into what features you want, price ranges, etc. But keep this one in mind. It's a great VCR, and it is priced well too!
9 Some standard features missing
I'm amazed at how some standard features are steadliy disappearing from VCRs.
On this one, when you put a new video in it, the counter does not start over at 00000. It picks up where you left off on the last video. But you can't tell this because the display is always on clock, even when a video is loaded. You don't see the counter info until you push play.
You can reset the counter manually, but not while the video is just sitting in the VCR. It has to be moving (playing or rewinding) when you reset. Which means the 0000 is never quite where you wanted it.
The rewind is FAST. So fast it's impossible to stop just where you want. Hit Stop and it rewinds another 10 minutes before it actually stops.
Picture quality is fine.
10 Fool Me Twice....
I've been looking for a solid, reliable VCR to replace my 12-year-old Magnavox (which I loved). Panasonic VCRs are known for their reliability, so my first purchase was a Panasonic PV-V4623S. The features and user interface were great, except that it made more noise during operation than a Boeing 747 and was annoyingly slow to respond to the remote controls. I returned it. I purchased the Sharp VC-H965U after reading the enthusiastic reviews on this site (thanks, guys). Right out of the box it had a problem: During fast rewind, the tape counter would "slip", requiring a tedious manual search to locate recorded programs. This happened almost every time. The remote has three times as many buttons as other VCR remotes, and their use is not always intuitive. The back-light for the display is turned off when the VCR is off, making the clock all but impossible to read. The user manual is not available on Sharp's web site. The VCR costs more than competitive units. This is the second Sharp consumer electronics product I have owned in my life, and I haven't been happy with either one. I'm returning this VCR.
11 No problems - great machine
I had thought at first that this VCR did almost everything well, but was worried because of a dark picture during playback. As it turns out, though, it was the copy protection interfering with the picture on the TV. Because I have a TV/VCR combo, it would darken everything from the new VCR. On other TVs without a built-in VCR, this Sharp model works perfectly.
So it's got a great picture on any normal television, the sound is crisp and in stereo, which is a big plus. And its features are all clearly explained in the directions and easy to figure out on the remote. I was nervous about the backlit display being distracting or too bright, but it's not at all. Automatic tracking is good, but the option to manually track is nice to have. The fast rewind and fast forward are good about being careful with the tapes and slows them before stopping or playing them.
This Sharp model was the clear winner in my shopping research, and my only complaint in the first place was the dark playback - but upon discovering that the problem doesn't lie with this VCR, I would recommend this unit to anyone interested in a good, solid, quality, and featured-packed VCR for a reasonable price.
12 Don't get a used Sharp unit without the docs - 0 web support
In fairness, I'm not reviewing the product described here, rather the VC-H982U, which is a previous model, and the company that made and sold it. It was given to me by my daughter's husband. Unfortunately, it did not come with the operator's manual. Ordinarily, that wouldn't bother me, as I can usually finger things out, but this unit does some things that are so unusual, that one would like the book to figure it out.
I'm absolutely agast and astounded to find that Sharp DOES NOT POST THE USER'S MANUAL TO ONE SINGLE VCR ON THEIR WEBSITE ! ! !
see:
.......
That is the web page for the manuals, but it is entirely blank of documents to look at. There are other products with manuals on their respective web pages, but not VCR's. Rather, they want you to call an 800 number and BUY the information. Doing a global search on that model number comes up with "Sorry, no matches ...", so they won't even admit they ever made it, and it is only a couple of years old. What kind of support is that?
All I wanted to look up is how to zero out the tape counter. [there is no button on the front or the remote, unlike every other VCR I've seen in the last fifteen years - I'm stuck on zero being about halfway through a tape. I suppose I could run it to indicated zero, take the tape out and put into one of the other vcrs and rewind it there, but really!]. Oh, yeah, and figure out what all of these extra options are for the programming - they have multiple screens for some reason, but the info on the screen doesn't spell out what they do or why they are there, and the button usage is, well, peculiar - I haven't figured out how to get down to the next program line yet. I won't use it to program anything I really care about seeing...
To my mind, since there are so many good competitive products out there from companies that DO bother to make their documentation readily available on the web, this missing "feature" makes me disqualify Sharp from any future purchase. And that notion DOES pertain to the current product.
13 Superb machine from a great company!
I got this VCR to replace another (older model) Sharp VCR, the only reason I did was because I wanted to upgrade from mono to stereo sound, as you might guess I have confidence in this brand, as my older model has been with me for the past 5 years and has never even hinted on malfunctioning although I have taken it on the road time and time again.
I like to shop around, so before I finally settled for this model, I considered all my options until I was sure this was the best I could get; well I am one VERY satisfied customer, this VCR is awesome, it does everything that's advertised and does it great. It is nice looking, and runs very smoothly and quietly (except when rewinding but even then it won't get in your way and keep in mind that it does rewind at a very high speed). The remote control might take a little getting use to, I'm talking 1-2 days at most, but for me it wasn't a problem as it is almost exacly the same as my old models'. It has been upgraded though as the buttons are much softer and the plastic casing is better looking.
As far as the sound and video portion, it is flawless, this VCR has even better image quality than a 6-head Toshiba that I owe, and the sound reproduction is top-notch. Finally, if you are one of those people that has trouble programming a VCR than this is the one to get as it is a hassle free job, is incredibly intuitive. Among all the great features, one that stands out is the one touch recording, which allows you to start recording inmediately and with each press of the button you make aftewards the recording time increases by 10 minutes, this allows you to record anything you see right away and know that at the end the thing will turn off by itself unlike other brands' where you have to turn it off yourself (great for when you are watching TV late at night, half asleep and suddenly you wanna record something but don't feel like going through programming the timer function).
Finally for those of you that care about this, and I know many people do, the VCR is made in Malaysia. I personally stay away from electronics made in China and secondly in Mexico but have had very good experience with products from Malaysia. I know many people are conscious about this so I hope this as well as the rest of the review is helpful.
There are several reasons why I decided to write this review:
1- Give credit where credit is due. I owe several Sharp products and have never ever had one malfunction, it is a nonexpensive brand with top-of-the-line quality. No reviews where available at Amazon for this particular product.
2- As a way to thank Amazon.com for carrying such a great product and at a good price (next time you go out to Best Buy, Circuit City, etc try to find a Sharp VCR... good luck. They don't carry them!
3- In hopes of helping people make up their minds so that this model will sell well so that Sharp won't discontinue it.
