Black Boxes: JVC HM-DH30000U D-Theater VCR

by Charles Fulton
Summer/Fall 2003

Company: JVC Company of America
Contact: (800) 252-5722
Web: www.jvc.com
Price: $1,300

Imagine a VHS videocassette that looks like the same cassettes that have been around since 1976, but can hold 50GB of raw digital video data. Welcome to the world of Digital Data VHS (D-VHS). The player in this new world is the JVC HM-DH30000U D-Theater VCR (yes, that catchy name has four zeros: "thirty thousand") and it is backward-compatible with your existing library of VHS and S-VHS videocassettes. The quality of the video (and audio) on this device exceeds DVD video, although the number of currently available movies is miniscule. If you are fortunate enough to be in an area where you can receive digital high definition (HD) television signals, however, this is one of the only devices that we know of that can record the digital bitstream in all its glory.

Making the Connection
We tested the unit by hooking it up to a Hitachi 51SWX20B rear-projection television (also reviewed in this issue) via the YUV connection. We ran the audio through the TV via stereo RCA jacks. The unit also has an optical digital audio output for digital 5.1 Dolby surround audio.

Strangely, the remote control's jog/shuttle dial didn't do anything with the digital source programs we tried. A quick look at the online manual showed that the jog/shuttle dial only works while playing legacy analog VHS tapes. The only special effects that worked were the old reliable fast-forward and rewind buttons. Scanning through a tape is a bit jumpy - it takes the VCR about two seconds for the MPEG-2 decoder to catch up to what's actually being scanned.

Speaking of DVD...
Of course the big difference between the D-VHS tape and DVD videodiscs is linearity. DVD video allows you to randomly skip around the disc more or less instantly, so fast- forwarding and rewinding seems like a technological step backwards in this age of DVD and personal video recorders.

The D-Theater does, however, include a good navigation system. Press the Navigate button on the remote and the VCR will search for the list of chapter mark information on the tape. When the VCR finds the navigation data, a list of chapters will appear on screen in the regular on screen display (OSD) font. You use the buttons on the remote to view the chapter in question.

Quality
All of the previous details are interesting enough, but bottom line is image quality and we have to report that the picture was outstanding, exceeding anything we've yet seen on a television. The handful of Hollywood D-Theater movies we saw included a range of film scratches and specks that give the venerable celluloid medium its warmth and charm. The color was richer and more saturated than we're used to seeing on our old NTSC TVs, and the increased resolution of ATSC didn't hurt either.

All in all, we liked the D-Theater HM-DH30000U and applaud JVC's efforts to hone the technological cutting edge, although the $1,300 price tag is a little sharp. This may because there is no competition as of this writing (although more VCRs have been announced and could be shipping by the time you read this).

SMART SPECS
Inputs
S-Video: 2 rear, 1 front
Composite video: 2 rear, 1 front
RF: 1 rear
Stereo analog audio: 2 sets rear, 1 set front
Outputs (rear)
Component video: 1 set
S-Video: 2
Composite video: 2
RF: 1
Stereo analog audio: 2 sets
Optical digital audio: 1
Other connections
FireWire in/out: 1 rear, 1 front
JLIP
Cable box IR blaster
Remote pause/AV Compulink