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Strengths: Versatility of offering VHS, S-VHS, S-VHS ET and D-VHS all in one unit. D-VHS mode allows for long lengths of recording time in great quality. HiDef recording!
Weaknesses: Cost of D-VHS tapes. Must use the navigation feature to access specific parts of tapes. No frame by frame, slow motion, etc. for D-VHS.
Summary: A fantastic unit that offers many features perfect for time shifting and archiving. D-VHS offers mutiple qualities depending on the application. SD recording in STD mode looks great. LS3 mode provides the longest time and has a bitrate of 4.7 Mbps, which is near DVD quality. Depending on the quality of the source, it can look as good as S-VHS in SP. D-VHS tapes are quite pricey, but quality S-VHS tapes can be used that cost about half D-VHS price. I don't yet have any D-Theater titles, so I can't comment personally on their quality, but I hear they look stunning. Only major drawback is that the Navigation feature must be used to quickly find portions tapes to watch and record. The forward scan function proceeds quite fast and even after it is stopped and play is engaged, there is approximately 5-10 seconds of grey screen before the tapes plays, but I found myself used to it after a couple months. Also there are no effects modes in D-VHS such as slow motion, frame advance, etc., but are available on VHS/S-VHS. If you have a satellite or cable box with a working firewire (IEEE1394)port, you can make exact copies of whatever is coming over the bitstream. If you have a WinXP based machine, you can easily transfer the D-VHS transport streams from the tape to your machine via the firewire port with freeware. This allows for easy creation of dvd's.
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