I repair professional studio VHS VCR's as a hobby, and have the following JVC machines: (3) BR-S822U, (2) BR-S500U, (2) BR-S800U and (3) of the BR-7000 series. All fantastic, stable machines with great features and performance once they are serviced.
Of course, I also have a full-blown VCR repair bench including (4) Sencore VC93 All Format VCR Analyzers, (2) Sencore VA62 Video Analyzers, (1) Sencore VA48 Video Analyzer, (1) Sigma Electronics TSG375 NTSC Video Generator, (1) Sony 13" Video Monitor, (1) Commodore Video Monitor (don't laugh, it still looks and works great!), (2) Tektronix Oscilloscopes, (1) HP Scope, (1) Tektronix 1760 Vectorscope, (10) Tentel gauges, plus signal generators, (2) Editing Controllers, many frequency counters, multimeters, alignment and torque meter tapes, blah blah blah. All stuff I could never afford when I repaired VCR's back in the 80's.
I love JVC machines, and also have a Sony SLO-1800 Professional Beta machine I just finished tuning up. I may have more Beta tapes than VHS, around 300 - haven't finished counting the VHS movies. I also have (2) Alesis ADAT (digital audio) 8 track recording decks which use Sharp VCR mechanisms for the tape transport. Most professional VCR's are all direct drive, with no belts, tires or idlers to wear out (except a loading belt here and there). I use rewinders to save wear on the motors.
For viewing, I have a Toshiba 50" Projection TV, a Panasonic 47" Projection TV and a Sony Bravia 40" LCD TV. Each room has a big screen TV, VHS, Beta and DVD players, with my main playroom also having a Pioneer VP-1000 Laser Disc Player. I guess you could say I'm a heavy video enthusiast!
After seeing "disc error" one time too many, I decided to go back to VHS, Beta and Laser Disc and stay there. I will only purchase a DVD if the content is not available in any other format, and I immediately make a VHS copy. As mentioned before in this thread, you can get VHS movies extremely cheap, and even free if you hit up the right DVD enthusiast or yard sale. You can find belts, tires and other scattered VCR parts at
www.studiosoundelectronics.com
All these morons get rid of their VHS in order to spend big bucks on crap that will only work for a few years, and marginally at that. Fine with me!