CompuServe Messages

Great comments – specially regarding the olympics. I was not aware of the fragility of the decks. But you are right, Panasonic does not have the same service as Sony, and that by itself means a lot. In fact, I have three Panasonic AG-1960 SVHS decks, and I was interested to know the signal to noise ration of the video signals. Their literature – including the manuals – only specified audio SN ration. So I called their tech people out in Texas, and they didn't know! In fact they made it sound as if they only handled calls for 1960's because someone was forcing them. I have never owned a Professional Sony product, but none of the MANY consumer and prosumer Sonly products I have owned have ever failed me. Two of the local dealers here carry both MII and BetaSP. At the begining I was leaning toward MII – technically they offer more, however, after a lot of thought and excellent feedback from forum users just like yourself, I am now leaning toward BetaSP. Everyone uses them, and I am not looking forward to spending $25,000 on a setup that is not going to generate a master accepted by duplication houses. And I do not want to end up like the Beta users who ended up with nice decks in a VHS dominated market – No movies, no nothing – but nice picture and sound quality. Price wise, I think I have gotten the local guys to give me a very competitive price, in fact I called a very large and very competitive New York dealer from whom I have purchased tons of stuff, and their price was higher! JVC? from what I have been reading on this forum, their equipment is the kiss of death. They should stick to the low-end audio gear and TV sets they are famous for. Panasonic is not as bad as JVC are they??? Adib