Does anyone remember VHS HIFI ?

[student of history]

I thought Sony copied VHS after it became obvious to everyone that Beta was doomed? Like in the late 1990s? I remember Beta well....it was decent at the time.

 

[mhardy6647]

Still use it for "holiday music" -- although I am slowly but surely getting our truly massive collection of same ripped and loaded to our NAS.


Shown above is dubbing all in the analog domain, from LP to VHS HiFi Stereo videocassette. Pretty good analog medium, actually, as long as one uses good tape.

I thought Sony copied VHS after it became obvious to everyone that Beta was doomed? Like in the late 1990s? I remember Beta well....it was decent at the time.

No. Beta HiFi was first, and technically superior to JVC's VHS HiFi. But VHS still won.

 

[Blumlein 88]

One of the later Sony VHS models. This one is currently on ebay.

One of their better Super VHS models from Sony also on ebay currently.

 

[Doodski]

Sony invented both systems.

JVC invented VHS and Sony the Beta.

 

[600_OHM]

OMG! Yep, mine was JVC but I forget the model. Still searching..

However, this video takes me back to the 6 months or so when I thought it might be viable - since you know, VHS will just simply be around forever!

 

[DWPress]

We had a mix engineer putting everything on VHS for a band I was in at the time. He reasoning was the lower sound floor as well on some of the more dynamic stuff we were doing.

Sounded good at the time I think but what I know now verses what I heard then I suspect is different.

 

[600_OHM]

That would sure make in interesting test. I told myself it could get close to reel-to-reel in my mind, but unfortunately, had no way to prove it. Not even the guys on usenet knew either.

Somewhere out there in somebody's garage is my VHS hifi tape with this on it when I was going through my Cure phase. Would get my bass apartment walls shaking when "prayers for rain" hit. Had to be cool though so I wouldn't get kicked out of the complex.

 

[Chrispy]

I'd read about it but never was much into vhs at all, didn't find it very satisfying ever. Then I'm more audio than video....and didn't know the audio in vhs might have been superior to audio at the time but then didn't need it to be either.

 

[diddley]

That would sure make in interesting test. I told myself it could get close to reel-to-reel in my mind, but unfortunately, had no way to prove it. Not even the guys on usenet knew either.

Somewhere out there in somebody's garage is my VHS hifi tape with this on it when I was going through my Cure phase. Would get my bass apartment walls shaking when "prayers for rain" hit. Had to be cool though so I wouldn't get kicked out of the complex.

Now i don't have a system where i can adjust bass and treble.
But it sounds perfect and reasonable bass heavy over the R3's
Great example.

 

[Chrispy]

Now i don't have a system where i can adjust bass and treble.
But it sounds perfect and reasonable bass heavy over the R3's
Great example.

Great example of what?

 

[diddley]

Great example of what?

The Cure tracks

 

[Andysu]

rare Vintage JVC HR-D725EK professional consumer with hi-fi stereo and linear stereo with Dolby type-B . i believe same was used for another model .
if hi-fi track is damaged sound switch to mono on most other hi-fi VHS . hi-fi track can't be read by linear stereo only VHS only the linear stereo . i keep the JVC switched to normal linear stereo as often have to get up go to the kitchen to adjust tracking .

i was thinking of modifying the JVC HD-D725EK with some soldering and long wire and variable so i can adjust tracking in the THX cinema room .

 

[norcalscott]

I thought Sony copied VHS after it became obvious to everyone that Beta was doomed? Like in the late 1990s? I remember Beta well....it was decent at the time.

They did finally decide to do VHS for consumer decks, but they continued to make Beta decks (and many later variants) for broadcast. Still many of those in use today and millions of hours of content still archived on Beta around the world. I work for a company that has a line of products that keep track of what is on what tape to tell the giant tape robot which tape to grab when someone is looking for a particular show, commercial, etc.

Regarding VHS Hi-Fi, a friend of mine (who happed to be a pretty smart engineer) back in the late 80's decided to put his whole music collection on VHS tapes and was convinced that would be the best way to keep and play music. I never quite saw the value in that as it became clear that CD was the way to go, even if it was duration limited.

 

[Andysu]

Regarding VHS Hi-Fi, a friend of mine (who happed to be a pretty smart engineer) back in the late 80's decided to put his whole music collection on VHS tapes and was convinced that would be the best way to keep and play music. I never quite saw the value in that as it became clear that CD was the way to go, even if it was duration limited.

i did same in 90's recording fm stereo music thou tricky to sort search through some 8hrs hi-fi stereo ? can place sort of chapter edit stops but still takes while .
also hi-fi had noisy issue with low level dynamics and sort of low frequency clicking effect where it wouldn't be noticed on linear stereo track besides the other snag with signal to noise ratio but with Dolby type-B sort of clears it .

 

[Doodski]

rare Vintage JVC HR-D725EK professional consumer with hi-fi stereo and linear stereo with Dolby type-B . i believe same was used for another model .
if hi-fi track is damaged sound switch to mono on most other hi-fi VHS . hi-fi track can't be read by linear stereo only VHS only the linear stereo . i keep the JVC switched to normal linear stereo as often have to get up go to the kitchen to adjust tracking .

i was thinking of modifying the JVC HD-D725EK with some soldering and long wire and variable so i can adjust tracking in the THX cinema room .

View attachment 213076View attachment 213077

I remember that JVC model well. We sold it with NTSC and they sold as fast as we could get them. Customers where paying for them without them even being in stock. At the time selling JVC video machines was a license to print money.

 

[Andysu]

I remember that JVC model well. We sold it with NTSC and they sold as fast as we could get them. Customers where paying for them without them even being in stock. At the time selling JVC video machines was a license to print money.

letters "EK" i guess is for european market .

 

[Andysu]

Denon 8500H is rubbish as the video often drops out , VHS picture drop out ? wouldn't happen on the vintage AVR's all these digital AVR's are rubbish , does same on laserdisc as the signal is composite and wondering if i use video on uhd player wonder if the video signal will still drop out ? if it does then it's issue that amir didn't find .
the sound on hunt for red for october (linear stereo) i checked the JVC before taking picture and was set at normal to avoid hi-fi track dropping out and switching to linear , sort like SR-D if damage to digital it switches flawlessly to SR . AVR if the digital is damaged it can't switch to analouge Lt-Rt and most home cinemas do not have Lt-Rt even geared up for playback and often is manual switch over but digital track damage is very rare .

 

[Andysu]

VHS poltergeist 3 panned and scanned or open matte . i rather play the VHS than the bluray

bluray poltergeist 3 rubbish dtshdma dialogue track is so quiet

 

[rdenney]

I used VHS-HiFi for field recordings because it was so superior to the open-reel tapes I had used up to that time. When listening in headphones, the recordings on HiFi sounded like the microphone output exactly. The S/N ration had to be at least in the high 70's or 80's--a clear step up from the high 50's for linear-tracking tape. The increase head speed made possible by putting the audio on the spinning video head really made a difference.

I still have those tapes. I wonder if I can even play them back at this point?

Rick "who hasn't had a VHS tape in the deck in many years" Denney

 

[Andysu]

the specialist VHS linear stereo mostly used on the JVC HD-725