That is where (consumer, at least) digital recording started. The add-on PCM recorders (and, eventually, standalone decks) were not inexpensive.
Back in DVD's first year I bought a Mitsubishi 50" 4:3 rear projection TV. I had a large VHS movie collection none of which looked great on the 50" TV. They were watchable but you needed to be 12ish feet from the screen. As my DVD collection grew my VHS sat unwatched. On a few occasions I would rent a DVD rather than watch my VHS version.
Yeah, early analog video was quite sophisticated. Quadruplex machines literally require you to have an oscilloscope in order to properly set up and control the recording. It uses vacuum to maintain a tape wrap across the drum. I know a guy who has multiple Type C VTRs (Sony, Ampex and even USSR-made). There's a ton of going on in terms of time base correction...View attachment 464033
We were fairly early adopters of VHS hi-fi, via a Zenith-branded (JVC) deck acquired ca. 1986 (memory is hazy!) at the big annual Stereo Discounters hifi show and sale at the Timonium Fairgrounds near Baltimore, MD. Stereo Discounters was a big deal in those days, and their big (truly huge) big sale at the fairgrounds was likewise a big deal.
VHS Hi-Fi (and Beta Hi-Fi before it) was a big deal.
Remember that recording even what y'all would consider low-definition NTSC color video onto magnetic tape was a significant technical achievement! Very early attempts used outrageous linear tape speeds to achieve the necessary bandwidth.
View attachment 464034BBC's Vision Electronic Recording Apparatus (VERA)
The history of communications media in the form of a chronology (Chronomedia), feature articles, analysis, illustrations and associated quotations.www.terramedia.co.uk
Clever engineers at Ampex (Ray Dolby, Fred Pfost, and other members of a small team) used rotating heads to achieve a practical format for (at the time, monochrome) video recording. This trickgave high relative velocity, affording the required frequency response but with less outrageous linear tape speed. Remember, also, that all this was done using analog electronics... these were clever people.
View attachment 464036
https://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/rotary-head-delivers-high-quality-video/ (e.g.)
Pointless, egocentric aside: I worked, for a while, for Fred's son Dale, and spent a delightful afternoon with them both in Los Gatos, CA one fine day in 1995 when both Dale and I found ourselves between engagements, so to speak.
The consumer video tape formats took this approach to its reasonable limits, in terms (I'd say) of tape width and linear velocity to yield affordable, practical, and (ultimately) inexpensive appliances for the masses to watch I Love Lucy and porn.
At any rate, the notion of using rotating audio heads, too, recording not amplitude but frequency modulated analog audio was, I'd opine, likewise beastly clever and elegant.
Sony/Beta Hi-Fi came first, but, of course, JVC's competing VHS (Hi-Fi) format essentially won the day, although being (it is said) technically inferior.
Personally, I have far less experience with Beta, but I believe what I've read in that latter regard.
So... let me claw myself back on topic...
In the 80s and 90s it made some sense. VHS was readily available, inexpensive, and superior to audio cassettes, which were the only other medium available to average home listeners.
Wow&flutter isn't really an issue here, since VHS have feedback loop based on sync pulses written onto tape. A lot of later decks have rubber belt based mechanisms (Pansonic's K-mecha uses "everlasting" toothed belt, for example), but you're ok as long as you have any friction to turn spools
That (very un-good [as it was in sad shape]) Nakamichi Dragon was a not even close to par one.@amirm tested a (very) good nakamichi deck.
This is a detail measurements of the iconic, Nakamichi Dragon Vintage cassette deck. It was kindly brought to me at a meet at our local audio store (Gig Harbor audio).
For those of you too young to know, the Nakamichi Dragon has the reputation of being the best cassette deck available at the end of the cycle for the format. It came out in 1982 and retailed for USD $2,499. That would be $6,500 today's dollar so quite a lot of money. I was too poor to afford one at the time so it was a pleasure to get my hands on one finally for this test.
We were testing it in a dark room and this...
I have... things... to say about VHS HiFi (and, by implication, at least, Beta HiFi, too) but, perhaps ironically, I don't have the bandwidth to do it right now.
As Arrrrrrrnold once said, though --
View attachment 463971
Never had a screen bigger than 42" (& my current one is 32 [the desk top computer screen] {my computer plays almost every format of DISCS}). I have no use case for anything bigger than 50" (or space, either).
There's a huge problem with getting somewhat credible calibration tapes (which don't cost hundreds of $), especially for cassette decks... With R2R, mono heads are go-to for creating your own calibration tapes, since they eliminate inter-channel azimuth misalignment that you'd inevitably have with regular 2 track heads
The unfortunate issue with DAT tech is the durability of the tapes (and sometimes the recorders as well). The data density on metal particle DAT tape was so high that even minimal tape wear or irregularity despite coded data redundancy could impair digital perfect playback. Recording studios using DAT tapes for master recording transfer were keen on playing them a minimal amount of times before transfer to a more permanent mastering medium because tape wear would quickly increase the error rate of the digital audio. Several pro DAT units actually had built in counters that tracked error rate to apprise audio engineers of their playback fidelity. Of course when the error rate of DAT tapes go beyond a certain level playback becomes notably impaired, difficult or even impossible. So unfortunately DAT tapes are a poor medium for long term storage. If any of you have cherished recordings on DAT tape I encourage you to transfer them to more durable media.
.......and its time has long ago come and gone. (Forgot that part...lol)
Lots of cassettes were played in cars so would have suffered a lot from heat and (perhaps) cruder mechanisms.
