THE Tape VCR Thread - Page 2

I still have my nec svhs ds8000u in storage. It was a beast of a machine.

In May 2010, Amazon was clearing out its Panasonic DMP-BD70V Blu-ray Disc/VHS Multimedia Player for $140. That unit was the only one I know of that could send a VHS signal out to a TV via HDMI cable. The DMP-BD70V I have I used to playback the few VHS tapes I still had into a Panasonic HDD DVD recorder for conversion to DVD-R format. I used to buy JVC VCRs for their flying erase head feature. Little did I realize then that JVC VCRs had flimsy build quality and, for the ones In had, crummy tracking controls. I wouldn't spend a dime on a used JVC VCR after my experiences with JVC VCRs that ended up eating VHS tapes and flashing on "video calibration" during recordings.

That information is too late. I turned my JVC VCRs off permanently. Into the garbage heap.

You’re correct EscapeVelocity. It amazes me how many folks don’t know simple basic things about their gear but blame everything on the gear. While I agree that JVC made a stupid mistake having the “video calibration” message flash on-screen, it’s certainly not the end of the world and a user has multiple options to turn off the stupid message.

1) As you already stated turn off the OSD.

But in my opinion there are better ways to get rid of the message while dubbing tapes to disc and still have access to other OSD messages while in-between dubs.

2) Set the VCR into “edit mode”. This will turn off all the analog enhancement crap that is OK for CRT sets but not so great for flat panels. Let your DVDr handle the enchantments. The Pioneers/Sony have about 20 adjustments to deal with this. Or if you like the analog enhancements choose any of the non-auto picture modes (sharp, soft or normal – any mode but auto will get rid of the message and still auto track. If you rather have the VCR bios control auto-adjust than leave the pic control in auto-mode but (see below).

3) Set the VCR into “manual tracking mode”.

Many people don’t realize that the “video calibration” message doesn’t always appear due to tracking adjustments. My JVC machines hardly ever adjust the auto-tracking after the initial calibration when starting a tape. All my tapes pretty well stay locked with good tracking throughout an entire program. I noticed that if I leave my heavily used HR-S3911U in full auto mode – the “video calibration” message will flash for a few seconds if a scene changes from a normal scene to an extremely bright seen. I concluded that the machine is trying to “fine-adjust” the bios circuitry for the white –clip level. This is probably due to the fact that the heads have a million miles on them and the machine is trying to compensate.

Important:
Simply performing either or both step –2) or step 3) written above will cancel out the “calibration message” whether the message is caused by tracking correction or bios correction.

For VHS / SVHS
- I will never buy anything but a JVC SVHS machine ever again. I have extensive experience with many brands. With my experience nothing even comes close to my low-end JVC SVHS machines.

For Beta / SuperBeta
- I will stick with the SONY SL-HF models.

Proud owner of fully functional and in perfect working condition:
HR-S3911U JVC SVHS with a million miles.
HR-S5912U JVC SVHS with fewer miles.

+1 on the Toshibas. Image quality is quite superior over the Made-in-Japan Panasonics I used to use, before Panasonic quit making them in Japan around 2002. Before I went the HDD recorder route, I ran a Toshiba M785 into the ground for five years. I liked it so much I had it thoroughly refurbished at a service center in Japan for about the cost of a new one ($220), but well worth it as it looks brand new. Still have it, don't plan to get rid of it. The M785 was the top dog, and last in the Toshiba line of VCRs.

Couple of years ago I picked up a mint Toshiba M782 for $40 on Ebay. Wasn't working so the seller refunded my money and told me to keep it as return freight would have run over $20. I took it to a Toshiba repair center in Okinawa and they referred me to a Mom-and-Pop VCR repair shop locally. Just needed a new belt. Repair cost was $80 but it's working like brand new now.

I dubbed a favorite VHS recording over to my HDD recorder and archived it on DVD. Of course the overall PQ after the dual dubbing isn't on a par with DVD, but what amazed me is how excellent the audio dubbed over. Quite impressive in detail and gain. Of course I used a Toshiba RD-XS HDD recorder .

Couple of years ago these Toshiba VCR units might show up on Ebay once in a blue moon, but very rare these days.

26 micron heads are commonly used for 2-head SP/EP VHS VCRs. Head-A is 26-micron and head-B is 31-micron. In SP mode they under-lap using a narrower then the normal 58-micron track and in EP they over-lap using a wider than the normal 19-micron track. Not optimized for either speed.

Common modern 4-head machines use SP head-1 58-micron SP head-2 46-micron EP head-1 19-micron EP head-2 19-micron. This is optimized for both speeds.

Modern consumer Hi Fi audio heads are 28 micron and use the under-lap over-lap system for SP or EP audio Hi Fi.

Common NTSC heads in modern VHS decks.

DA4-58-46-19-19.pdf 103k .pdf file
Note these are the decks that advertise 19-microm EP heads like my JVC but they use 58 and 46 micron heads for SP

DA4-58-49-21-21.pdf 98k .pdf file
Note these use slightly wider heads for EP and can'tt advertise using 19-m EP heads

2head-31-26.pdf 93k .pdf file
Note- 2-head machine not optimized for either speed

HiFi-28.pdf 92k .pdf file
Note- Hi Fi audio heads.

DA-4-58-46-26-26.pdf 66k .pdf file
More modern VHS heads.
Edited by Super Eye - 1/4/13 at 6:38pm

They should be good for LP if made on a 26-m head deck.
I don’t have much experience with LP 4-HR recordings. As you know modern recorders don’t record in LP and I've always used SP for archiving.

Most of the older 2-head 3-speed recorders (just like the newer 2-head 2-speed SP/EP decks) used 26-micron heads to record in all speeds. If you have tapes in LP or any speed tapes recorded with a 2-head 26-m deck - your best bet would be to get a 2-head 26-micron to 31-micron deck to play back those recordings.
Note that modern 4-head SP-58/46 EP-19/19 machines like my JVC will auto switch the heads of 26-m non-standard SP recordings to minimize noise. In other words for SP tapes made on a 2-head 26-m machine the JVC will switch to the 19-m heads but keep the SP tape speed thus under-lapping instead of playing back blank noise using the standard 58-m heads. Those tapes of-course will playback a poorer S/N signal than tapes that were recorded with full size SP heads. For standard SP recordings made on a standard 58/46-m SP speed deck the head-amp will use the 58/46-m heads and give the best possible S/N signal. It detects the signal automatically just like hi-fi tracks are detected.

Also note that while many of the older and few of the newer 4-head recorders used the standard full size 46/58-m heads for SP -- non-standard 26-micron heads were used for EP recordings. 19-micron EP heads were considered deluxe, as it was harder to precise-cut that small. For those non-standard EP tapes you may be better off using either a two-head 26-micron deck or an older SP-58/46-m EP-26/26-m deck to playback those EP tapes. I only archived on SP speed using full size SP heads so for me a 58/46 19/19 deck is preferred.

I believe Toshiba had a few 6-head models that for Playback used

- 58-m heads for standard SP,

- 26-m heads for SP recordings made on a 2-head
- 26-m heads for LP recordings
- 26-m heads for EP recordings made on a deck that used larger overlapping heads to record EP.

-19-m heads for EP recordings made on an optimized 19-m EP head deck

I believe that you could either have it on auto-detect or manually switch to either 26-m heads or 19-m heads for EP.

I think I have something on the Toshiba 6-head – I will post it for you later.
Edited by Super Eye - 1/4/13 at 10:13pm

I don't believe camcorders came out until the late 80s(or maybe early 90s??), before that they were 2 piece machines, camera and portable recorder(which I have). If your tapes were recorded on a early 80 RCA I'd guess it was a SP/SLP(EP) 4 head machine with the SP heads being a full width 58 microns. If by chance the machine was a SP/LP machine then the heads would be like any SP/LP machine of the time, more geared for LP with SP looking not much better. IMO the worst looking SP recordings were on the early SP/LP machines, 2 head SP/SLP(EP) weren't much better but at least by that time VHS had some picture quality upgrades(HQ I believe) that made them look at least a little better in SP.
The advantage using a 58 head for the machine that did the recording was SP playback looked good on almost all machines, you just wouldn't gain the picture quality that you might if you played it back reading the full tape width, playing back with a narrower head VCR only read as much information as the playback VCR could.
The noisiest picture quality playback comes from using a 58 micron VCR to playback SP recordings done on a SP/LP or 2 head SP/EP VCRs, they look very noisy(snow or speckles) because the wide heads read all the unrecorded area on the tape and mix it with the actual picture, lowering the S/N ratio. I mistakenly used such a 58 micron head VCR to play back and copy lots of tapes recorded on a narrow SP head machine. While I recorded them in SP they are very noisy and look quite poor on a larger screen HDTV, I didn't notice this as much at the time when I had a Sony CRT that masked much of the noise
Edited by jjeff - 1/5/13 at 5:57pm

Weren’t the early VHS camcorders SP speed only - 2-head machines? If so then for almost forsure they would be 58-m heads. In that case a good bet will be your 4-head JVC machine for tranfers. As the 58/46-m heads would be used for those tapes.

Or are your RCA tapes recorded in LP and that’s why all the LP questions?

BTW, I have some literature from the last 2002 / 2003 RCA VCRs.
The four-head VCRs used 60/46-heads for SP (I guess the tolerance is within’ 58-m) and no mention of EP heads that tells me they probaly are not 19-m EP heads but slightly larger EP heads using over-lap.
Or maybe they are 19-m EP heads and just not advertized.

The 2-head machines used 26/32 heads for all speeds.






Reference.
http://157.254.235.130/public/RCA_catalog_02.pdf

I will dig up my info on the 6-head Toshiba as promised.

A JVC HM-DH5U DVHS deck can also export VHS and SVHS via HDMI. However, the SD video will be upscaled to 720x480 @ 60fps. Since most VHS is 240 lines, 30 frames interlaced, it's like 8x overkill.

Some folks here seem to have exceptional animus towards JVC. The two decks I've had (HM-DH5U and a mid-1990s SVHS) have worked well. Guess I'm lucky.

A bit off-topic, but I used the JVC (HDMI) to an AVerTV HD DVR card in my PC, but the files were over 100MB per minute. Looked great, but even VideoReDo TVSuite V4 wouldn't touch it for editing. I'm considering getting an old-fashioned FireWire card to transfer old tapes to my PC instead. Maybe that will knock the frame rate down to a more manageable 30p. Any tips about getting DVHS through FireWire into a Win7 64 bit desktop? Mucho appreciated.

Sorry, my post SHOULD HAVE included gerrytwo's comment:

In May 2010, Amazon was clearing out its Panasonic DMP-BD70V Blu-ray Disc/VHS Multimedia Player for $140. That unit was the only one I know of that could send a VHS signal out to a TV via HDMI cable.
(post 32)

Welcome to the forum
You may have better luck with your DVHS / FireWire inquiry at the HD recorders forum.
Here is the HDTV Recorders sub-forum. You may try searching "DVHS FireWire" or just DVHS. There are many DVHS threads over there.

Since the best experience I ever had with any consumer VCRs are JVC SVHS decks I wish I bought one of the last DVHS decks when B&H were blowing them out for under $200 with full warranties. I was late and they all sold – I will never live down the mistake I made waiting too long.

I remember that blowout sale....... It was like somebody'd found a cache of brand-new pristine WWI-era Mauser rifles and was selling them out at their original 1917 price. And I passed on the deal because I'd flipped for a couple of overpriced Mitsubishi DVHS machines on eBay not that long before. Shoulda bought a B&H NIB one, waited a year or two, and sold off the used ones. Actually, as it turns out my VCR activity has dwindled to nil, so I should probably see what those Mitsus would bring on the 'Bay anyway.....

If you’re done with DVHS I would definitely monitor ebay. I think any make DVHS recorders are getting rare. At the right moment you may get a pretty good $$$ dollar. Than again maybe if you wait a few more years you’ll get even more $$$.

Any idea how the tapes were stored and the last time they were played? I wonder if it’s a tape problem (sticky part or crinkled part, etc ) or a shell problem (broken parts, tight, etc) In any case if you search the net I think there is a website explaining how to transfer VHS tape reels to new shells – with great illustrations.

I would advise that if there are any sticky or crinkled parts of the actual tape to cut them out and I’d be weary about taping the good parts back together. I’d rather use new shells from any moment you make a cut – to protect the heads. You can use old shells from tapes that you can get for pennies in thrift stores or free via Craigslist. Before playing any tape that either hasn’t been played in a long time or put into a new shell – I would re-pack them (rewind fast-forward cycle the whole tape) before playing. Although for best results you should repack them in the VCR that will play them – I advise against that and I would repack them in your worst VCR – just in case they damage your heads or anything in the tape path from sticky parts or crinkles. Even after repacking – sticky parts can easily damage VCR heads.

Tracking problems.
Tearing effects.
Horizontal lines.
Snow and drop outs.

Yeah, I don't understand. DVRs are the new thing. I can totally understand why people like DVRs. It's convenient to time record and there's no loss in picture quality. But what if you want to keep what you record? With removable media being dead, there's barely any way to do that. What if I want to record and keep a World Series game or something? That's not something I can just buy.

That American consumer will need to build a very good HTPC but in this forum, we are still waiting for the Funai news coming from the CES... [TiVo/Cable Cards are not an option for everyone]

But for most of us, it's the ONLY option.