Quote:
Originally Posted by yesodtiferet /forum/post/18226876
Hi, I just bought the JVC DT100U VCR. I understand that the VCR will only record at one speed in HD but does that mean I am limited to only recording for two hours at a time? I'm using 300-minute D-VHS tapes.
If I'm limited to only two hours at a time in HD, that would not be good, as I mainly bought this VCR to record football games. Is there a way to record in HD for more than 2 hours at a time?
HD digital TV recording is at the "HS" speed. Period. Recommended is to use DVHS tapes (DF300 and DF420) for digital recording, but you can force the use of [high-quality] SVHS tapes to record in DVHS mode and many people report no problems.
At HS speed, DF300 tapes record 2 1/2 hours of digital TV content.
At HS speed, DF420 tapes record 3 1/2 hours of digital TV content.
Buy a supply of both tape types, and use either to cover whatever you want to record... up to a max of 3 1/2 hours per tape.
NOTE: if you have an analog source for content (e.g. the S-video and L/R-stereo output of a cable/satellite receiver) you can connect those analog inputs to the DT100 and record on the same DF300 and DF420 tapes using the "LS3" speed. This is a built-in MPEG compressed recording method for converting analog input to MPEG digital recordings.
At LS3 speeds (quality equal to or superior to true analog S-video recordings, but digital MPEG in format) you can get 15 hours of recordings on a DF300 tape and 21 hours of recordings on a DF420 tape.
Of course standard analog recording of analog input (from cable/satellite receiver S-video output) is still available as well, in SP-mode (2 hours on ST120 tapes) and EP-mode (6 hours on ST120 tapes), supporting both VHS and SVHS recording tape quality.
Tapes recorded using ANY of these methods can be played back on the DT100, with the unit automatically detecting tape type and recording method.
Incidentally, the designation of "DF300" actually refers to the 300 minutes (i.e. 5 hours, not 2 1/2 hours) and "DF420" (i.e. 7 hours) that is truly the available digital recording time using these tapes when used with an "SD DVHS" firewire source (such as the one-of-a-kind Hughes E45 Platinum receiver for DirectTV, circa 1997 and of course no longer available... but I have four of them still working today for my SD televisions). The satellite-provided digital bitstream is sent out over a firewire connection to an attached digital SD DVHS VCR.
Of course you need a SD DVHS VCR that can record 5-hours or 7-hours at this "SD DVHS" digital speed, which again was done by "slave firewire connection" to the Hughes E45 receiver. There were at one time three different brand/models of such an "SD DVHS" VCR available, from Hitachi, Hughes, and RCA (I of course have all three... and four of them in total, to match with my E45 SD receivers and all still working).
The E45 receiver controls the outboard SD DVHS VCR using standard firewire device control protocol and data streaming. The E45 also has 32 timer event memory cells, as compared to the typical 8 timer event memory cells present on most high-end analog VCRs including the DT100. This makes using the E45/SD-DVHS combo very very convenient for use as a "1st-generation DVR" with "set it and forget it, just changing tapes every day" for all of your regularly watched/recorded programs.
Just for historical completeness, Dish Network also had their own version of this SD DVHS recording solution again circa 1997, the DSR100 which was built by JVC and had a built-in licensed E* receiver (equivalent to their 5000 standalone receiver). So it was one box instead of the two-box solution available with D*. But the concept was identical regarding maximum recording times on a DF300 and DF420 tape, though limited to the 8-cell timer event memory of the DSR100's receiver. Incidentally, I had one of these as well (and it was annoyingly noisy, due to its internal fan which would come on when the unit was in use... when I had E* some years back).
HS recording speed (for HD digital TV and JVC's D-Theater, which I think is 28Mbps) is double the "SD DVHS" recording speed used for D*-provided SD digital bitstreams (which I think is 14Mbps). Hence the HS time limit of 2 1/2 hours on a DF300 tape, rather than the 5 hours available in SD DVHS mode on the same tape. Same with 3 1/2 hours on a DF420 tape in HS mode, rather than the 7 hours available with SD DVHS mode on the same tape.
