fredcohiba
Super Member
Before I toss all my VCR VHS tapes and hi-fi deck into the trash, just checking, should I save it all and use it for recording audio? Does anyone do this?
Is recording audio onto hi-fi VCRs a common thing?
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fred soop
Super Member
Allegedly, the frequency response is excellent, provided that you use the video track and not the separate linear audio track. The video bandwidth is several MHz and even the extended (slow) speed (6 hours per tape) is excellent. The bad news is having to search for anything.
lini
just me...
fc: Doesn't really make much sense anymore nowadays, I'd say - but of course you could still give it a try. Problem with many hifi VHS recorder models was audible head switiching noise, though. So don't be surprised, if you also notice that on your recorder.
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
fredcohiba
Super Member
Danke.
ROX72
New Member
It was a "thing" back in the early 90's with the Home Recording crowd (consider back then most people were using cassette-based portastudios and stereo mixdown decks).
I remember there was a misconception about it though. Some people thought any VHS would do, but that wasn't the case. The recorder had to support the S-VHS format to make it worthwhile (which was the same tape that ADATs used). Comparing a stereo recording done to an S-VHS tape to a consumer cassette deck, one might pick the S-VHS recording (although it suffered from noise as stated above).
I'd suggest taking it to a recycling center or donating it to a Goodwill rather than tossing it in the trash though!
I remember there was a misconception about it though. Some people thought any VHS would do, but that wasn't the case. The recorder had to support the S-VHS format to make it worthwhile (which was the same tape that ADATs used). Comparing a stereo recording done to an S-VHS tape to a consumer cassette deck, one might pick the S-VHS recording (although it suffered from noise as stated above).
I'd suggest taking it to a recycling center or donating it to a Goodwill rather than tossing it in the trash though!
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I still use mine for recording long radio programs off the air. It's very convenient because of the timer and highly accurate real time / footage counter, plus it can record up to 6 hours at very high quality. I go through the recorded programs later on and dub off what I want to keep onto open reel then re-use the VHS tape again. I find it a very valuable tool for this purpose and I always keep a couple of them around.
sKiZo
Hates received: 92644 43.20°N 85.50°W
Never used mine for audio, so I don't know how they'd hold up over time. I do know that a lot of the old video tapes (even pre-recorded) have developed hummmm over the years.
That said, there's some real plums on VHS in my collection, so I got a new deck and have been playing those back to the DVR for a digital copy. Where else you gonna find old plums like Hell Comes To Frogtown, right? <G>
That said, there's some real plums on VHS in my collection, so I got a new deck and have been playing those back to the DVR for a digital copy. Where else you gonna find old plums like Hell Comes To Frogtown, right? <G>
restorer-john
Addicted Member
I bought a Mitsubishi E70 SVHS deck back in the day purely for its audio recording excellence.
There was nothing to touch audio recording on that machine- until I bought a DAT...
Oh, the good old days.
There was nothing to touch audio recording on that machine- until I bought a DAT...
Oh, the good old days.
loopstick
Lunatic Member
I used it to record long continuous blocks of music from an audio Eighties Channel on satellite TV then used the tape (and its handy video song ID's) to source music for cassettes. I'd still do this today with CD's if I still had the satellite service - I still own two VCR's in good shape and lots of blank tapes.
lini
just me...
R72: I think you're mistaken there. I.e., while S-VHS tapes were certainly required for the (from today's perspective) slightly higher video resolution, that didn't really have anything to do with VHS hifi recording - or at least not as far as I'm technically aware. And also not from personal experience with my own recorders: I had four VHS hifi (one with S-VHS playback) and two S-VHS hifi recorders over the years - and hifi recording & playback quality apart from differently well/not so well dampened head switching noise seemed pretty similar on all of these (1x Goldstar, 2x Grundig, 2x Panasonic and 1x Philips - still got the two Panasonics...), and on the two S-VHS recorders (the Philips and one of the two Panasonics) it also didn't seem to make a difference, whether one would use decent, priceworthy VHS or rather expensive S-VHS tapes...
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
P.S.: A feature I really liked on the two Panasonics was that one could choose between two different rc addresses, selectable with a little button on the remotes. I wish that would also be a common feature for stuff like tv sets and hifi equipment, 'cause it often happens to me that I have two exemplars of the same model or two very similar models of some device in my living room, one as part of the "tv side setup" and the other on the other side as part of the "computer corner setup", so that I need to handle the remote controls with care...
P.P.S.: And on a sidenote, I fondly remember the days at high school (Gymnasium), when I had a Grundig tv set myself, and the major part of the tv sets we had had at that school also were Grundigs, which would respond to my remote control, too... I could image that Mr. Klopfer, our ethics teacher, still wonders today, why those bloody Grundigs would always switch channels and perform other mysterious operations...
I wasn't evil enough to really ruin any valuable things, though. Whereas a friend of mine was less scrupulous and once prepared the power plug of an overhead projector with a bit of wire, so that it would produce a major short on plug-in and the hot wire would melt into the plastic of the wall outlet and thus weld the plug into the outlet, if one wouldn't pull it out fast enough. Whereas the most evil high school joke of mine I still remember were my two bombs in arts: We were once again supposed to make something out of clay to be burned later on... Well, and I was bored and thus made a bomb - just pure hot air pressure driven, of course, but that even twice. And the fun was that I didn't even put the bombs in the oven myself, but via the teacher (I just came back later on and rearranged the other stuff around my bomb, so that the decent objects would survive on another level...), who didn't notice the obvious - although I didn't even hide the bombs, as number one was a vintage ball-shaped bomb design complete with small, cylindrical fuse holder and fuse, while bomb number two had the classical air-to-ground bomb look, tail unit included. On this one I also tried an improved charge with the inner pressure chamber surrounded by double walls with little clay balls in between. That worked pretty well and blasted most of the other objects on the same level of the oven. :lmao: Sometimes I miss those school days...
P.P.P.S.: Back to the topic, why I'd deem hifi VHS recorders superfluous for audio these days is that one can nowadays get even better quality without the disadvantages of magnetic tape technology with affordable stuff like those neat little flash-memory (card) based digital recorders, which can fit even more hours of music in pretty high PCM resolution on a thin, fingernail-sized medium. So unless one would like to keep one machine alive for "legacy compatibility" anyway, I'd suggest not to bother with hifi VHS for audio anymore and get rid of that bulky stuff - and either get a more modern alternative, if space and modern day convenience including access from the computer play a role, or, if space doesn't matter that much consider a reel-to-reel deck for the true vintage analogue feeling and comparable quality without those nasty "pft-pft-pft-pft-pft" head switching noise, which to me, albeit being lower in level compared to for example cassette tape noise (at least completely without noise reduction or just with Dolby B) and vinyl noise, always seemed more unnerving due to being less uniform and so nastily repetitive.
P.P.P.P.S.: Guess one day I'll need an extra crypta just for my post scripta. :stupid: Which makes me wonder, whether Terry Pratchett has got one for his annotations...
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
P.S.: A feature I really liked on the two Panasonics was that one could choose between two different rc addresses, selectable with a little button on the remotes. I wish that would also be a common feature for stuff like tv sets and hifi equipment, 'cause it often happens to me that I have two exemplars of the same model or two very similar models of some device in my living room, one as part of the "tv side setup" and the other on the other side as part of the "computer corner setup", so that I need to handle the remote controls with care...
P.P.S.: And on a sidenote, I fondly remember the days at high school (Gymnasium), when I had a Grundig tv set myself, and the major part of the tv sets we had had at that school also were Grundigs, which would respond to my remote control, too... I could image that Mr. Klopfer, our ethics teacher, still wonders today, why those bloody Grundigs would always switch channels and perform other mysterious operations...
I wasn't evil enough to really ruin any valuable things, though. Whereas a friend of mine was less scrupulous and once prepared the power plug of an overhead projector with a bit of wire, so that it would produce a major short on plug-in and the hot wire would melt into the plastic of the wall outlet and thus weld the plug into the outlet, if one wouldn't pull it out fast enough. Whereas the most evil high school joke of mine I still remember were my two bombs in arts: We were once again supposed to make something out of clay to be burned later on... Well, and I was bored and thus made a bomb - just pure hot air pressure driven, of course, but that even twice. And the fun was that I didn't even put the bombs in the oven myself, but via the teacher (I just came back later on and rearranged the other stuff around my bomb, so that the decent objects would survive on another level...), who didn't notice the obvious - although I didn't even hide the bombs, as number one was a vintage ball-shaped bomb design complete with small, cylindrical fuse holder and fuse, while bomb number two had the classical air-to-ground bomb look, tail unit included. On this one I also tried an improved charge with the inner pressure chamber surrounded by double walls with little clay balls in between. That worked pretty well and blasted most of the other objects on the same level of the oven. :lmao: Sometimes I miss those school days...
P.P.P.S.: Back to the topic, why I'd deem hifi VHS recorders superfluous for audio these days is that one can nowadays get even better quality without the disadvantages of magnetic tape technology with affordable stuff like those neat little flash-memory (card) based digital recorders, which can fit even more hours of music in pretty high PCM resolution on a thin, fingernail-sized medium. So unless one would like to keep one machine alive for "legacy compatibility" anyway, I'd suggest not to bother with hifi VHS for audio anymore and get rid of that bulky stuff - and either get a more modern alternative, if space and modern day convenience including access from the computer play a role, or, if space doesn't matter that much consider a reel-to-reel deck for the true vintage analogue feeling and comparable quality without those nasty "pft-pft-pft-pft-pft" head switching noise, which to me, albeit being lower in level compared to for example cassette tape noise (at least completely without noise reduction or just with Dolby B) and vinyl noise, always seemed more unnerving due to being less uniform and so nastily repetitive.
P.P.P.P.S.: Guess one day I'll need an extra crypta just for my post scripta. :stupid: Which makes me wonder, whether Terry Pratchett has got one for his annotations...
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restorer-john
Addicted Member
The SVHS decks had superior audio capabilities over the normal VHS HiFi decks in most cases. You'd get flying erase heads for instant drop in/out, usually switch able AGC/Manual rec level and twin wide range sliders, multi segment peak hold meters for audio and in most cases, a magnificent die cast mechanism which all contributed to better tape travel and considerably less AFM switching/tracking issues.
The JVC, Panasonic, Mitsubishi SVHS decks had incredible audio. The VHS HiFi decks from those brands were good, but often light in the bass- we never used them for demos. There was a big difference in price, picture and sound in our experience selling SVHS decks.
In terms of tape, TDKs SVHS tape was amazing, along with their HiFi tape- I never had a drop out in picture or sound ever.
The JVC, Panasonic, Mitsubishi SVHS decks had incredible audio. The VHS HiFi decks from those brands were good, but often light in the bass- we never used them for demos. There was a big difference in price, picture and sound in our experience selling SVHS decks.
In terms of tape, TDKs SVHS tape was amazing, along with their HiFi tape- I never had a drop out in picture or sound ever.
savatage1973
Addicted Member
Way back when, I had a VCR (IIRC it was a Mitsubishi) that had dedicated functions for recording audio only onto VHS tapes. However, it was such a PITA that after a few attempts, I just went back to cassette and R2R. It was theoretically a good concept, but the execution was not well-done. Sound-wise it certainly could beat a cassette, but still couldn't touch R2R, and trying to create a mix tape and then find something on it was a nightmare.
mars_volta
Super Member
Yep. Back when we used to mix down 4 tracks, the s-vhs was so much better than a stereo cassette deck.
Condorsat
Audio Enthusiast
A friend of mine back in 1984 used to do this all the time.
If memory serves me well ... he read about this in a HI FI magazine. It was a way for people back then to keep from buying a reel to reel.
The Super VHS could serve the same purpose for the average person.
The only negative was the VHS HI FI was not as versatile as the reel to reel ... editing & playing backwards ... etc. If R2R tape broke, you could splice it back together easily.
If memory serves me well ... he read about this in a HI FI magazine. It was a way for people back then to keep from buying a reel to reel.
The Super VHS could serve the same purpose for the average person.
The only negative was the VHS HI FI was not as versatile as the reel to reel ... editing & playing backwards ... etc. If R2R tape broke, you could splice it back together easily.
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Honestly? No, not any more, toss 'em. There really isn't any point in doing this in 2015; far better, cheap digital options are available.
