Questions about D-VHS

[laidler]

Hi guys. I just learned about the short lived Digital VHS system. Looks good on paper, 1081i image, Dolby Digital AND DTS capability. Playback and record standard VHS and S-VHS tapes etc. Then there's the drawbacks such as price, MUCH more expensive metal formulation tapes, difficulty in getting a hold of tapes (I literally NEVER saw these on any store shelves back in the early 2000s), DVD had gained a good foothold in the home market, and so on and so on. I don't have any plans to pick up any of these decks unless I someday stumble across one in a local shop. However, I have questions about the IEEE out and in connectors on the back. What equipment could be used to record digitally on these suckers? Sure most machines have Component video out and optical out, but no digital audio or high-res video INS. Anyone know much about these decks? Save deck to deck dubbing, I don't see how one could record digitally on these things. Whether or not anyone here knows any more than me, thanks for having a look.

 

[Battlehork]

TVs and cable boxes used to have IEEE 1394 I/O for D-VHS decks, but that feature was rare back then and clearly long gone now.

 

[Chip Chester]

In my opinion, the IEEE 1394(?) interface was the impetus for HDMI/HDCP handcuffing of digital signal distribution. Unfettered digital recording and playback was not to be allowed.

I have a Hitachi plasma that has the 1394 connector for I/O. There was a set top hard drive recorder available for about a week that would interface with it. Then *poof* gone from the marketplace. Standard Firewire drives would not work, even though they're 1394 also. Don't remember why.

So, if you find one, and you need a signal source/playback unit, my Hitachi is now "back from college" and looking for a forever home. It would probably function as a tuner/composite/component/HDMI-to-1394 bi-directional converter, but that's an untested conjecture. It'll definitely feed a 1394 recorder signals from its tuner, and play back the recordings, too.

There were some very early Sharp Aquos flat-panel TVs that had the connector, too. Don't know if they functioned as a source as well as playback, though.

Chip

 

[laidler]

My best guess is if one had some decent PC based video recording software and IEEE 1394 connectors one could probably hook them up and do all that. Possibly. If I ever did get my hands on one of these decks and it's media I'd try it out. This was merely to satisfy a technical curiosity of mine. Thanks fro the replies though. Wonder if anyone here actually has, or had one of these things.

 

[Phototone]

I have a couple of these decks. My old cable box had the "firewire" output (IEEE 1394) and indeed I could record in HD on D-VHS blanks, and the playback was identical to watching direct from the cable box. It works, and probably works with regular VHS High Quality blanks, but I believe the D-VHS tapes had an extra hole so the deck could sense them.

 

[uofmtiger]

I have a JVC model that doesn't work anymore. However, you could record via FireWire as Phototone mentioned. You could then take the tape and copy it to a computer over FireWire. I typically had "stars/anomalies" and other issues in my recordings, so I gave up on it as more HD came out. Be aware that the JVC had a pin inside that you could remove and it would allow you to record HD on SVHS Fuji tapes. JVC also supported DVHS. Mitsubishi also had a version, but it was not DVHS compatible.

There was a company called 169time that sold FireWire converted satellite boxes, but I don't know if they are still around.

( I want to mention that there were tons of issues with the JVC models, so "buyer beware" if you pick one up)