W
William Sommerwerck
You do know that Ampex started the development of VHS before they
That's new to me. I don't see why Japanese companies aren't capable of
designing poor-quality products on their own. (RCA had been working on a
consumer video recorder for years, but felt it wouldn't be marketable until it
hit the same price point as color TV -- $500.)
That's not altogether surprising. Beta pulled the tape into an elongated loop
around the drum, to isolate its motion -- which is why Beta has less line
jitter.
I'm not sure I understand.
You are one of the most-knowledgeable people (about anything) I've ever met,
but here I have to say "No way, José." VHS has serious time-base problems.
I first noticed this the early 80s when I was scanning a late-night show I'd
recorded * -- why was the picture visibly sharper than in normal play? I
looked closely and saw the reason -- severe line jitter. When scanning, there
was either less of it (for the same reason analog recorders have less flutter
at higher speeds), or the eye did a better job of averaging the errors.
Just as I judge audio equipment by what I hear, I judge video equipment by
what I see. When VHS recordings have obvious time-base problems -- what am I
supposed to conclude?
* The machine was a high-end RCA-branded Panasonic.
sold out to a consortium of japanese companies to raise much needed
funds for their financial survival? Ampex wanted to make a cheap,
scaled down version of their existing 1% 2" tape systems, to sell at
an affordable price for consumers but ran into cash flow problems.
That's new to me. I don't see why Japanese companies aren't capable of
designing poor-quality products on their own. (RCA had been working on a
consumer video recorder for years, but felt it wouldn't be marketable until it
hit the same price point as color TV -- $500.)
The Betamax machines I worked on treated the tape
a lot worse than VHS.
That's not altogether surprising. Beta pulled the tape into an elongated loop
around the drum, to isolate its motion -- which is why Beta has less line
jitter.
Some had the tape sliding against itself to simplify
the loading and unloading.
I'm not sure I understand.
Having seen both in use in a broadcast station, the cheap VHS
was much better than any Beta, other than the overpriced ENG
version that only got 20 minutes per tape. All Sony machines
needed a TBC to meet FCC requirements, but I could feed a $79
VHS tape into our Vital Industries Squeezezoom and get a picture
that was stable enough to broadcast.
You are one of the most-knowledgeable people (about anything) I've ever met,
but here I have to say "No way, José." VHS has serious time-base problems.
I first noticed this the early 80s when I was scanning a late-night show I'd
recorded * -- why was the picture visibly sharper than in normal play? I
looked closely and saw the reason -- severe line jitter. When scanning, there
was either less of it (for the same reason analog recorders have less flutter
at higher speeds), or the eye did a better job of averaging the errors.
Just as I judge audio equipment by what I hear, I judge video equipment by
what I see. When VHS recordings have obvious time-base problems -- what am I
supposed to conclude?
* The machine was a high-end RCA-branded Panasonic.