Hi Fi Vhs for Audio,

[Jeff449]

I still enjoy the sound of Pink Floyd at Pompeii on my Sony HiFi VHS.
I remember an ad in some audio magazine in the 80's for a device that turned your VHS into a (essentially) DAT machine (before DAT became popular). I guess it was a DAC and an ADC. Anyone else seen this?

 

[mhardy6647]

I still enjoy the sound of Pink Floyd at Pompeii on my Sony HiFi VHS.
I remember an ad in some audio magazine in the 80's for a device that turned your VHS into a (essentially) DAT machine (before DAT became popular). I guess it was a DAC and an ADC. Anyone else seen this?

Yup, a big deal in those early days of digital.
http://1001hifi.blogspot.com/2017/01/pcm-adapter-old-digital-audio-format.html

Standalone versions, too...

 

[91r100gs]

I have 2 S-VHS Hi-Fi decks. One is Panasonic playback only in the same case with a BluRay player. The other is a JVC full VCR. It makes marvelous audio recordings. The matchup between the two decks is excellent. The Panasonic will adjust its tracking automatically for the tapes recorded on the JVC. The tapes I have made includes a Tangerine Dream of Rubycon, Phaedra, and Force Majeure. I have a tape of Led Zeppelin 1 thru 4. The source is usually my Dual 1219 thru my bedroom system. Probably use it 10 times a month is some manner between the two decks. The modern Panasonic has true analog outputs, therefore it plays the analog tapes from the older JVC in true analog. Kinda cool IMO

 

[Schurkey]

I tried audio recording on a hi-fi VCR once. TERRIBLE speed control. (Wow 'n' Flutter?). It was unlistenable. Returned the deck; they told me I needed "better cables" because "better cables" would improve the sound. Big-Box morons.

Found out later that it needed a video signal, the video carries the speed-synch info. I guess. I never tried it again.

 

[BigElCat]

No video signal required.

Not sure what was wrong with that VCR.

 

[JoeESP9]

IIRC some VHS HiFi VCR's needed at least one video frame for the audio recording to work properly. The more upscale decks had separate audio input level controls and did not need any video signal.

 

[BigElCat]

I had a Sanyo, JVC, and a Mitsubishi, pretty well low end for Hi-Fi VHS.

They would record audio without a video signal feed to them. They would record in video though, a blank screen, with 'snow' picture.

 

[Djcoolray]

I was in Germany during the entire decade of the 90’s when I first bought my euro spec Pioneer VSX-D1S and I also bought two six head HIFI VCR’s for recording music video off of satellite with all TOTL equipment and better cables. I recorded both MTV RAPS and Head Bangers Ball every week for years. But the quality of stereo VHS tape in Germany is by far better than anything they sold in North America. Fact is many Europeans and Scandinavians still record music video because of the popularity, they still have real MTV still going on without all the drama programming. With the right AVR the copies come out as perfect as originally viewed....and the sound is better than CD. I also made cassettes from the recordings for my Pioneer Super-Tuner III in my 1978 BMW 323i....turbo !!

I tried recording from a television using cable and there was just too much distortion for me to live with....

 

[BilboBaggins]

In the early 90s I bought my first Beta machine. Then in the mid 90s I bought the top of the line Sony HF-900. What an excellent deck for recording audio, and, it ignored the copy protection on movies. I did a lot of audio recordings in the mid 90s on Beta. Still have them! Great audio and way better than S-VHS. I then bought an HF-751 which I loved. The 900 had indexing but the 751 took it to a whole new level. Unfortunately, the 751 is non functional (I still have it though) but I have two 900s and the TOTL Sony S-VHS machines still running. I even have 10 blank wrapped in plastic beta tapes.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Personally I found VHS hifi good enough for decent movie sound, but not good enough for music listening, due to that faint head-switching noise. I.e., I had six different VHS hifi recorders myself over theyears (1x Goldstar, 2x Grundig, 1x Philips, 2x Panasonic - with the Philips and one of the Panasonics being S-VHS hifi models) and have heard quite a few others, but I've yet to hear one that wouldn't make that faint "pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft..." noise.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

And there's the compander (compressor/expander) which is used to try to cover up that head switching noise. It's very similar to DBX NR. Sometimes it pumps and breathes audibly on some musical content. Also, tracking between machines is an issue (especially sans video picture along for the ride).

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Yup, a big deal in those early days of digital.
http://1001hifi.blogspot.com/2017/01/pcm-adapter-old-digital-audio-format.html

Standalone versions, too...

Most such PCM adapters worked well only with Beta or U-Matic VCR decks. VHS had too many tracking issues to work well with most PCM adapters. And none of the VHS HQ decks would work with a PCM adapter at all.

 

[triode17]

I still enjoy the sound of Pink Floyd at Pompeii on my Sony HiFi VHS.
I remember an ad in some audio magazine in the 80's for a device that turned your VHS into a (essentially) DAT machine (before DAT became popular). I guess it was a DAC and an ADC. Anyone else seen this?

Couldn't be, because VHS is not digital, it's analog.

 

[House de Kris]

I liked to record on VHS Hi-Fi. But, as soon as DATs and CD recorders became readily available, I ditched the VHS. Just too low of quality. I always post some VHS Hi-Fi measurements whenever these threads come up, but I think I'd rather just redirect those interested to a previous post.

 

[triode17]

I did this once to master a few songs i recorded at a local studio. Problem was, i couldn't get a decent enough video signal to prevent the VCR from searching for the right speed to run at. But once i did, this machine had a volume limiter defeat and a manual level control, so the compressor was out of the circuit. It sounds amazing though. I did the math once and taking into account the rotation speed of the heads, I think EP was equiv. to about 28 IPS, LP was like 35 IPS and SP is like 48 IPS !!!

 

[House de Kris]

Couldn't be, because VHS is not digital, it's analog.

True, VHS is analog. But if you add the adapter as outlined by in mhardy6647's post above, it becomes a PCM recorder.

 

[triode17]

True, VHS is analog. But if you add the adapter as outlined by in mhardy6647's post above, it becomes a PCM recorder.

Sorry, i didn't read that before. This is news to me. I did the recordings in the 90's, then went to Tascam DTRS 8 Track recorders.

 

[quaddriver]

I tried audio recording on a hi-fi VCR once. TERRIBLE speed control. (Wow 'n' Flutter?). It was unlistenable. Returned the deck; they told me I needed "better cables" because "better cables" would improve the sound. Big-Box morons.

Found out later that it needed a video signal, the video carries the speed-synch info. I guess. I never tried it again.

sorta kinda yes....in early models, sync was derived from 60hz. in later models, the $700-800 whiz bang models we licked windows over in the early 90, the sync was sourced by the recorded program source such that you would not get consistent playback, even on the SAME MACHINE.

horrible waste of wonderful outdated technology.

 

[Dazaa]

I've got some Sony DMR 4000's in storage, enormous studio Betamax recorders designed for audio only. Judging by their weight and size I can only guess these cost many thousands of dollars new and are now absolutely worthless. I'll get round to playing with them one day, I bet they sound incredible.

 

[steerpike2]

sorta kinda yes....in early models, sync was derived from 60hz. in later models, the $700-800 whiz bang models we licked windows over in the early 90, the sync was sourced by the recorded program source such that you would not get consistent playback, even on the SAME MACHINE.
horrible waste of wonderful outdated technology.

Early Hi-Fi VHS machines all had a selector switch, for audio-only recording. Later models used automatic switchover to internal reference if they couldn't detect video, but in both cases if no video signal was present, the machine could use the same quartz crystal internal reference for recording as it uses for playback. All video recorders have an internal quartz timing reference for playback purposes.
Deriving synch from 60Hz.. no... even in America the vertical field rate isn't 60Hz, and hasn't been since colour broadcasts. Its 59.94Hz

 

[mhardy6647]

The newest VHS HiFi deck here (a very late "Zenith" branded combi VHS/DVD deck) plays and records hifi audio only quite well. The only problem with it as a recorder is that it has ALC... but it still actually does a decent job dubbing music (e.g., from a CD).