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Author Topic: VHS, 30, dies of loneliness Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 12-11-2006 03:24 AM                        Nice vid, if watching ithe clip shows any indication of actual quality, it had a decent picture, though the clip itself wasn't too high of quality.  |  IP: Logged Hillary Charles Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 748 From: York, PA, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-11-2006 08:25 AM                     My Quasar "Great Time Machine" has one tape, but I've never been curious enough about what's on the tape to try to resurrect it. It's pretty funky lookin.' We gave away a couple of top-loading U-matic 3/4" decks two years ago. They probably worked, but needed belts. But those RCA Selectavision Videodisc clips are very cool! We still have two early-generation players (1 RCA and 1 Zenith version) plus, I had gotten a stereo version when the prices dropped WAY down. I also have about 75 movies on CED disc. Those clips were very accurate in showing what the picture looked like (allowing for the compression used on the site). The occasional horizontal lines, the part when it started to skip; good times, good times. When they first came out, the picture appeared sharper than VHS, which seamed "smeared" to me, and at the time, pre-recorded VHS tapes were ~$90 while the CED discs were usually $20. The big problem was that the more you played them, the more chance for dirt to accumulate on the disc, then you get more lines, skipping, or a total picture meltdown. If you've used these, you probably know what I mean. Hopefully, removing and reinserting the disc would clear it up, but sometimes not. The artwork on the disc caddies were often nice, though. [ 12-11-2006, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: Hillary Charles ]  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 12-11-2006 01:20 PM                        Yeah, if it were a normal record, some cleaner and the duster would clear things right up, too bad CED discs are so damn picky and you can't use the stuff of them.  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 02-06-2009 06:06 PM                 It has been 788 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 02-06-2009 06:06 PM                     I haven't touched a U-Matic machine for getting on for a decade now, but while clearing out the upper floors of the building for the builders to move in last year I came across three tapes of unknown material. There's a machine still in storage in the College which hasn't been used for several years, but I fished it out today to see what was on the tapes. It's nothing terribly interesting, but for tapes recorded in 1987, on a format going back to about 1971, the quality really isn't at all bad. Ok, it's not exactly Quad, or 'C' format, and it will always have the limitations of being a composite format, but within those limitations, it really is pretty good. It also shows up just how bloody awful VHS really is. To my eye, even these old, low-band, U-matic tapes look not only much better than VHS, but also better than later S-VHS ones. I've got some off-air recordings stored away on U-Matic somewhere, some low-band and some high. I'll have to get them out and have a look at.  |  IP: Logged

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