I *love* the VU meters on that machine! Plenty of resolution, super snappy and responsive, plus peaks. So many devices had disappointing segmented meters back in those days - nice job, Sony. I wonder if you could still achieve perfect quality all the way down to EP speed... The thought of being able to squeeze 8 hours (T-160) of uninterrupted CD-quality audio onto an inexpensive consumer-grade tape is really quite impressive. I wish I'd known about these back in the mid-90's.
Very nice! I think the PCM-F1 was originally intended as a home device, but found most use among professionals. I also have a PCM-601ESD somewhere, which I think is the only model with S/PDIF i/o as standard (other models need a modification to support S/PDIF).
Fun Fact: The Euro versions of the F1 recorded at 44.1khz (CD rate), and the US versions recorded at 44.056khz. This was due to the Power ("Mains" in the UK) frequency that the power supply used. If you had the PCM-601 (I have one), you could use the Coax digital (SPDIF) to make a perfect US copy, but have to resample to make a CD out of it. You *could* use the raw US 44.056khz rate and just "speed it up" (change rate to 44.1 without resampling), which what most most software programs did anyway. FYI: You can't play a Euro tape in a US adapter and vice-versa due to the video frame rate difference. Using a standards converter caused massive distortion on an unmuted F1, or just silence on the 501/601/701 as it has an automatic mute circuit.
Thanks. I was curious to know what would happen when playing an NTSC recording into a PAL decoder (and vice versa) but these things seem to be astronomically expensive for some reason so I couldn’t justify the cost of buying an NTSC F1 just to try this. I knew it wouldn’t work, but was curious to hear the effect.
VideoCD used MPEG-1 which doesn't support interlaced video, so that wouldn't work at all. DVD might work because it's MPEG-2 but because the lossy compression of MPEG is not intended for this, you would probably get a lot of dropouts unless you use a really high bitrate.
Hi, great video. I'd be curious to see how VHS generation loss affects the quality of the recording. Any interest in making a video where you transfer the tape back and forth, and show how the audio quality is affected in each generation?
Great suggestion! I will certainly try this experiment at some point. The F1 seems very tolerant of noise in the "picture" so I suspect it will survive a few generations before any noticeable deterioration in sound quality, but will certainly be interesting to see.
hi have sony 701es i can use with a jvc BR8600 this is a liner 2 channel audio decks it cost alot of money new 2500 uk i have seen a sell paper work for it they used to sell for silly low money in the past now prices of any pcm units are silly high why i got in betacam decks in need of work love to see how alot find a way they can use the gear
Esta technogia jamás fue liberada a para el ámbito doméstico, me perece a que debido al problema de hacer copias perfectas de un CD, no se pasó, ya a fines de los 80s ya no se fabricaban más de estos aparatos, Sony perdió una gran oportunidad de negocio
Yes, I incorrectly referred to SP as "short play" in this video. I think the correct expansion is "Standard Play." PAL VHS only had two recording speeds: SP and LP, with LP mode doubling the recording time. There was no equivalent to NTSC's "SLP" or "EP" mode.
It was a very fun machine. 👍
I *love* the VU meters on that machine! Plenty of resolution, super snappy and responsive, plus peaks. So many devices had disappointing segmented meters back in those days - nice job, Sony. I wonder if you could still achieve perfect quality all the way down to EP speed... The thought of being able to squeeze 8 hours (T-160) of uninterrupted CD-quality audio onto an inexpensive consumer-grade tape is really quite impressive. I wish I'd known about these back in the mid-90's.
PAL VHS doesn't have an equivalent of the "EP" speed, so I'll leave that one as an exercise for someone "over the pond" :-)
@@timf-tinkering Oh, haha, fair enough!
I have never heard of this before, very interesting video!
I have the home versions the PCM-501ES and the PCM-701ES.
Very nice! I think the PCM-F1 was originally intended as a home device, but found most use among professionals. I also have a PCM-601ESD somewhere, which I think is the only model with S/PDIF i/o as standard (other models need a modification to support S/PDIF).
Fun Fact: The Euro versions of the F1 recorded at 44.1khz (CD rate), and the US versions recorded at 44.056khz. This was due to the Power ("Mains" in the UK) frequency that the power supply used. If you had the PCM-601 (I have one), you could use the Coax digital (SPDIF) to make a perfect US copy, but have to resample to make a CD out of it. You *could* use the raw US 44.056khz rate and just "speed it up" (change rate to 44.1 without resampling), which what most most software programs did anyway. FYI: You can't play a Euro tape in a US adapter and vice-versa due to the video frame rate difference. Using a standards converter caused massive distortion on an unmuted F1, or just silence on the 501/601/701 as it has an automatic mute circuit.
Thanks. I was curious to know what would happen when playing an NTSC recording into a PAL decoder (and vice versa) but these things seem to be astronomically expensive for some reason so I couldn’t justify the cost of buying an NTSC F1 just to try this. I knew it wouldn’t work, but was curious to hear the effect.
Interestingly enough this was used by Eric Persing to record the samples used for his presets for the Roland D50
I’m now curious to see if a Video CD (VCD) would have the bitrate for it.
VideoCD used MPEG-1 which doesn't support interlaced video, so that wouldn't work at all. DVD might work because it's MPEG-2 but because the lossy compression of MPEG is not intended for this, you would probably get a lot of dropouts unless you use a really high bitrate.
Hi, great video. I'd be curious to see how VHS generation loss affects the quality of the recording. Any interest in making a video where you transfer the tape back and forth, and show how the audio quality is affected in each generation?
Great suggestion! I will certainly try this experiment at some point. The F1 seems very tolerant of noise in the "picture" so I suspect it will survive a few generations before any noticeable deterioration in sound quality, but will certainly be interesting to see.
hi have sony 701es i can use with a jvc BR8600 this is a liner 2 channel audio decks it cost alot of money new 2500 uk i have seen a sell paper work
for it
they used to sell for silly low money in the past now prices of any pcm units are silly high why i got in betacam decks in need of work love to see how alot find a way they can use the gear
Esta technogia jamás fue liberada a para el ámbito doméstico, me perece a que debido al problema de hacer copias perfectas de un CD, no se pasó, ya a fines de los 80s ya no se fabricaban más de estos aparatos, Sony perdió una gran oportunidad de negocio
Just to inform you SP is the standard speed on all VHS players
Yes, I incorrectly referred to SP as "short play" in this video. I think the correct expansion is "Standard Play." PAL VHS only had two recording speeds: SP and LP, with LP mode doubling the recording time. There was no equivalent to NTSC's "SLP" or "EP" mode.