I worked in the video editting and duplication lab for a large video distribution company many moons ago and worked extensively with S-VHS and 1/2" Sony beta formats. Both formats were used interchangeably for masters with our duplication to VHS that went out to our retail stores. The base polymer and magnetic oxide particles on the S-VHS were quite durable for repeated duplication with very few drop-outs even after hundreds of runs. Our company bought S-VHS blanks in bulk by the master carton (we used TDK and Fuji). Editting on S-VHS was somewhat more precise due to the pro JVC editting decks we had (they had built-in time code/black generator and color bar generators) linked together through a desktop PC running a custom EditMan software designed especially for our company. On a 90-min S-VHS with dozens of in/out edit points the system was accurate to within 4-5 frames from start to finish during the dupes.
A small factual correction: Both VHS and S-VHS record luminance and chrominance separately; in fact, they do that in almost exactly the same way, which is why things like SQPB are possible without changing too much of the circuitry. S-VHS decks often had an option to input and output video using separate luma/chroma (Y/C) connections though. This was simply done because S-VHS's luminance bandwidth is so high that the single-channel CVBS ("composite") video connections that were used in the VHS days became a bottleneck.
antoher small factual correction :) the separate Y/C allow a better artifacting cancellation with better comb filters (cross color, cross luma, and dot crawl) but composite is of course capable of passing the full luma bandwidth, but is more prone to artifacting mentionned above.
Black Magnetite is not the name for the S-VHS magnetic material, but it is the name for Maxell's magnetic layer, which contains iron oxide with cobalt dooped and magnetite, used in superferro and High Position audio cassettes and all VHS and S-VHS manufacturer Maxell from approximately 1992 until the end of production.
Great video. I just picked up a mint svhs vcr this weekend. Looking forward to messing around with it. Did movies get released on svhs or were they mainly used for recording personal videos?
i took my cable box at 1080i used the S-video output to the input of my S-VHS machine, recorded a show and played it back. Looked damn near as close to my dvd player.
Resolution of a colour image has 2 components, equally as important - 1) Luminance resolution (Luma, B&W resolution) and 2) Chrominance resolution (Chroma, colour resolution). You make the often repeated mistake of just quoting Luma resolution data as proof of the quality of SVHS, which is misleading. You ignore Chroma resolution - VHS, SVHS, Beta, SuperBeta etc... (in fact most analog domestic formats) all have a Chroma resolution of about 30 lines which is very poor - this alone made SVHS a prosumer (at best semi-pro) format, not a professional format, as you state it is. In summary, Chroma resolutions of various formats are as follow - VHS, SVHS 30 lines Betacam 100 lines Laserdisc 120 lines DVD 205 lines Blu Ray 540 lines For a colour image (especially reds) SVHS has a poor colour imaging - similar to lowly VHS.
SVHS wasn't a ridiculous choice for low budget broadcast, and it had some success in it, and JVC did some very nice professional deck/camcorder. keep in mind than U format was still a thing in late 80's in professional broadcast, and it also used the color under. and was barely better in color resolution. and despite all what we can say, eyes are far more sensible to luma resolution than color. the red color (and even chroma noise in general), when you don't oversaturate your monitor is not so bleedy, colour level is also a thing to consider.
I worked in the video editting and duplication lab for a large video distribution company many moons ago and worked extensively with S-VHS and 1/2" Sony beta formats. Both formats were used interchangeably for masters with our duplication to VHS that went out to our retail stores. The base polymer and magnetic oxide particles on the S-VHS were quite durable for repeated duplication with very few drop-outs even after hundreds of runs. Our company bought S-VHS blanks in bulk by the master carton (we used TDK and Fuji). Editting on S-VHS was somewhat more precise due to the pro JVC editting decks we had (they had built-in time code/black generator and color bar generators) linked together through a desktop PC running a custom EditMan software designed especially for our company. On a 90-min S-VHS with dozens of in/out edit points the system was accurate to within 4-5 frames from start to finish during the dupes.
A small factual correction: Both VHS and S-VHS record luminance and chrominance separately; in fact, they do that in almost exactly the same way, which is why things like SQPB are possible without changing too much of the circuitry. S-VHS decks often had an option to input and output video using separate luma/chroma (Y/C) connections though. This was simply done because S-VHS's luminance bandwidth is so high that the single-channel CVBS ("composite") video connections that were used in the VHS days became a bottleneck.
antoher small factual correction :)
the separate Y/C allow a better artifacting cancellation with better comb filters (cross color, cross luma, and dot crawl)
but composite is of course capable of passing the full luma bandwidth, but is more prone to artifacting mentionned above.
Super VHS was like VHS, but it could fly.
Black Magnetite is not the name for the S-VHS magnetic material, but it is the name for Maxell's magnetic layer, which contains iron oxide with cobalt dooped and magnetite, used in superferro and High Position audio cassettes and all VHS and S-VHS manufacturer Maxell from approximately 1992 until the end of production.
No image comparison?
Very entertaining video. Thank
Is there a difference between European VHS casettes and American?
Great video. I just picked up a mint svhs vcr this weekend. Looking forward to messing around with it. Did movies get released on svhs or were they mainly used for recording personal videos?
I'm not sure sorry
i took my cable box at 1080i used the S-video output to the input of my S-VHS machine, recorded a show and played it back. Looked damn near as close to my dvd player.
Man I need to track down an S-VHS deck. I got 3 copies of RoboCop on Super that are just sitting around being paperweights.
Resolution of a colour image has 2 components, equally as important -
1) Luminance resolution (Luma, B&W resolution) and
2) Chrominance resolution (Chroma, colour resolution).
You make the often repeated mistake of just quoting Luma resolution data as proof of the quality of SVHS, which is misleading.
You ignore Chroma resolution - VHS, SVHS, Beta, SuperBeta etc... (in fact most analog domestic formats) all have a Chroma resolution of about 30 lines which is very poor - this alone made SVHS a prosumer (at best semi-pro) format, not a professional format, as you state it is.
In summary, Chroma resolutions of various formats are as follow -
VHS, SVHS 30 lines
Betacam 100 lines
Laserdisc 120 lines
DVD 205 lines
Blu Ray 540 lines
For a colour image (especially reds) SVHS has a poor colour imaging - similar to lowly VHS.
SVHS wasn't a ridiculous choice for low budget broadcast, and it had some success in it, and JVC did some very nice professional deck/camcorder.
keep in mind than U format was still a thing in late 80's in professional broadcast, and it also used the color under. and was barely better in color resolution.
and despite all what we can say, eyes are far more sensible to luma resolution than color.
the red color (and even chroma noise in general), when you don't oversaturate your monitor is not so bleedy, colour level is also a thing to consider.
To us in ussr back then that meant nothing I can say it looked like vhs could go in the vhs player or recorder that’s all it mattered !