No market for S-VHS
 

I am a part time picker. An old fellow I know was one of those wedding video guys for years in the 80s and 90's. He had me over as he wants to sell all his gear.

I bought a few classic VCR's from him but the pro S-VHS gear ... I really didn't know what I would do with it. This guy spent thousands on this stuff I know. He has a few Cameras, playback decks, editing deck about 10 VCR's .... slide projectors, you know the ones that took pictures of negatives to place into the videos.

I don't like to break an old guys heart but I don't know anyone that uses any of this anymore.

I even called 2 film schools who told me they gave away all their old school stuff years ago. As in 10 years ago.

The short of this long wind is ... does anyone even collect anything but the good prosumer decks? I am hoping to get him taking a look at these answers because he is still in denial although he totally wants all this stuff out of the house. From what I can tell, its like my 486 computers. They were a few grand each at the time but worthless today.

Welcome to Videokarma :)

I wouldnt like S-VHS I dont think...... I like reg VHS,it is just like you what you would experience from analogue cable and Its beautiful... (Its even NICER than analogue cable in a couple ways)

I used to grab S-VHS and S-VHS-ET decks from the thrifts for 3-10$ (cheaper than tape if you can't buy individual ones) three to five years ago. Back then I still time-shifted and archived on S-VHS-ET machines. I still keep the machines hooked up and have the tapes I made, but I don't use them much. Some decks still fetch decent money on ebay, and if he wants the most he can get out of them then ebay is the only way to go....Still there is no way he'll get even half the money he put in back even if he does well.

I would not trash the gear as it still has value, and is going to get harder to find as time goes on...Assuming it all still works.

Not sure why anyone wouldn't like S-VHS other than maybe just not aware of what it is/was. It's like VHS except it has superior horizontal resolution (230 lines std VHS vs 400 lines S-VHS) you can see on most any TV, much closer to actual broadcast quality. The S-VHS machines will play standard VHS just fine, sometimes better, and will have S-Video out to send cleaner separated Y-C video to a lot of 1987-88 and newer year model TVs that had S-Video inputs.

I got my first one a Panasonic in 1988 to record the picture quality I was getting on my big satellite dish. The old standard VHS just didn't cut it anymore. I have several hundred S-VHS tapes I recorded during about a 10 year period mostly off satellite. But I digress..

I've got 8 or 10 Panasonic 7750's that are in climate-controlled storage waiting for a VHS resurgence similar to the recent vinyl bump. Here's hoping... :)

Chip

I feel, they were superior as well. I found the tapes too expensive.
The consumer grade S-VHS will record on a non-S tape, at standard resolution. I even had a newer VCR, that played back S-VHS tapes, but wasn't an S-VHS machine. :scratch2:

Last time I bought a case of Fuji S-VHS H471S Pro tapes they were a little over $5 a piece. I consider that a bargain. Especially when I clearly recall paying $25 for a blank RCA T120 tape when I got my first VCR, and waiting in line at 4 AM to buy Scotch T120s at a 24 hour sale for a mere $9.99 ea! About 1981-82 was the first time I saw blank tapes for less than $10 ea.

That's a long time ago! I bought my first VCR, January 1982. I bought two tapes from the same dealer for $14.00 each. The were GTE branded with a Panasonic part number, which were made by TDK. Then I bought a couple of Memorex. Very poor compared to the GTE's.
Bad habits die hard. I just bought a mess of VHS tapes, at two different thrift stores. :yes:

Yep they tried "Quasi" S-VHS playback on some later standard machines to make them compatible with S-VHS recordings. The feature supposedly a bigger deal in Japan where pre-recorded stuff was available in S-VHS. Never saw a commercial S-VHS pre-recorded movie or anything else myself.

An interesting thing unknown to most because the tapes were "expensive" was how a S-VHS tape could make a visible improvement in the Rec-PB quality of a standard VHS machine. It would play back with higher level from the heads through the head amplifier. Measurable at the "RF" test point where tape path alignments are monitored too. S-VHS tapes used to record on a standard VHS would playback several dB higher signal at the RF output from the head amp, and since it is an FM recording process the higher the signal the quieter and less noise in the end result. Less noise so finer picture details could be seen.

The pinnacle, apex, zenith of S-VHS editing machines from Panasonic.

You can get a case of 10 H471S tapes shipped to your door for a little over $6 ea ( * no affiliation! *) ... get 'em while you can! THE best.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-10-Ne...item4627dad8de

I've never seen or used S-VHS.

I still have and use my Panasonic PV-4022 VHS VCR, but I use it mainly to view old VHS tapes I recorded from cable TV years ago (I have a rack full of such tapes, about 40+ at last count, in my bedroom). The deck is set up and hooked up to record off the air, but I don't use that function often anymore since I can get streaming video and podcasts online just about any time.

The VCR doesn't get much use these days, however, since I have a Blu-ray player and a growing collection of DVDs, mostly '60s-'70s TV series. I am finding that most of the shows I have on VHS are and have been available on DVD for some time, so I guess my VHS VCR will get less and less use as time goes on. I can even see a day coming when I may put my VCR in storage indefinitely.

Standalone DVD/VHS players without RF tuners are available, if all you are interested in is watching old VHS tapes and DVDs. As long as my VCR still works, however, I won't get one of those combo units, as I have heard and read that they are made to last only a very short time, then something wears out or breaks and the thing is junk from that point on--like most everything else these days.

Sheeesh.

DVD/VHS players from makers such as Funai are among the worst, from what I have read. These players are often branded Magnavox, but don't let that name fool you. I had a Magnavox-branded VCR that lasted only about five years, then the heads (and, if I remember correctly, the transport mechanism) wore out. I bet that VCR was manufactured by Funai. :no:

So the short of it is yes the stuff really is worthless save for a few prosumer models that fetch a hun or so.

Lots of these wedding video guys are sitting on their old stuff which might as well be buried.

Pretty true. Even the higher-end 7750 decks with built-in TBC, line doublers, etc, fall short as the "universal, best VHS machine" because they only do high speed. They don't support extended play speeds at all.

I have a few of Panasonic 1980's (?) that do support all speeds, and do have a basic internal TBC, but in the end, it's still a VHS tape being played back.

Chip

I'd never trash pro-quality gear like that!...Unless it was broken and even then I'd make sure it was not a simple fix first. He could probably get 50-300$ a piece for them if they work well and are desirable models.
Also why WASTE any quality item that still works!?....That is one thing I hate about my generation, we needlessly trash anything that is not the latest and greatest, or new and perfect unless it can be sold for a 3-6 digit price...I'd call it heartlessly utilitarian, but many of my generation even trash stuff that it would be in their best interest financially to fix...So it seems like a dumb rich kid thing.

As a college electrical engineering student I consider S-VHS superior (for non HD content) to any digital format. I had a VERY hard time telling the difference between live analog cable and S-VHS recording of it. There were only three reasons I stopped archiving favorite cable shows on S-VHS: the tapes are bulky, DVD-Rs are cheap in bulk, and our cable started showing more and more digital compression artifacts which reduced the quality advantage of recording in analog (ie not adding those artifacts during recording)...

I still look for cheap S-VHS decks when I'm at thrift stores, and save any models I don't already have 1-4 examples of (I just don't see many any more).

I got $100 for my Panasonic AG-7750 when I sold it a few months ago. I let it go when I realised I'd probably put less than 10 hours on it since I got it (used). The buyer had tapes he wanted to transfer - which is probably the only (non collector) market for these now.

I'd originally bought it capture my VHS collection, but lost interest in the project when I found existing downloads for most it. Even playing back tapes recorded on a crappy $99 funai VCR they looked better than when played on decent consumer VCRs.

I was introduced to the 7750 back when it first came out ($5000). I was tangentially involved in a project to send personalized political tapes to individual potential donors. Create the video, mass duplicate them, then cut in personalized intros and closes to the mass-dubbed tapes, using 7750's and Amiga computers. They stood up well.

Fast-forward a few years and I needed good-performing, timecode-capable, RS-422-controlled decks, also with good manual shuttle/jog capabilities. I had maybe five workstations worth, at two decks per workstation, going for 6 or 8 years. Worst failure experienced was one of them got a little weak on rewind. No electronic issues at all. None of them ever ate a tape -- and I was given some pretty cheap tape to work with sometimes. Better reliability than my BVW-75s and BVU-800 -- and those things are built like tanks.

Now I could do the customization project on my phone. And I haven't turned on any of those decks in two years.

Chip

Why don't you stop shopping at thrift stores then and buy out these old guys with gear they bought new 30 years ago?

When TV went HD, there was a local station with a semi trailer half-full of BetaSP machines. Not for sale, though, due to some accounting thing that prevented it.

Years before that, I recall personally pushing two perfectly good, updated Quad machines off the back of a truck into the dump/scrapyard. We got about $120 for the pair. No market in the pro world, even if free.

There was also a complete Ikegami EC-35 camera system that went to the junk dealer who cleaned out the rest of the warehouse. I found it for sale in his store, for about $500, travel cases included.

The fact is, businesses who use this stuff can't afford to keep things around like a museum. Maybe an example or two for lobby decoration, but that's it. Square footage costs money.

Chip

I don't know any of those guys...Or if I do I don't know they have that gear.
I'll never stop checking the thrifts...At least the good ones, like the ones here.
I collect nearly any type AV related gear made from the 20's-70's and some newer stuff, and I've found all kinds of good cheap electronics going all the way back to 30's radio consoles at the thrifts. Also I'm a massive cheap skate if I can find a lower price on something I want then that is what I'll pay.

If he has to part with those machines, and can't find a buyer he could always donate them to a thrift and give them a chance to live on.

There you go. But you were saying before how this stuff needs to be saved. Save the whales, save the children, save the VCR ... just so long as someone else's time/money/intellect does the saving.

While I am calling you out a bit here I am not doing it to pick on you. Simply making a point.

As others have mentioned, taking up floor space costs money. Even if someone were to buy all the cool and formerly expensive gadgets of yesteryear you probably wouldn't even buy a ticket to visit the museum. So besides a few private parties who will have personal fun there is no market.

Personally I like old gadgets and I like servicing them to see how they work. But if there is no day to day use for the stuff I must resist. Even when free or the house starts looking like the dump.

I understand YOU won't buy it, You are only looking for big profit...

I do buy stuff like this, but I keep my search local since there is plenty of local stuff to be had, and shipping on one thing could eat the budget of the next. Also just because I'm not knocking on every door looking for them does not mean I'm not looking. I've got 6 S-VHS machines, and while I'd like to find and compare some other brands and models on the cheap, is it worth my time to tear heaven and earth apart broadening my search for something that already has representation in my collection?...
There are a wide variety of things that I'd like to have or get more of, but if I tried to find every single one of each thing still in existence then I'd need to buy at least one warehouse to store it all. I get enough as it is by letting the stuff find me. I try to save as much as I can even if it is only for parts.
I only go out of my way when I don't have an example of something, want it bad enough, and don't think one will just come to me.

I have been to many museums, including the early television museum in Ohio...If I've heard of a good museum and am in the area then I visit it.

To use something vintage day to day you have to MAKE a use for it.
My AV rack consists of the following video gear: S-VHS, Betamax, U-matic, EIAJ VTRs, Hi8 professional VTR, CED selectavision video discplayer, Laserdisc, DVD decks, DVR, DTV box (for when cable is out), and a computer used to play videos streamed or downloaded from the net...My audio rack consists of a record player, 2 reel-to-reel players (one quadrophonic), 2 8-track decks (one quadrophonic the other dolby), a cassette deck, CD/SACD player, reverbs, equalizer, 3 different amps (including a quadraphonic tube OTL I designed and built mostly out of parts from my junk piles).
And while about half of my video gear, and an eighth of my audio gear gets used much less than daily the rest gets plenty of use. And while I could just digitize all my media and dump most of my gear that would ruin a good portion of the enjoyment I get out of my media, my gear, and mark the death of my soul as an engineer.

I use a 1940's Silvertone radio on weekdays when I get home before my favorite talk show host is done with his show, for about 5 years now over 90% of my TV watching hours are spent in front a 1964 Silvertone round screen color TV, and a 1971 tube/solid state hybrid Zenith (I like the SD on CRT better than anything shown on a flat panel), me and a friend exchange reel tapes of our favorite records, and the list goes on and on. I use the S-VHS units mainly for watching tapes I made on them, 0.50$ movies/shows from the thrifts, and occasionally when I'm going on vacation and can't record all the shows I want on my newer equipment.

Old equipment is only useless when it breaks or you find an excuse to stop using it...If you want to use it bad enough you WILL find a purpose to use it.

Ah ha! What about HDCD? You missed something! :D

If you have an Oppo player, HDCD is covered. :thmbsp:



I have two working S-VHS VCRs left - a JVC HR-S5900U and a Mitsubishi HS-U790. The JVC also does the S-VHS ET recordings on standard VHS tapes. The high grade tapes like Fuji HG proved to work well. Some of the other standard VHS not so good, noisy picture. Especially if you used EP record speed.
HR-S5900U JVC
http://resources.jvc.com/images/fron...900u_front.jpg


Mitsubishi HS-U790
http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225...xOiSbzjtRQ.jpg



I have two other JVCs that are editing machines with the controller for them, but they each need a major overhaul and I have no need to do that.

Thats right ... old VHS equipment is where I go looking for profits.
Its OK. No need for the peeing contest. You win. I am not even pulling mine out.

I'm not trying to get into or be in a pissing contest...

To be fair you did start your first post by saying that you are a picker...

Also I'm not advising you to buy them, I'm just trying to say that you should not advise the guy that has them to junk them (in my post you quoted in your comment in post #18).

My reply to your 'calling me out' was me interpreting your post as implying that I'm some dork with a computer in a room somewhere that has never seen or worked with, of bought such equipment and has no intention of doing so....And breaking that implied false image of me.

Sorry if I've hurt your feelings...

@ ED: Yah, HDCD, miniDisc, and Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) are all on my audio want list...Although I've got some odd formats I did not list in storage such as magnetic wire recorders, what I believe is an industrial Muntz 4-track cartridge player, and a few other things. I'd like to own every recording format one day....

I've got a JVC HR-S3500U that looks almost the same as yours, and about three other JVC modes. I also have a NEC unit with an interesting video noise reduction feature.

Electronic M wrote: "I'd like to own every recording format one day...."

Then you'll need one of these, which is just like mine...
http://museumofmagneticsoundrecordin...tml#MailAVoice

But back to the video world. I had a couple M-II machines for a specific, long-term client. They eventually moved on to DigiBeta, so I was thinking the M-II machines would wind up at a science museum for kids to take apart, or something like that. A few years later, I got a call out of the blue from an outfit that was digitizing their whole library. Ended up getting nearly a grand each for them, and they sent factory boxes to ship them in. That was a nice surprise.

Not expecting the same for the 7750s, though.

Chip

The regular members of the website are preserving the technology of years gone by.
Maybe, this isn't the place for you. You only have six posts and your telling people, they're doing it all wrong. :thumbsdn:

You are telling me what I am saying then arguing with it. Cant help you with that.

There were some, and one mail-order company (Super Source Video) specialized in Super-VHS prerecorded tapes in the late 1980s. They had ads in the back of Video magazine and others.

Wilcox's recordio line had a similar system only the discs were rigid and grooved and the record/play head also played normal records....I used to own one, but since I had no discs and need to downsize when I moved where I now live, I sold it.

The one in the link looks like it's missing the "clamp". Mine has a bakelite disk about 5" in diameter that holds down the paper/magnetic-coated disk flat to the turntable. The disk has a spiral groove in it, and the tonearm has an outrigger pin that engages the groove. The pin guides the head in a repeatable fashion over the flat magnetic disk. There's a tracking control to vary the pin position so that the record/playback head on the end of the tonearm tracks appropriately.

Your referenced dual-use version sounds like the "ultimate expression of the art" for this media, to be sure! It would seem they would pick 33 1/3 as the table rpm -- I don't know the speed of mine, but it would stand to reason they wouldn't re-invent the idler wheel...

Thread now devoid of S-VHS content. Oops.

Chip

I keep one S-VHS deck around simply because S-VHS broadcast cameras are basically free now and if you want a decent tri-CCD camera but can't afford what Betacam still goes for, this is your ticket.

I guess if you are going to own ONE VHS format deck, the D-VHS (Digital VHS) decks that can also record and play back HD signals would be the one to have (I have several). They can play back with very good quality any VHS tape, Standard, S-VHS and of course D-VHS. In any case a S-VHS deck works very well with playing back standard VHS tapes, so, all-in-all every new technology improvement in the VHS tape system, always allowed for the playback and recording of the older VHS standards. No obsolescence. The last D-VHS decks even have HDMI output.

W-VHS and D-VHS have been been on my want lists for a while too, but they have been a bit too pricey for me when they show up on the bay (which is the only place I have been able to find them for sale since I learned of them).

Dish network had a really neat D-VHS satellite receiver that would record the actual satellite stream so there was no degradation in picture quality.

Sharp had an LCD monitor with D-VHS direct in, too. I have a need for one, if anyone has one sitting around... Somewhere around here I have the model number.

Chip

What is W-VHS buddy??

I've never heard of it either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W-VHS

Analog HD recording.
Wikipedia knows all...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W-VHS
Edit:looks like dish dude beat me to it as I was writing.

You can blame the entertainment industry for holding this up not letting this go like the blueray recorders.