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Old 07-14-2007, 05:57 AM   #13
Chris Gerhard
High Definition is the definition of life.
 
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Join Date: Nov 2005
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Quote:
Originally Posted by electrictroy View Post
Well I failed. I couldn't find any. I retract my previous statement.



Oh sorry. I thought you were referring to D-VHS tapes.
I have about 100 TDK XPpro tapes in my library. Most are currently holding copies of Babylon 5, but I have a few blanks I could test in my new D-VHS machine.



"Digital8 (SP) recordings can be made on standard-grade Video8 cassettes, but this practice is discouraged..... To store the digitally-encoded audio/video on a standard Video8 cassette, the tape must be run through the recorder faster." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video8#Digital8 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital8



No it does look less clear, but that's an engineering or technician point-of-view (quality). I'm looking from a marketing view (cost) which is:

- If in 1987, consumers had been able to upgrade to SVHS while still using their existing blank VHS tapes, the format would have succeeded. Consumers could have upgraded painlessly to higher-quality video w/o needing to buy $10 s-vhs blanks (unless they wanted to).

- But since consumers could not do that, the format flopped. It was positioned too high in price.

That's the marketing viewpoint.
Trying to keep the cost low,
so the format gets adopted.

One final question:

What happens when you try to record HDTV using the STD speed? I've heard it can be done as long as the bitstream stays below 14.7 Mbps. Is that true?
I have never been able to record HDTV using STD speed, regardless of the bitrate which is often below 14.1 Mbps for an entire movie. I am not certain why it can't be done. It may be the VCR's won't allow STD to be locked in when the bitrate is above the normal SD bitrates. If STD could be started for an HDTV source then the bitrate exceed the maximum of 14.1, tape speed changing and a glitch would certainly be the outcome and that would be a mess obviously. Either my 169time equipment, Comcast Motorolla DCT6412III or D-VHS VCR's are preventing this occurrence. It is probably recording from a PC to D-VHS over firewire that permits this but I have never used a PC in that manner so I don't have any experience. Obviously a 50% savings in tape would make that worthwhile if it can be done.

TDK XP Pro is excellent and I am certain would pass the D-VHS certification requirements. You should find the tape works very well for D-VHS.

Chris
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