Re: I think I'm confused...

I've heard of these decks, though I can't for the life of me remember what valuable service they provide...

The original question says they will record SVHS or VHS...

Every SVHS recorder on the planet will do that. If the claim is that the deck will somehow record SVHS luminance resolution so that you can play it back in a VHS machine...I'm still confused.

You aren't adding "scan lines" to the picture as such, in NTSC we all get 525 whether we're on DigiBeta or VHS, the resolution increases and decreases in the ability to resolve high frequency detail WITHIN these lines. If you consider that we have 525 from top to bottom, where we're gaining or losing is in the number of "lines" from side to side. VHS is maxxed out downhill with the wind at around 240 (MAYBE 250...). SVHS's extra 160 lines or so can't be reproduced in a VHS playback environment due to sheer bandwidth limitations in the circuitry. You will basically be playing back a 240 line "downsampled" (not digital, but you see the analogy) picture.

Bobby-do you see a lot of difference in the VHS tapes that come off these decks? Do you have any weird luminance overdrive "shearing" in titles, etc.? (a la UmatSP tape playing in a Umat deck...ancient history.)

I'm also curious as to why the VHS machine wouldn't be able to play the EP version. I'm no proponent of 6 hour mode, but if it plays back everything else...certainly all VHS decks can play EP VHS tapes...

Fill me in, guys.


-Tim Kolb