[opendtv] Re: More on Beta vs VHS
- From: Jeroen Stessen <jeroen.stessen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2007 08:43:25 +0200
Hi,
What ? Not a single mention of the best 1/2 inch tape format of them
all ? The Philips Video 2000 (a.k.a. Video Compact Cassette), also
available from Grundig and ... eh ... well, Philips and Grundig.
With a playing time of up to 5 hours PER SIDE, and that's before
Long Play. But only one long play deck ever came out.
It had split-track lo-fi stereo audio, the format was cancelled
before the hifi stereo (digital PCM !) ever came out.
Its biggest feature, as friend and foe will agree, was the Dynamic
Track Following. The video heads were mounted on piezo crystals and
would move to follow the tracks. This gave perfect tracking at any
playback speed, also when playing tapes recorded on a different deck.
This quality was unmatched by any competition, at least until JVC
came out with S-VHS with Tilting Drum. (Much simpler, just as good !)
Things I did not like were the high power consumption and the bad
quality of the rubber on the (capstan) pressure roller. I still have
a stack of these decks in the attic, all dead because of the rubbers.
The User Interface was excellent: no on-screen display but just a
bunch of LED displays (3 !) and LEDs. You could not even program the
5 timers from the remote, you had to get up and do it on the machine.
But oh, what a joy to use them, so easy, so perfect.
Did I mention that hardly any porno was available (for rent) on the
V2000 format ? The video stores just refused to keep everything on
3 formats in stock. They would rather rent you a VHS "Movie Box"
player (for free with the rent of 3 VHS tapes), and I would gladly
use the offer to make copies from VHS to V2000. Still not illegal !
This was before Macrovision was even invented. But even after that,
V2000 decks were famous for making perfect copies of protected VHS
tapes, because only VHS decks were required (by licence holder JVC,
due to their patent position, Doug !) to make bad recordings...
Best,
-- Jeroen
+------------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| From: Jeroen H. Stessen | Phone: ++31.40.27.40246 |
| Deptmt.: Philips Applied Technologies | Mobex: ++31.40.27.99650 |
| Digital Systems & Technologies | Mobile: ++31.6.4468.0021 |
| Address: High Tech Campus 5 - room 5.025 | Skype: Jeroen.Stessen |
| 5656 AE Eindhoven - Nederland | VoIP:
Jeroen.Stessen.at.Philips |
| Website: http://www.apptech.philips.com/ | E-mail:
Jeroen.Stessen@xxxxxxxxxxx |
+------------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
Other related posts:
