SVHS or Super VHS is a high bandwidth version of the very popular VHS format. First introduced by JVC in 1987, SVHS has a 400 line resolution as opposed to VHS at 240 lines. Super VHS tapes are similar in appearance to VHS and can be identified by the SVHS logo on the cassette. Generally speaking, SVHS players could play both VHS and SVHS, however, standard VHS players cannot play SVHS tape. Later VHS machines featured SVHS playback modes.
Pictured below is a VHS tape, although the casings are almost identical the major difference is in the tape formulation.
SVHS was also fairly popular as a consumer format and manufacturers such as JVC and Panasonic manufactured the compact or VHS C format. Essentially a mini version of a VHS tape that required a cassette adaptor to play in a standard VCR. There is a misconception that the VHSC adaptor works with Sony’s rival format Video 8. This is not the case, VHSC and Video8 / Hi8 are not compatible with one another. Not only is the form factor different but the recording technology between the formats is vastly different.
We can transfer Super VHS to digital files for use in archiving or editing applications. We can supply the files as compressed MP4 or uncompressed MOV.
Contact us for more information on this service.
Pricing from $50 (NZD) per hour.
Prices include GST.
External USB storage is excluded.