VHS – Video Home System
JVC was first to introduce VHS in 1976. The Video Home System is the most popular analogue video format and was used extensively until the 90’s.
Inferior to the Betamax standard, VHS won the format war due to its relatively low cost. VHS was eventually relegated to the pages of history as DVD became the new domestic standard.
VHS uses half inch tape and could record for up to 3 hours in SP (standard play) mode and up to 6 hours in LP (long play) mode.
Tapes were generally available in lengths from 5 to 240 minutes. Certain VCR’s supported SLP modes which would extend record times even further.
Tape duration can be identified by a number printed on the left corner of the tape spine / back. E180 denotes a 180 minute tape.
SVHS – Super VHS is a high bandwidth version of VHS and provided better recording quality than standard VHS.
SVHS was popular for semiprofessional video production applications.
Due to slight variations between domestic VHS machines and the fact that in most cases the home VCR was seldom serviced or cleaned, there are occasions where tapes do not play back correctly.
We use sacrificial VCR’s and perform mechanical adjustments to ensure our machines are aligned to your tapes for best results, even if that means having to recalibrate our machines after the work. We have the skills and test equipment required to perform these adjustments.
VHS Compact (VHS C) is a smaller cassette that was designed for use in camcorders. A cassette adaptor is required to play VHS C in a standard VHS VCR.
The VHS C Cassette adaptor is only compatible with VHS C tapes. There is a misconception that Sony Video 8 / Hi8 will work with these adaptors – It won’t! The two systems are totally incompatible with one another.
Standards Conversion
Standards conversion from NTSC 3.58 and NTSC 4.43 to PAL for most of the analogue video formats we support. The NTSC format applies to tapes recorded in countries such as USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Philippines (to name a few).
Moisture and Mould damage
Video tapes are very susceptible to damage from moisture and incorrect storage. Long term exposure to moisture can cause irreversible damage. If there are signs of mould on the tape, consider getting them digitized sooner rather than later. Mould damaged tape can be saved, see our tape repair page.
We can transfer VHS to digital files for use in archiving or editing applications.
Output file type options include (but are not limited to) the following
- Compressed MP4 – H264
- Uncompressed MOV
- Custom file types – contact us with your requirements.
Contact us for more information on this service.