All things relating to analog technology.
>Beta-max, Laser-disk, Cassettes etc.
Movie/ tape of the week:
>You Decide!
Experiences:
>user's use their nostalgia vision to enjoy their childhood tapes
>Elder user remembers his late father
Stories of the past week
>user find 10c tapes at local library
>user comments on his collection of 600 plus tapes!
>JVC HM-DH30000U is the VHS deck of choice!
Anons discuss the ups and downs of S-VHS and D-Theater
Other urls found in this thread:
youtube.com
hodinkee.com
twitter.com
My bad about the last line, Kinda new to posting
I've had Sony PVMs recommended to me by a friend at work. Do you anons think that It is worth the price tag or should I go out and buy a 15 dollar CRT?
This looks promising. I'll join in.
I've fetishized analog over digitalcucking, and for me, since I see them all the time, casettes are the best analog alternative.
Do they provide any sort of benefits over digital?
That's a pretty loaded can of worms. Ultimately, the *best* experience is reel-to-reel. It's also the most expensive. A normal tape (8-track, cassette-tape, etc) doesn't have near the fidelity of a lossless digital copy, or even the majority of lossy digital copies. Vinyl is the next best next to reel-to-reel.
The problem with digital is all in the digital-to-analog converter. Furthermore, modern music is mixed in favor of all-digital setups
Not to kill your convo but thanks for joining in. I don't want to jinx it but I didn't expect it to take off. You're the best.
They're definitely worth it. I'll take my 8" PVM over a 15" TV from Goodwill any day
I like how they're physical and enjoy the experience of picking up a tape and placing it in a deck and watching the tape reel spin. There is just something special about having physical media, a feeling you just don't get with digital media.
There is no significant benefit to storing your music on tape instead of digitally, but keeping digital backups and then recording onto tape what you want to hear can be fun, and results in some of the highest quality recordings possible on that medium. The tape's slightly reduced dynamic range warms up generally bright-sounding digital files, and in my experience I have noticed that the high frequency compression artifacts of low-quality MP3s are masked by the tape noise and the fact that the tape just does not pick up the weird sibilance and reproduce it in the same way. This makes it possible to record off internet radio and still achieve a good sounding result.
We have some black and white crts where I work. They'll be gone soon (I work in a recycling center) and I want to know if it would be worth my time unbolting them from their mounts.
Why not bring in something (or use something there) and test the picture?
been there, done that
i'm glad they're dead, and i'm glad they're gone
What is Jow Forums's favorite kind of analog media? For OP, I happen to like VHS. I have a collection of roughly 60 tapes in my collection.
If I get the chance I will. I only work there on Saturdays. Sometimes we find game consoles people have thrown away so gives me something to test with.
A friend offered me a laser disk player and I was wondering if It was worth my time getting into it. Does anybody have any experience with laserdisk?
No problem mate, I've got a lot of memories tied to old tech. Eastern-Europefag, so most of our technology was 5 years behind the rest of the world. I grew up with vinyls, tape recorders and VHS.
Ah, so there is a unique sound to the tape. I'll try picking up a Walkman if I can find one for cheap, maybe dig around a thrift store and record something onto it.
This. It feels unlike anything else. I suppose its because we're attracted to mechanical objects.
Modern music shouldn't be a problem. I mostly listen to pre-1990s music, so finding tape lots on Ebay shouldn't be a worry.
For those that like old tech, I suggest watching Techmoan for those that don't know him yet.
youtube.com
He's great. I watch him all the time.
My favorite video's probably The Wire Recorder, its a fascinating piece of technology. If only they made wire that was less prone to tearing and with smoother parts, you could keep songs on tiny reels much smaller than the casette.
that's a catch-22, to have stronger wire, you need thicker wire, but that makes the record larger/shorter-running
they just can't keep up with the magnet density of tape
Perhaps it'd be possible to incorporate stronger materials into the alloy. But I do agree, it's a rather unfortunate no-win situation. Cool technology though. Tefifon was pretty neat too.
Protip: Betamax and Betacam tapes are expensive because of their cult following. You can buy Betacam SP and Betacam SX tapes and spool them with brand new VHS tape to make them compatible with regular Beta decks. The price of used Betacam SP/SX + new VHS tapes will be lower than the price of used Betamax tapes. Also, do not ever use Betacam SP/SX tapes if you don't have an ED Beta deck, as they will erode your video heads.
I liked mini disk. I thought the concept of a mini Disk-man was interesting.
Thanks for the tip user. I haven't personally used beta, but my dad used to have a pretty extensive collection.
Do you have a deck you could recommend to a beginner? I'd like to get into beta but don't know where to start.
If you're in PAL territory and don't mind linear mono sound just get anything. The build quality and quality control on beta decks was so much better than on VHS ones that you don't really have anything to worry about as far as picture quality goes.
If you're in the states, however, get a deck that can do Beta II at least, that way you'll be able to watch prerecorded movies and record more than an hour on a tape. If you care about sound, get a Hi-Fi deck. And if you are really picky about your video quality (or just want to use unmodified betacam SX/SP tapes), get an ED beta deck. The picture quality on those gets really close to Laserdisc when using professional mastering tapes.
Thanks, I'll take a look around my local junk stores. I live in the southern united states and people seem to throw everything away. Is there anything I should really keep my eye out for when looking for tapes?
Nice setup btw
i bet you faggot also use analog watches
Right on the button there friend
Look at the reels. If they have a white powder-ish residue, do not use them unless you respool them with new tape. It's the adhesive coming off, and it means the tape is delaminating and the oxide that comes off it will clog your video heads.
Also I have a soft spot for Sony Dynamicron tapes, but it's just a personal preference.
Thank you!
FUCK. He got me... How am I ever going to recover..?
The funny thing about analog watches is that most of the people I know cant read them.
You can't be serious. They teach you how to read them in school, and there's a ton of analog clocks in use everywhere. How can anyone survive without knowing how to read a fucking clock?
I don't think anybody in generation z will live past 20.
Will do and your welcome. Any tips for digitizing tape? Beta or VHS. I was thinking of investing some money into S-VHS but don't know if the benefits will out weigh the cost.
>any tips for digitizing tape?
Use a scaler (the one in the pic with the laserdisc player will suffice, though it's very picky about synchronism and I'd recommend using a TBC for worn out tapes too) and a modern HDMI capture card that'll do 1080p 50/60fps. The scaler outputs a really clean 1080p (or a lot more resolutions, down from pure 240p and up to 1920x1200) at 50/60hz. It also does reverse telecine and has a really good comb filter, which is a godsend for signals stored in the composite domain. Use a good deck, first of all. You want to retrieve all the information you can from the tape. S-VHS, Hi-Fi, ED beta and all that.
Going for S-VHS for digitizing isn't a bad idea, as the decks tend to be top of the line and have some great video circuitry built in. If it's for recording... I honestly could notice a difference in quality, but I wouldn't pay current prices just for recording a couple more lines of resolution most old sets aren't even going to be able to display anyway.
>I don't think anybody in generation z will live past 20.
Well, I am 21 and I'm not dead (yet). There's some hope out there, you just need to know where to look (the "muh wrong generation" kids are where you shouldn't, by the way)
Ah, you will be surprised
hodinkee.com
hardware wise, any decent 90's VCR will be about as good as you're going to get
there's no need to go beyond composite capturing, since VHS can't do better anyway
a capture card with a known-good comb filter won't hurt
the biggest quality advantages are in post processing, namely, use QTGMC for deinterlacing, and if you really want to put some time into it, you can dump your tapes multiples times and take a median from them, to reduce noise and artifacts
I know this isn't really related to analog tech, but its still retro-semi-related. Data transmission should go back to radio and dial-up. This would improve the quality of the internet immensely.
>much less active, so less click-whoring, attention-whoring, etc.
>most websites will stop taking 1 fucking GB to load, I mean fucking come on, why do websites contain so much unnecessary data
>return of forums and text-based media
>death of jewtube and multiplayer gaymen
>return of physical media and death of streaming
>return to the point where consumers had to learn about the tech they used instead of being able to use plug'n'play toys.
I'm building an analog video synthesizer. Does Jow Forums think it would be worthwhile to start selling kits? A PCB that does the hard boring stuff combined with a breadboard, chips, and book of example projects.
If analog is your thing, get an old car. You'll go nuts.
Is that what they talk about when they say that tape and valves have a natural compression (as in dynamic range compression) to them, and why some people like valve amplifiers and proper tape echo loops like the Boss RE-201?
Yes, pretty much. They don't completely respond to things at the extreme ends of the range, which can color the sound and remove certain ranges of frequencies from the playback. The sharp high frequency screeches and pops you get from MP3 compression are mostly beyond the range of a cassette, so if you record a particularly shitty MP3 to tape you will hear gaps where the artifacts were. Digital playback gives you the full range, so you hear the music and all the resonance and noise from the equipment used to play it and record it to the master. I like both, personally. It depends on the track and era.
All tapes have their own unique sound. Not just between the different IEC types but also different manufactures used different formulations and had many different grades of tape that all have their own purpose. Some could handle high volume, others were extremely sensitive and meant for playing back quiet music. The frequency range they handle is different as well, which is why cheap tapes sound bad.