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Philips VCR Records MPEG On (D-)VHS tape
wfberg writes: "This Philips VCR
records and reads normal VHS tapes, but also records MPEG 2 video digitally on tape. You need 'special' tape for this though (presumably to boost philips tape sales). It sports digital-input and since it's RW and digital, this should piss off the DVD people. Since Philips owns a stake in TiVo, maybe TiVos will make tape-backups in the future? ;-)" The flip-down edit panel looks cool. I wonder how hard it would be to get FireWire out as well as in ...
Using tapes is bad enough. Non-standard tapes -- even worse!
Wait until we see a proper DVD player with proper recording to normal DVDs that can be played in any other DVD player.
violence was the answer for the individuals who disliked Martin Luther King jr.s and Mohatmas Ghandi.
DAT is only around because of the pirate tax? hardly. It's around because it's great for live recording, and for making continuous recordings of up to 3 hour length. (just use a 90m DDS). As for the pirate tax, I own a lot of DAT equipment and trade DATs fairly heavily and to be honest it seems that we all own 'professional' equipment which is exempt from the tax, and from the copying restrictions. DAT is just a great format for a lot of things, it isn't lossy, no annoying tape flips/swaps for most things... it just works.
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Regarding your sig, I take it you have a pre-released Vestax VRX-2000, eh?.
On topic, you're partially right, DAT is for most consumers, dead, myself I own a plethora of Dat decks (Tascam DA-302 (dual well, high speed dub), Tascam DA-P1 (HQ portable), Sony M-1 (TINY!), Sony D-8(POS backup portable)) but I know this is an exception. As for digital VCRs though, how often do you really need to take the tapes to someplace other than your house? Honestly, I almost always watch my recorded material in my own home. I already own a Sony DSR20 which I use for those purposes, and I fail to see how anybody could really do anything about it. The one thing I really want though is a direct digital stream from my DirecTV, through my TiVo, and optionally into my DVTR.
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Nope, they can do that with any mpeg stream they want to. The FBI warning and such are just MPEG data encoded so that it hits one frame for 10 seconds straight.
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I remember when DATs were first announced, everybody was drooling over them. Thought they would replace the cassette tape. Then we found out how much they'd cost and that you couldn't copy a tape unless you had an un-hobbled deck, which you couldn't buy very easily, and which were more expensive. They never penetrated the consumer market really. I think they're mainly used in studios now.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Today, 3M, the leading seller of clear adhesive strips, announced new Scotch Digital Tape Dispenser. The new dispenser comes complete with LED monitoring systems for the roll of adhesive as well as the ability to connect to the Internet for digital tape refills. The dispenser requires 3M's revolutionary Scotch Digital Tape for full digital effect, enabling it to dispense much clearer and more effective tape. The new tape dispenser will support older tape rolls, but the quality will be on par with those tape's properties. Suggested retail price for the new 3M Scotch Digital Tape Dispenser is US$199.
Seriously, is it just me or is everyone getting wowed by 'digital' this and that? Why make old analog technology digital when you can create better, cheaper, newer digital technology right from scratch? Digital, it seems, is the new marketing buzzword and people are falling for it.
Philips current slogan "Let's make things better" expresses an appropriate modesty about the current state of affairs. Like IBM, this company has always been good at pioneering innovative ideas and then marketing them to death. Maybe their confusing sub brand thing with Philips, Magnavox, Aristona and Whirlpool has something to do with it.
Be it LaserDisc players, Philips 'Yes' ALMOST PC-compatible, MSX, MSX2, CD-I or their portable phones, the list of things they tried and killed is almost endless. Even their supposed strong points, video recorders and CD players, have proven notoriously unreliable for me. And please, let the stylists be the first against the wall. Ugh, those things are ugly. On the other hand, a lot of european households are filled with virtually indestructable Philips common appliances like water cookers, microwaves and TVs and somehow they survive to keep experimenting around.
As part of the latest direction change, Philips president Cor Boonstra apparantly envisions a lot of future for home copying; First he sold Polygram records, choosing to concentrate on Philips' growing CD writer trade instead. As he said, he felt foolish producing both the copying devices and the material that would be copied with it. Now here's another interesting device for your home digital copy needs. Well, seems pretty smart.
Sounds like you have a sweet setup. The Philishave however is a pet peeve of mine. I'm not fond of electric shaving in general, but like anyone who has ever touched a Braun shaver can tell you, the Philips 3 rotating heads design is rather inferior when it comes to smoothness. I got one of those gold plated monsters as a present sometime and although I appreciated the large LCD display for battery level and the multitude of status LEDs, it took me far too much time every morning stubble. But since Philips invented it back in oh 1800 or so, they're sticking to this flawed design for ever.
Your mention of DCC made me remember some more Philips injuries over the years.. who still remembers gems like VideoPac, Video 2000, the Nino WinCE handhelds or the TriMedia processor?
I don't think DVHS is meant for standard movie distribution. As some other people have said, DVHS has been out for quite some time, but I haven't yet seen a single movie sold commercially on DVHS.
The reason: I think the movie industry is trying to set up DVHS as The Poor Man's DVD. They can use this standard to get away with never releasing commercial DVD recorders (not DVD-RAM drives here; I'm talking about set-top stuff) by claiming that you can record on these tapes now. It keeps DVD squarely in the hands of the rich corporations. Neat trick, that.
DVHS will end up working in the markets of the home video-camera owner, or the person who tapes TV shows. It will also likely thrive in the anime fansubbing community once it starts to catch on there, because of the very high quality (note that, once again, it also makes fansubbers easier for the ingrate industry to track down and pounce on).
But is this meant for commercial distribution? Very doubtful. As I said, this seems more likely to become the MPAA's proposed substitute for releasing recordable DVD than anything else.
AlphaMicro built a 68000-based machine (their first that wasn't S-100 based IIRC) which had conversion circuitry for data backup to a standard analog VCR, in 1984.
That was true of the first generation of DVHS records, but from the description on the Philips web site, it sounds like this one has an MPEG 2 encoder and decoder built in. And since it accepts input from DV camcorders as well, it must either transcode the DV format (basically motion JPEG) into MPEG 2, or else decode DV on playback.
Linear storage for anything is going the way of the dinosaurs. Once DVD recorders get here, and people see how much cheaper and better they are, w/much cheaper media to, that will be that. People who will buy a DVHS system (which, BTW, is hardly new; JVC has had one for more than two years that can be integrated right into a Dish Network reciever for true digital input/output) are the same ones that have a Sony Beta player mocking them on their closet shelf (like me :[). Linear is slow, non random, not good. Save your money; DVD-R will be here within a year or two.
--
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
The main idea I've had so far is to create "brand recognition" a la Underwriters Laboratories. My working name is the Open Media Initiative.
The Open Media Initiative (OMI) would exist to analyze and certify devices and software as being free of copy protection and/or copy tracking measures. If you see an OMI logo on a product, you will know that product does not contain rubbish like CSS, Macrovision, "license authentication" systems (a la Quake 3 Arena or Half-Life), etc. By building brand/logo awareness of OMI and what OMI's goals do for the customer, it is my hope that consumers will stay away from non-OMI approved products, making them unviable in the marketplace. (Yeah, I know, a Libertarian pipe dream, but I think it's worth exploring further.)
Where the OMI's funding would come from is unclear. Manufacturers certainly wouldn't want to pay for licensing the trademarked OMI logo (at least not initially), and in fact it would probably be a poor idea for manufacturers to pay for it, as that kind of backwards leverage could easily cause OMI to become another TRUSTe.
Thoughts, anyone?
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
The CPTWG (Copy Protection Technical Working Group) is pushing very hard to have copy protection measures incorporated into IEEE 1394 (FireWire) devices. The idea is to prevent "unauthorized" use of digital content, no matter where you tap into the chain.
Intel has put forward a proposal for incorporating copy protection measures into IEEE 1394. There's also an organization pushing Digital Transmission Content Protection which, if Hollywood gets its way, will be incorporated into your new digital televisions by the time NTSC signals go dark in 2006.
Anyone wanna help me try to stop this garbage?
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Just hit the main menu and select the start of the movie from the scene selection menu, it's not hard to miss the previews on DVD movies . . .
This is just like television, only you can see much further.
JVC Has had a D-VHS deck out forever, and my local tower even carries the 5-hour tapes for it.
:)
JVC's was integrated into an MPEG2 sat. reciever, which was the only way to get an MPEG2 signal at the time
it's quite a cool unit.
www.dishnetwork.com has info.
-Scott
Please send all UCE to scally@devolution.com so I can f
> What do you mean "goes the way of the DAT tape"?
Essentially locked out of any consumer market. I'm not implying they're going to destroy this MPEG tape format; that would be kind of impossible. i'm implying that they're going to force it into being the equivilent of where DAT is now. Very likely they're just going to bury it and pretend it never happened.
Look at where DAT is now: like you said, they're still around, they still work great, certain small groups of people still use them extensively, they are still the best. If you really know where to look, you can get the hardware and/or tapes.
Meanwhile, your average consumer isn't aware they exist, and there are no DATs for sale anywhere other than blank ones.
So this is probably where the DVHS thing is going to go: limited to hobbyist/professional filmmakers, a couple of people who really, really care about this kind of thing, and [i hope] anime fansubbers, whereas now DAT is limited to hobbyists or professionals recording audio [esp. if they need the recording apparatus to be relatively portable], a couple of audiophiles, and concert bootleggers.
But meanwhile, if you taped something on your DVHS last night and you want to give it to a friend to watch-- well, that isn't going to happen. Just like with the dat tapes. What it will come down to is that it will be about as difficult to distribute DVHS as it is to distribute DAT. Finding anyone who is aware of either will not be easy. Meaning you'll be COMPLETELY stuck with the shitty-ass VHS and cassettes if you wanna give someone something you recorded and reuse the recording media later. *cassettes grumble grumble*
Until that time comes and it is guaranteed that the DVHS will never actually manage to gain mainstream acceptance no matter how much inherent goodness the format has, i predict anyone actually USING the DVHS to do anything will be harrassed by the MPAA and the TV/cable companies. Also the world is going to end on December 23, 2012.
-mcc-baka
--- WARNING --- THIS POST MAY BE CONTENT-FREE ---
1 8UR|\| 4LL MY |V|P3Z 70 V1NYL R3C0RDZ 83C4U53 1 L1|3 7H3 \V4RM 50UND 0F 7H3 F0R|\/|47!! PH33R!!
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Oh my goodness.. a good-quality rerecordable tape system?? That's AWESOME. It'll NEVER last.
Because now we get to watch the MPAA and all the television companies bitch like hell and throw money at congress until this thing here goes the way of the DAT tape.
Well, there seems to be an unwritten rule that wealthy corporations do not attempt to stop other wealthy corporations from doing things they'd normally scream bloody murder about, so Phillips may get away with it. Phillips seems to have gotten away with the computerless CDR-copier thing, anyway, and i doubt much of anyone is using that for anything but piracy. I dunno. let's see.
I saw no reference in the specs to MPEG-2. maybe i missed something? It says it uses MPEG-1 for the audio.. which layer? 3? Or would that be too much encoding time? can it _play_ mp3/mp2 even if it can't record?
I'm drooling thinking about any layer MPEG on a tape. VHS sound is so awful. ARRGH i wish these specs were more specific.
Hmm.. wonder how it handles the rewinds? better than DVD, you'd think?
I'm just sitting here thinking about how unbelievably cool it would be to watch a tracking error (or even better forcably speeding up, slowing down, or running backward the drive) on an MPEG-based tape. MPEG artifacts are normally interesting, but watching it attempt to read MPEG and just get random bits sloshing back and forth.. TRIPPY. My pupils are dilating just thinking about it.
-mcc-baka
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Ahh, finally! A digital video standard that doesn't require you to view a 10-minute Tarzan trailer! :)
Bowie J. Poag
Bowie J. Poag
I think I'd rather have High quality Analog over choppy digital any day - if such a thing existed
I have The Matrix on Laserdisc: Mmm...pure analog satisfaction! Haven't watched it yet though; waiting for summer when nothing's on TV.
Got that and "Phantom Menace" too. No digital compression here, homes.
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I got mine in July 1998. I love the thing. I just use to for normal run of the mill recording. Don't have anything on the tapes I would consider to be keepers, so I don't keep anything. That is what DVD is for.
I hate the look of a VHS tape. I think we all do. And since the entire reason I got a sat dish was to have a better picture than I had on cable, I decided on this unit.
There are some problems with it - the thing wont work with HDTV broadcasts. The bitstream that it can record is wide enough (19 Mb), but Dish says it won't work. It also likes to drop the signal on the hour/half hour marks sometimes. It also will not digitally record the audio only channels off of the dish.
It is cool though to put in a tape and see exactly what came down from the satellite at a later date - including the time/date stamp and the program information.
It does require JVC DVHS tapes to do the digital stuff (you can use a regular tape also, but you can't record digital). I have tried to use SVHS tapes in the machine in place of the DVHS, but have either not figured it out or it plain won't work. The DVHS tapes are priced about what a good SVHS tape costs, so there is really no price difference. Plus, since I am using this only to time shift shows and not for permanent storage, it really does not matter to me.
Also, up at my local Best Buy, I could swear they are running a Toshiba DVHS deck into the HDTV display. That thing has been there for at least a year.
I'm assuming that since it's on a video tape it can't be all that great, can it?
It's digital. Unless you are really trolling, which I think is possible, you just don't get the concept of digital media.
The quality is perfect - exactly that of the master DVD, cable, satellite or other digital video tape. A 3rd generation copy will look as good as the first. A 478th generation copy will look as good as the first.
Incidently, if they have any patents, I'd like to point out prior art - I backed up massive amounts of Apple ][+ stuff to VCR back in 1981. -j/k-
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Quality? Uhh.. it's digital.... so it'll be much better than analog.
(yes, that sounds ignorant, but I'm just glossing over the details)
If they can get an adequate data density on the tape, it can easily surpass analog VHS
It's only for sale in Europe, and it's being marketed as a business 'security' solution...
NOT as a home appliance, and surely not a recordable DVD replacement.
John
Both of these media have very important differences. While they both store digital video, which is a Good Thing (tm), the similarities end there. ;) )
Tape media, as everyone knows, needs to be rewound and fast-forwarded, etc... This is not nearly as convenient as several-millisecond seek times on a disk.
This will also make it impossible to use the possibility of interactive media that DVD's and other disks allow.
Not only that, but what about computer interfacing? DVD's can store both data and media, a very important distinction.
However, DVHS has some critical advantages as well. Properly developed, tape can store hundreds of times more data than a disk. (Think of the 100GB bakup tapes the size of an audio cassette.) Additionally, you can record MPEGs onto DVHS, while writing DVD's is expensive and hard (and the MPAA doesn't want you to do it
Beta was technically superior to VHS
That is a myth.
Do a search of google for "betamax myth" (without the quotes).
quote:
3) "Betamax failed in spite of the fact that it was a superior technology."
False. Comparisons between VCRs with similar features showed no significant differences in performance. In fact, most of the differences could only be seen with sensitive instruments, and likely would never show up on most consumer grade television sets. . In particular, the qualitative differences between the two formats were less than the differences between any two samples from the same manufacturer. It was only the later (and more expensive) versions of Beta which noticeably improved the quality, as commercial and broadcast outlets turned to Beta as a standard. In fact, at that time Beta was an inferior technology because VHS allowed for longer recordings. Early beta technology allowed for one-hour recordings, while VHS allowed two hours.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Well, I think you're on the right track. But there is one problem with that: hard drives crash!
I don't think something like what you are describing ("hard drives on a centralized server") would be viable until hard drives get rid of their last moving parts... I mean, sure, you have your various RAID solutions, etc, but you still have to pay to keep replacing the drives, and that gets pricey, especially for hobbyists who can't afford a data center to store their music and movies.
The good thing about these digial tapes is that besides being cheap, (well, cheaper than, say, writable DVDs or a RAID array) you don't see the same degredation you do with conventional analog recordings. That said, I do think the technology has some good uses and shouldn't be disregarded as backward and ancient, as VHS probably should be. =)
Regarding DVD; personally, I like the format, I just wish it was free of the bureaucracy and greed that makes it a problem for some... but hey, that's probably more of a societal issue, anyway, and that is a whole different thread...
When are they gonna learn that tape-based mediums are obsolete? No one wants to rewind or fast-forward or deal with the physical tape wearing out.
I hate tape.
Apparently, according to the specs page, it's MPEG 1, not MPEG 2... hardly the same quality compression as MPEG 2.
-- "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." -Joseph Stalin
Beta died; so will this. It's THAT different..
Mike Roberto (roberto@soul.apk.net) -GAIM: MicroBerto
Berto
Remember, in the video world at least, digital may not be better. It is still a matter of bandwidth.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
This type of edit console is mainly intended for the "prosumer" market, which is to say local cable affiliates, college campuses, & small independent videomakers who can afford waveform monitors, higher-end cameras with built-in test patterns/time base correction, and all that other Max Headroom tech.
Like S-HVS, 8mm and SuperBetamaxTM), these units are obscure and in some cases "obsolete" to the average joe over at Circuit City, but for regional cable stations, this is how their bread & butter are earned.
The MPEG-2 is roughly equivalent to the D-2 standard of video editing, which also uses "digital" tape; Phillips is no doubt counting on this as their lower-cost alternative, as well as a means of gaining an edge over with Sony & Matsuschita.
Wasn't Philips one of the companies involved in the creation of DVD?
I'm assuming that this is where the "special" tape comes in, but how is the quality on this thing? I'm assuming that since it's on a video tape it can't be all that great, can it?
Also, if it's any good, where can I get a MPEG video camera that records on this tape? =)
-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.
Maybe I should have been a little clearer... it's just that I've had some really nasty experiences with tape (video/audio/you name it), and assumed that those problems would also be present in this kind of tape...
-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.
while writing DVD's is expensive and hard (and the MPAA doesn't want you to do it ;) )
... and I'm sure that they love the thought of DVHS becoming a standard...
-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.
Trust me this has nothing whatever to do with the cracking of DVDs, it was developed a long time ago by JVC. This is JVCs technology, their player is already available, Phillips only have a preliminary spec. The Phillips preliminary spec looks identical to the JVC spec.
Everyone who makes a DVD player licences the technology from the DVD consortium who own the patents. Everybody who makes a VHS player licences the technology from JVC, they developed it, they own the rights.
JVCs patents are about to expire, so this is an update that they hope will become as popular as "vanilla" VHS and make them as much money.
If you're interested, the picture quality is stunnning almost indistinguishible from broadcast quality. It also has the advantages of being backwardly compatible with standard VHS and SHVS, it can record in those modes, so you can exchange tapes with family friends etc. It is also has vastly greater storage capacity than DVD.
The only drawback that I can see is that there is no way to extract MPEG data from the player. It always converts to to a video signal :-(
This may well be the video archive media of the future, when it drops from it's rediculously overpriced "early adopter" price, I'll probably buy one :-)
and in Grateful Dead taping circles, too. ;-)
--
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I sure hope no one thinks Beta died just because it didn't have enough dirty movies for its format.
A much better and more accurate rundown of Beta's rise and fall is available here.
The "urban myths" link you pointed has got to be wrong. Why would any movie company have to approach JVC or Sony to get permission to release movies on VHS or Betamax? JVC's and Sony's licensing schemes don't work like that! You need a license to manufacture VCRs or tapes for their format, not to release movies! I could pick up a few spanking new DVHS decks and a truckload of blank tapes and start cranking out my own DVHS porno movies and I certainly don't need Philips's or JVC's permission to do so.
One thing the link may be right about is the picture quality differences between the formats and the different tape lengths. But it conveniently leaves out an important detail...
The standard recording speed on VHS is SP and runs at 3.33cm/s. The standard recording speed on Beta is BII and runs at only 2cm/s. The picture quality is the same, yes, but Beta is able to record the same picture quality with less tape!
And about the tape lengths... A VHS T-120 is two hours long on SP, but while Beta L-750 tapes advertised only 90 minutes recording time on the BI speed, remember that BII is the standard, which doubles the tape length to three hours. Which is the "inferior technology" with the "shorter tape length" now??
The longest tape length for VHS available during the '80s (when the two formats were sparring) was a T-160, which gives 2 hours and 40 minutes. The longest Beta tape was an L-830, which gave 3 hours and 20 minutes.
Of course, this was only good for prerecorded tapes. If you wanted to squeeze as much material on a tape as possible, you could switch a VHS machine to EP and record 6 hours (T-120) or 8 hours (T-160). But a Beta could only drop down to BIII and get 4.5 hours (L-750) or 5 hours (L-830).
This makes me wonder why Beta used the same 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 ratios for tape speeds as VHS did. It would have made more sense to use 1:1, 1:2, and 1:4. With the slowest tape speed four times slower than the fastest, it would be able to fit 6 hours on an L-750 and 6 hours and 40 minutes on an L-830. Although the longest Beta tape length still wouldn't beaten the longest VHS tape length, it would have at least stood a better chance, due to the "standard" tape lengths (T-120 and L-750) being much more prevalent.
It's worth noting, as long as anyone is still reading this long-winded discussion about tape lengths, that in order to fit more tape into a cassette once the reels are full, the tape must be made thinner. The "original" VHS tapes were T-120s like we have today, and the tape was made thinner to make a T-160. The tape thickness of an L-750 is the same as that of a T-160, and considering that thinner tape is more prone to stretching, crinkling, and breaking, one can see that Beta tapes really couldn't get much longer. An L-1000 Beta tape (4 hours on BII, max. 6 hours on BIII to match a T-120) has finally been invented and can be bought from Absolute Beta, but it's only used by hobbyists.
Also, in case anyone cares, here's the deal with why that Beta machine in your closet or attic only does BII and BIII but not BI: Sony doesn't want you to record on BI because that think that will make the tapes look too short. Originally, BI was the standard, but when RCA and JVC rolled out VHS's LP and EP speeds in the late '70s, Sony knew they'd have to do something. Remember that video cassettes were really expensive then. So, in 1979, Sony decided that BII was the new standard and that all commercial Beta videos should be recorded in that speed. BI recording capability was discontinued. It was later reintroduced in a slightly evolved as "BIs" form on the higher-end SuperBeta machines in starting in 1986, and later in a further-evolved form called BI-SHB (Super Hi-Band) so as to appeal to power users. The only real difference was that its pre-emphasis/de-emphasis curve now matched that of BII and BIII.
Anyway, that was pretty long-winded, wasn't it? But this discussion of tape speeds and like always fascinates me.
Anyway, I'm afraid I don't have any hard proof about the picture quality except my word and everyone else's. However, I can say that given the business with the "standard" tape speed for each format (SP (1:1) and BII (1:2)), try seeing if material recorded in LP (1:2) matches BII (1:2). I've tried, and I can say that it definitely isn't as good. As for BI/BIs/BI-SHB (1:1) vs. SP (1:1), I can say that I was able to copy a segment of a DVD to my Beta machine in BIs, and picture quality looked almost as good as that of the original disc! Using BII (which we have established is practically equal to VHS's SP), the picture looked a little grainy and colour reproduction wasn't as faithful. Well, then, I guess I know what the outcome of a BIs vs. SP comparison would be. I'll have to try a real DVD to VHS SP copy sometime, of course...
Well, that's quite a lot I've written. I thank you if you're still reading. And if you were one of ones who bought VHS in the '80s and sneered at your Beta-using friends, don't worry. Even if you disagree with all that I've written, there's no need to defend VHS's honour. It won the format wars! That's all I have to say about that! (I was a VHS user in the '80s who sneered at Beta users, but in 1990 I got a Beta machine at a garage sale, and I got converted. Rather bad timing though, eh?)
I don't know if I want to post all this, but I might as well since I've taken the time to write it...
The new copy protection scheme is actually quite a bit different from that of DVDs. It is non-CSS, proprietary, and (they say) stronger. Does this mean they won't leave keys exposed in commercial decoders?
Personally, I'm anti-DVHS. It's proprietary. It was basically invented as a means to restrict freedom now that DVDs have been cracked. It is linear, NOT random-access. It can't be used in computers without specialized, expensive equipment. Would you get a heavily encrypted digital cassette player in leiu of CD or MP3 hardware? Didn't think so. Once DVD-R comes down in price, it'll be clear what the superior format is.
Anonymous Luddite: "What do you think of the dehumanizing effects of the Internet?"
Andy Grove: "Not Much."
I work for a small company called Indigita Corp. and we have been working on a fully digital VCR for MPEG2/HDTV recording for over 2-3 years now. Out technology is based off of 4mm DAT tape hardware. DDS-3 is capable of 18+GB of storage space or I think 4hrs of MPEG2 recording. (but don't hold me to that)!! With of course being able to playback HDTV recording at or very near the same quality as the original content! And with encription capabilities enabled, we can satisfy the greedy movie companies their content is safe. (heaven forbid, should anyone make copies. Oooo... chills)!! ;) I have personally seen some content that just blows away DVD and is just a little shy of the full HDTV resolution!! And that is off a DAT tape. We have been evaluating a lot of different units that would potentialy be able to record this quality content, most if not ALL have some very serious limitations. Recording, playback or seak/access time, to name a few. Most of these devices just don't lend itself to the full capabilities of recording and sustaining the bandwidth needed. Some DVD_RAMS we evaluated just couldn't keep up, so you would end up with dropped frames or worse. The D-VHS format... well should I say no contest... or it just... SUCKS. We are also considering where the IEEE1394 (Firewire) would end up in set top boxes and it looks very promising. And since we are all ready established in this market with bridge boards etc. we know right where it should fit in the home. (Think of who just came out with a 1394 HD external box in the market just recently. We helped make it happen!!) Just think, you could plug in your storage/recorder device into your PC/MAC and then into your decoder box an record whatever your heart desires!! Well, there you have it.
I'm not afraid of the dark. Far from it. Just.... only when the lights are off!
Of course, it would be necessary to have some digital output to get the data off of the tapes once you've backed up your computer data onto them.
My other first post is car post.
I checked out the website of this new "standard" A few things I noticed 1) There's no mention of the disc-format exclusive 5-speaker Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS. Only 3 channel Dolby Surround. 2) These are on tapes, they must be rewound, no chapter skipping or interactive features. 3) Since these are tapes, shouldn't they also suffer from quality degradation over time? 4) DVD is too captivating for users to switch back to tapes, even digital ones. Once you get hooked on DVD, you will always view tapes as inferior. 5) Sales of players are extremely high, the market is already huge. Playstation 2 will firmly root the installed base into the ground.
- Amon CMB
Men believe what they want. - Caesar
Goddamn Microsoft. For those of your forced to run Windows, here's the fix.
http://www.microsof t.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms00-017.asp
Some may find this article interesting... JVC announced a copy protection scheme for D-VHS, presumably similar to DVD (Anyone know more details ?). An excerpt...
WAYNE, N.J., April 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC) has developed a new copyright protection system for prerecorded D-VHS content as well as in-home analog and digital recording. The superior copyright protection feature will be included within the D-VHS standard. This new standard makes it possible to develop and produce prerecorded HD (High Definition) video content as well as add momentum to the development of D-VHS hardware products.
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Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.