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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 ...
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.
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
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
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...
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
Well, Beta couldn't prove any significant advantage to VHS (and VHS had the big advantage of content). However, DVD seems to thriving.
To create a new standard, you have to show clear advantages to the old standard. In this case, digital quality and 24 hour recording time (!) seem pretty significant, particularly if the tapes are the same price.
On the other hand, Yet Another Media Format (YAMF) could have trouble penetrating into the video rental arena, which is where media formats live or die.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.