24 Facts About VHS

Additionally, VHS had a "far less complex tape transport mechanism" than Betamax, and VHS machines were faster at rewinding and fast-forwarding than their Sony counterparts.

The RCA unit was designed by Matsushita and was the first VHS-based VCR manufactured by a company other than JVC.

VHS uses an "M-loading" system, known as M-lacing, where the tape is drawn out by two threading posts and wrapped around more than 180 degrees of the head drum in a shape roughly approximating the letter M The heads in the rotating drum get their signal wirelessly using a rotary transformer.

These high levels confuse the automatic gain control circuit in most VHS VCRs, leading to varying brightness levels in an output video, but are ignored by the TV as they are out of the frame-display period.

The major VHS OEMs resisted HQ due to cost concerns, eventually resulting in JVC reducing the requirements for the HQ brand to white clip extension plus one other improvement.

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In 1987, JVC introduced a new format called Super VHS which extended the bandwidth to over 5 megahertz, yielding 420 analog horizontal (560 pixels left-to-right).

S-VHS was designed for higher resolution, but failed to gain popularity outside Japan because of the high costs of the machines and tapes.

Sound quality of Hi-Fi VHS stereo is comparable to some extent to the quality of CD audio, particularly when recordings were made on high-end or professional VHS machines that have a manual audio recording level control.

However, because the VHS Hi-Fi recording process is intertwined with the VCR's video-recording function, advanced editing functions such as audio-only or video-only dubbing are impossible.

Some VHS decks had a "simulcast" switch, allowing users to record an external audio input along with off-air pictures.

Several improved versions of VHS exist, most notably Super-VHS, an analog video standard with improved video bandwidth.

S-VHS improved the horizontal luminance resolution to 400 lines.

S-VHS made little impact on the home market, but gained dominance in the camcorder market due to its superior picture quality.

W-VHS allowed recording of MUSE Hi-Vision analog high definition television, which was broadcast in Japan from 1989 until 2007.

For example, VHS machines sold in Australia and Europe could typically handle PAL, MESECAM for record and playback, and NTSC for playback only on suitable TVs Dedicated multi-standard machines can usually handle all standards listed, and some high-end models could convert the content of a tape from one standard to another on the fly during playback by using a built-in standards converter.

Small number of VHS decks are able to decode closed captions on video cassettes before sending the full signal to the set with the captions.

S-VHS has a sufficient resolution to record teletext signals with relatively few errors, although for some years now it has been possible to recover teletext pages and even complete "page carousels" from regular VHS recordings using non-real-time computer processing.

VHS was popular for long-form content, such as feature films or documentaries, as well as short-play content, such as music videos, in-store videos, teaching videos, distribution of lectures and talks, and demonstrations.

VHS was the winner of a protracted and somewhat bitter format war during the late 1970s and early 1980s against Sony's Betamax format as well as other formats of the time.

Those who still use or hold on to VHS do so for a number of reasons, including nostalgic value, ease of use in recording, keeping personal videos or home movies, watching content currently exclusive to VHS, and collecting.

Market for pre-recorded VHS tapes has continued, and some online retailers such as Amazon still sell new and used pre-recorded VHS cassettes of movies and television programs.

In October 2008, Distribution Video Audio Inc, the last major American supplier of pre-recorded VHS tapes, shipped its final truckload of tapes to stores in America.

In 2021, professional wrestling promotion Impact Wrestling released a limited run of VHS tapes containing that year's Slammiversary, which quickly sold out.

In 2015, the Yale University Library collected nearly 3, 000 horror and exploitation movies on VHS tapes, distributed from 1978 to 1985, calling them "the cultural id of an era.