PAL D-VHS deck with HDMI?
 

Hello.

Quick question.

Was there ever a PAL D-VHS deck with HDMI output and FireWire input and output?
You know, to transfer videos from and to tape. As well as actually being able to watch digital stuff via digital connection.

Nope. JVC released one PAL D-VHS model and that was it. No HDMI, just firewire and component output.

Bummer.

I currently bin on a Philips clone of this.

So this basically has no digital output to transfer recordings, or watch on TV.

Was there an NTSC machine with PAL playback?

Or a professional studio machine that could do that?

NTSC machines can not play PAL videotapes. The HM-DH30000U doesn't digitize its analog tape playback over firewire either, the later models added that. They all digitize standard definition analog to DVHS tapes though. The only way to record HD video was via firewire though. Firewire always outputs video playing DVHS tapes.

The only JVC and Philips deck released in PAL realm only has FireWire input, no output, it doesn't have component output over SCART either, so only S-Video, which kills the whole idea od digital quality.

The Firewire ports are bidirectional, you only need one. The second port is optionally provided to daisy chain other devices. If you want to view DVHS recordings on a computer, just plug in the firewire cable and use something like VLC that can stream off of Firewire devices. The output is a MPEG2 Transport Stream.

I know how FireWire works.
But the problem is according to manuals both JVC HM-DR10000U and Philips VR-20 does not output digital over Firewire, just like most camcorders do not accept signal via FireWire input, they were especially labeled, if they could, like my Samsung VP-D85i, the "i" meant it has ilink input.

Yeah, DVHS really wasn't a big thing with PAL. That unit doesn't even support HD recording. The deck is perfectly acceptable for analog transfers though having the TBC/DNR.

Indeed, they had only STD speed, which worked with SD video, so in PAL land it was a wasted opportunity.

But still, if I get it I will use it primarily as S-VHS machine, or master machine copy onto other tapes.

PAL D-VHS machines also had the ‘LS3’ speed. But not Firewire output whatsoever (deliberately left out by the manufacturers).

Also — there was a Thomson PAL DVHS model too (the DVH-8090, not a JVC rebadge, unlike the Philips VR-20D) which added RGB output.

Thank you for the information, I might start looking for it.

LS3 is DVD-quality and I don't think I will use digital recording.

Is it possible to input digital signal via Firewire, but record in VHS, or S-VHS system, the tape sensors won't see D tape either way, as I'm not getting any.

The deck appears to support DV format input over Firewire going by the manual. Logically it'll be no different than using S-Video from a MiniDV camcorder to the VCR.

The Thomson one apparently has problems with S-VHS, from what I've read in a review of this oen and JVC.

Well, that Thomson is SQPB-only...
And, to be fair, its VHS performance isn't stellar, either. The model clearly focused on D-VHS.

(S-VHS Quasi Playback)

So my bid in on the Philips one, if it's a clone of JVC it should have at least similar performance.

Good choice.
That Philips model is in some ways a (little) bit better than the JVC it clones: you get the always-on-sight frontal display and a (slightly) less crappy mecha.

• Just be aware that Philips made six (!) mechanical versions, the first of which used a completely unadapted and dead-on-arrival Philips TurboDrive, the later ones oscillating between crappy Funai or crappy JVC.
  ·
• WARNING: Be careful when using the fast-forward function → always stop and rewind a little after a fast-forward cycle otherwise your precious tape is chewed.

(D-VHS) Recordings are perfectly interchangeable between those Philips machines and JVC ones... and that's not always the case with the other brands (namely that Thomson I previously mentioned and Mitsubishi — which never marketed PAL D-VHS, anyway).

Yeah, this might be the turbodrive. but it's the only one available...
I don't use fast forward.

I guess I will use all 3 systems.

JIC: That (crucial) warning doesn't (only) apply to shuttle/picture search modes, but also to fast winding and rewinding.

There is only two models ever made with HDMI output and both are JVC's, The HM-DH5U (a clone for the Japanese market with different model # was made) no TV tuner, and the HM-DT100U with Analog/Digital(ATSC) tuner, Unfortunately both are NTSC machines.

There is hardly any D-VHS PAL tapes, But for capturing PAL tapes is useless, I tried a PAL tape on my HM-DH5U and all what I get is chipmunks audio and black and white horizontal stripes.

But for analog NTSC tapes they are great capturing machines, They output as MPEG-2 720x480 over firewire not DV.
Take a look at the quality of the capture.

Note: DropBox player compresses the file further, To judge the quality you have to download the file.

I'd hate to be the one to clean up that capture. Even in the so-called "quality" download, clearing the macroblocks and tape noise would kill everything after it's been denoised and re-encoded. It wouldn't be worth the effort. The head-switching noise is the mark of an amateur job at the outset.
I wouldn't recommend this lossy method for archive or restoration. Strictly for the YouTube crowd.
How about someone's family wedding tape that's been in storage for 25 years? Any samples of those?