JVC plays LP speed blurrier than SP or EP?
Something I've noticed on my JVC S-VHS VCRs (S9500U & S9911U), and I'm wondering if it's all in my head. When I play tapes recorded at LP speed, most of which are from the 1990's and my RCA VHS hi-fi VCR, the NORM or AUTO setting seems way softer than with tapes at the SP and EP speeds. So much so that for such tapes I've often used EDIT for capture because the detail loss was worse to me than the substantial color noise. In all cases the TBC/NR is ON, and cable TV is the source. NORM/AUTO looks fine for cable TV sourced tapes at SP or EP.
Am I nuts? If I'm not nuts, why would this be the case? |
Your not nuts.
Any EP speed, but especially LP that is normal for a JVC. Bascally its the wrong Brand to use for any EP or LP speed tape. Better to try a Panasonic or a low end VHS four head VCR. You might even do okay with some Mitsubishi models. There are experts here which can explain it to you better, but the drum diameter and head sizes are not optimized for low speed, and slow quality recordings. JVC never optimized for Extended Play recordings. If you need a TBC however the Panasonics or a Mitsubishi DVHS 2000 (super rare). If you need DNR only there are some (very rare) Toshiba W808 but all of the rare models may take you months to find one.. and the chances they still work even more rare. People will seriously question whether you really want to bother trying to convert EP tapes because the quality is so poor. |
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The main issue is that LP was often recorded blurry. It's the recording device at fault, not the player. Quote:
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Having stacks of VCR decks to throw at a problem, does help.
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So I'm NOT seeing things, but what I'm seeing is the recording and not bad LP signal processing on the JVCs? Sounds plausible the more I think about it because I'm not certain I've viewed any LP speed tapes from a VCR other than my old RCA in the 90's.
Not the end of the world in any case. There are a couple of cable TV recordings I value where local news did stories about my college radio show winning a national award, so the content is precious. Why, oh why didn't I use SP and a better tape type??? ...Oh yeah, I was broke and stupid and hanging out with radio people! :) To my eyeballs, detail on those particular recordings really drops off when NORM is engaged vs. EDIT. But then, I've noticed I'm one of those weirdos who doesn't mind a bit more noise if it brings a bit more detail, imagined or not. Kind of like scanning an Instamatic color print at 600 dpi. Sometimes you kind of want the intrinsic noise / texture. Ancillary verisimilitude, if you will... |
If the tape is that important perhaps you should upload a clip to get real advice, or consider sending one off to LordSmurf to convert and see whats possible.
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Don't get me wrong, it's not awful or unwatchable. Tapes are in fine physical shape. I was just surprised that tapes at LP speed seemed to be softened by NORM mode more than SP or EP.
I've been very fortunate in that I haven't run across any tapes where I felt like I could justify sending it off. A few tapes where LordSmurf could probably help had content that was just meh. ;-) |
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