High quality VHS commercial releases existed?

[EscapeVelo]

Ive been googling away trying to find information with regards to VHS commercial releases that were well known or generally regarded as having high quality mastering and recording techniques, tape stock, etc... to no avail.

Any recommendations? Do you know of where they speak of such things? Tapeheads.net for the Video crowd?

Im thinking of like Super Bit versions of DVDs....or Mobile Fidelity mastering and recording for CDs and LPs. Or it doesnt even have to be that obvious, like the Blue's Traveler Four cassette is known to be a quality recording and uses Pure Chrome tape....as an example in Analog Audio Cassette releases.

Thanks!

[volksjager]

there are a few commercially released Super-VHS movies.
IIRC Godfather III was one.

[EscapeVelo]

I heard about there being a few released in SVHS, which are as rare as hen's teeth.

I really cant find any info on those either.

Did VHS suffer like early commercial releases of DVDs from Excessive Edge Enhancement?

[EscapeVelo]

There seem to be more movies released on DVHS than SVHS. At least there are quite a few on ebay, though that may also be related to it's relatively closer proximity to today. I think SVHS releases were a 1 year or so affair and were such a monumental flop (as the Home Video Enthusiasts were Laser Disc purchasers)....and SVHS couldnt be played back on regular VHS machines....so it flopped hard.

[JMP]

That's an astute observation as SVHS was better, but a flop. and DVHS was MPEG-2, but it sort of flopped also. Everyone was doing either Laser Disc, VHS, or DVD.
Whats more important about the tapes is not so much the tapes themselves, but the units used to play them. Again, really really rare tape decks, rare as hen's teeth, were sold in Japan. JVC BR5 (or something like it) were really liked, but at this point in time, when they fail, there are no parts to fix them. Titanic was a gorgeous tape, and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between it played on that player and a DVD. It was run through a Toshiba XS35 and a detailer by SignVideo and that made the quality good. Sometimes the tape will get you partway there, but your choice in equipment will get the rest.

Thanks,
-JMP

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[jmac698]

I have some VHS that are marked THX, like Star Wars series.

[juhok]

I bought some - both used and new in plastic - THX PAL Star Wars tapes and IMHO the quality is not any better than many random tapes off the shelf.

[dyfan]

What Juhok said...I once bought a THX VHS cassette of "American Graffiti". I thought it would be worth it for the music- but I couldn't tell any difference, either.