Any recent VHS VCRs play Dolby NR Linear Stereo tapes?

[NJRoadfan]

I was having a chat with a friend of mine about video tapes (he is the same guy with the Betamax machine I might borrow). He said he had quite a few tapes he recorded on a pre-Hifi VHS VCR with Dolby SR Linear Stereo. Of course that VCR died and now he has a whole bunch of tapes that only play back in mono. Any VCRs made in the 90s that can play this format? I know the professional JVC/Panasonic editing VTRs can handle two linear audio tracks, but I don't know if its the same recording standard as the old Dolby SR system. I am going to try and grab one of his tapes and see if my JVC can play them back in stereo... its worth a shot.

[admin]

Are you referring to Dolby B noise reduction found on certain VCRs?

From wikipedia:

Quote:

To counteract tape hiss, decks applied Dolby B noise reduction for recording and playback. Dolby B dynamically boosts the mid-frequency band of the audio program on the recorded medium, improving its signal strength relative to the tape's background noise floor, then attenuates the mid-band during playback. Dolby B is not a transparent process, and Dolby-encoded program material will exhibit an unnatural mid-range emphasis when played on non-Dolby capable VCRs.

To my knowledge, you must find another Dolby deck. There's no other way to avoid the audio not sounding like crap.

I'm also under the understanding that this applies to mono, not just the HiFi/stereo tracks. (It's been years, however, since I had anything to do with Dolby NR, so I may not be remembering correctly on this mono/stereo issue.)

[NJRoadfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by admin

Are you referring to Dolby B noise reduction found on certain VCRs?

From wikipedia:


To my knowledge, you must find another Dolby deck. There's no other way to avoid the audio not sounding like crap.

I'm also under the understanding that this applies to mono, not just the HiFi/stereo tracks. (It's been years, however, since I had anything to do with Dolby NR, so I may not be remembering correctly on this mono/stereo issue.)

The VCRs wrote two smaller linear audio tracks in place of the standard mono track, this predated Hi-Fi stereo by a few years. The Dolby SR noise reduction was to counteract the quality loss. Here is an actual sample of the quality.

btw, its amazing how many companies re-branded Panasonic VCRs in the early to mid 80s. We had a GE branded Panasonic unit (with wired remote!) from 1984ish that was a tank, it finally died in 1998. Then again, almost all 1980s GE consumer electronics were re-branded Panasonic/Technics until Thompson bought the name and turned them to crap.

[admin]

Quote:

btw, its amazing how many companies re-branded Panasonic VCRs in the early to mid 80s.

That continued well into the late 90s and 2000s, actually! Samsung commonly re-branded Panasonic VCRs and DVD recorders for quite a few years, as an example. The Samsung SV-5000 and SV-7000 worldwide VCRs were both Panasonic re-brands.

Quote:

1984ish that was a tank

I still have a early 1980s Magnavox -- it's a beast, but it's been helpful about once per year for the last decade. Some tapes simply work better in VCRs of their own generation. The thing I hate is that it smells funny. Something about the lubricants and plastics that went into it are really noxious.