As a user of both formats, there is a difference between normal and S vhs, especially when using the S cable, and good quality tape. I’m finding generally speaking that many of my older vhs tapes are fading and getting dropouts,, while my Super VHS tapes are holding together quite alot better.
@@AdamsDuhStuffYes, TDK, Sony, Panasonic, They were the best tapes, The cheaper JVC, Kodak, Maxell weren't really that great as they were of inferior quality and not ideal for recording important video. I have some TDK, Sony tapes that were last used in the 90's and the print is mint and clear.
I agree with guys above. SVHS degrade at same pace as VHS. Specially if you used good quality tapes. Didnt have any problem with original VHS at all. SVHS looks bit better on more modern equipment but on small crts that everyone has back then didnt look any better. I tested both of things recently since i still watch and record vhs from time to time.
@@adokapo VHS & SVHS are obsolete formats the longer they have been stored or used the more they degrade, they were not a recommended format for video or duplication as they degrade over time.
Find a Panny DMR-ES10 or ES15 and use it as a pass-through, it has always active TBC -and it’s cheap. Search online many talk about it, just make sure the S-Video input is working on the unit from the seller.
Even on regular VHS, the Chroma is stored on the tape separately from the Luma. However, S-VHS has considerably higher Luma bandwidth, which improves horizontal resolution. This also reduces crosstalk between the Luma and Chroma. The next step up is W-VHS, which has even higher bandwidth, and natively supports both anamorphic widescreen and component video. Don’t forget, though, that there are additional VHS-adjacent VCRs out there, such as time-lapse VCRs. Those things are badass.
No, it has 525. Anything more or less than 525 lines per frame would confuse an NTSC tv. You must be thinking of horizontal resolution, which is where VHS struggles.
S-video cleans up contrasting edges (less rainbowing) and prevents crawling in flat blocks of colour (particularly red). Composite causes these effects because the luminance and chrominance, although separated in frequency, overlap slightly over the single video wire. S-video transmits them on separate wires. This clearly shows that VHS has such low quality that the edges are not an issue, but that blocks of red do show a crawling artefact. With S-VHS, the use of composite introduces rainbowing on high contrast edges and instability in block red colour.
DVD was far superior to SVHS. SVHS only really improved the luminance bandwidth. The chrominance signal was not improved with SVHS. Even the analog composite signal on a laserdisc looked far superior to SVHS.
@@bigoranget i have S-vhs movies and dvd, both played on the same tv and they are quite similair. To my eyes, they look very similair and to the average person they wont be able to tell 420 lines over 480 lines unless asked to see if they can see a difference.
@@ACommenterOnTH-cam it’s not the difference in resolution that people would notice. It’s the colour detail. DVD is far superior to SVHS in terms of colour detail. It’s not even close. That’s why prior to DVD, laserdisc continued to be the format of choice for video enthusiasts. As I said, laserdisc could only produce a composite signal and even that had far better color detail than what SVHS could produce.
@@bigorangetTotally agree with you. DVD is noticeably superior to SVHS because the chroma resolution of SVHS wasn't improved over VHS. Reds especially could be a troublesome colour for analogue VHS or SVHS.
It all depends on electronics, especially if it uses non-differential signal path. The dynamic range is not the same as SNR. Analog video does not have gradient degradation, nor blocking effect of high compression process in dynamic scene.
If you have some time could you do a test for me? I always wondered if a regular VHS (non S-VHS) video would look better in EP when recording on an S-VHS tape. The test would go like this: Record a 30 second clip using an S-VHS tape in a normal VCR (non S-VHS) in SP mode. Then record a 30 clip with the same tape in the same VCR in EP mode (some VCRs called it SLP mode) and compare them. The logic is that EP mode will use the same signal, it's just the tape speed that slows down and degrades the signal. Since S-VHS tapes are better they won't degrade the quality as much when the tape slows down.
The EP is significantly worse than standard mode in both VHS and S-VHS. What's more S-VHS and VHS are very close in quality if a VHS master tape is used, otherwise S-VHS looks crisper. In EP everything looks garbage. It's an advertising gimmick about S-VHS having 400 lines of horizontal resolution. Even Betacam SP is somewhat lower - 350 lines. They used the same trick with ED Betamax claiming it had 500 lines. Never it had such a resolution! Only DVD 9 or DV had such a resolution. The main advantage of S-VHS was a flying erase head (necessary for editing) and less degradation during editing, plus some important picture improvement features. Some of such features were present on expensive VHS machines too. They made footage look stable like a DVD but it never had the resolution close to a DVD. S-VHS was about 350 lines just like Betacam SP but the latter was crisper and cleaner, and colors were richer. Hi8 and Laser Discs also had a cleaner, crisper picture and better colors - exactly like Betacam SP but these layman formats lacked advanced editing features. I had a couple of S-VHS machines back in the day. I sold the cheap S-VHS VCR eons ago. I also have an expensive VHS recorder. It's just as good as my other S-VHS machine - it only lacks serious editing functionality. Master VHS tapes look exactly like S-VHS tapes. It's hard to tell them apart even on modern high res equipment. S-VHS footage is a tad brighter + barely noticeable amount of extra resolution if we try really hard with a microscope and a team of forensics. It's not noticeable at all in my opinion. It was a commercial gimmick. S-VHS machines were poor studio alternatives to Betacam SP VCRs. That's all. If slightly higher movie quality was needed, Laser Discs were a better choice. Anyway, nobody ever was releasing movies on S-VHS anyway, except for some very rare cases. And I always used only high quality master tapes. It did affect the quality!!! Although when it comes to audio cassettes, the difference was not noticeable at all between master tapes and average tapes. Still I used expensive (not too expensive) audio cassettes too. They were just nice, albeit 3-4 times more expensive. The same holds for video cassettes - I only used professional grade VHS and S-VHS tapes. They were a lot nicer. Ten years ago I threw all tapes which are not pro grade master tapes into the garbage. It's a pity but ... I got too many DVDs and Blu-Rays now and even they are no longer needed as we can stream the content. And there's so much content that I rarely record (=download) it. I used to record more. My DVD recorder has been gathering dust for eons now too. To reiterate, in EP mode it's difficult to tell which was S-VHS and which was VHS tape, if both were recorded in that garbage mode because then they both look identical and indistinguishable, like total garbage. It's even more difficult to tell which is worse then :) At some point I even thought (20 years ago) that my cables were not good. Those damn manufactures. They got even me fooled a couple of times. They sometimes even lie or make huge exaggerations even in instruction manuals for crying out loud! It's all in the past... Sometimes just some nostalgia about ole good times, I guess... By the way, picture quality on both VHS and S-VHS looks a lot better than in this video. The condition of the author's cassettes and VCRs probably leaves a lot to be desired. Such quality is kind of like time to throw them into the garbage. I mean the quality was never that bad if good tapes and good machines were used.
@@billmorrigan386 That was nice of you to write a book but it didn't really come close to what I was talking about. You should probably read my comment over again.
The answer is simple if you understand how magnetic storage of frequency and phase modulated signals work. S-VHS is a gimmick for people that don't record in S-VHS onto S-VHS tape. The short answer is that SP would look better. Why? Because high frequency content cannot be accurately recorded on slower moving iron oxide media...no matter what you do. If I go any deeper, I'd be using terms like quantum tunneling. So, no offense but what you're asking is ridiculous and nonsensical.
@@matrixate His question was not 100% nonsensical. At the same time you are absolutely correct about the tape speed and inevitable loss of quality. Physics can't be beat. The issue is how much of that quality is gonna be lost. The S-VHS format claims 400 lines of TV horizontal resolution while VHS claims only 240. Betacam SP claims 340 lines (BTW, the Betacam tape runs much faster, like, 4 times faster than S-VHS/VHS). It's logical to expect S-VHS that was claimed to be so much superior (400 lines vs 240 lines for VHS) to perform decent even at a lower speed (EP - extended play or low speed play), losing some resolution of course, but still maybe comparable to the inferior VHS at SP (standard play). And that's true to some extent. The problem is S-VHS is a gimmick in and of itself. It did have advantages for editing video - no doubt about that. Still, its quality was basically identical to VHS. The promised 400 lines were never really there, although theoretically they were, you know, like, in ads when things are exaggerated a lot but possible under some miraculous conditions = NEVER possible. At the same time, you see higher quality on an S-VHS tape but that's not because of 400 lines (there are never 400 lines, not even close) but simply because most VHS tapes were not master tapes. Master VHS tapes are indistinguishable from S-VHS tapes unless you look with a microscope and a team of forensics. That was very disappointing for me back in the day. Still S-VHS machines did give me some niceties like a flying erase head, Dynamic Drum System, etc. They were a must for editing on a low budget despite the quality of a master VHS tape being identical to that of an S-VHS tape. Some professionals also used S-VHS systems as Betacam several times as expensive.
VHS and S-VHS have big difference but you need a perfect situation in this case about the monitor/TV. Inside on all monitor/TV have a conversion and not all internal conversor is the best. Try capture with DV format with svideo connection, you will see.
Don't forget, for a brief while, there was a pre-recorded super VHS format that studios used. They didn't make many, but those tapes will probably show you the best that the super VHS format had to offer
Will definitely say that svhs through composite looks like composite. The text had that rainbow like shimmer on it like regular vhs did without s-et. Especially when compared to svhs via s video. Btw did you capture the vhs via a retro tink to some capture device?
Thanks for your video! I bought a super VHS recorder in the early 2000s. I would record from TV in anamorphic mode. Utilising the full resolution when playing back
Hello!! Do you know if a television with the S-VHS function is needed or it can be any tube television? I have a 2005 Philips TV that has the S-VHS option but I don't know if it is optional or mandatory to see with a better image. I don't have s-vhs players yet but I want to buy one. Thanks for your video and answer.
It must be remembered that whilst analog Broadcast TV in North America was only 330 lines horizontal resolution, in Europe and worldwide other PAL and SECAM countries it was well in excess of 400 lines. In the UK where the video bandwidth was marginally greater it was possible to achieve 500 lines on a top of the line TV. So there was a great advantage in using a S-VHS VCR as a time shift device in these areas. I bought one for this purpose in 1992 the improvement versus a good VHSHQ VCR was outstanding.
I don’t see how PAL broadcast can achieve 500 lines horizontal resolution. NTSC broadcast has 330 but PAL video bandwidth is only 1.3 megahertz wider. 330+80 per extra megahertz == 410 lines horizontal resolution . .
Берете видеомагнитофон S-VHS, две кассеты VHS и S-VHS, записываете на этом аппарате на обе кассеты с одного качественного источника, например - DVD с разными входами. И только потом проверяете на этом же магнитофоне. А что тут сравнивали я не понял
The standard vhs tape you used has major mold on the tape. You shouldn't use that if you don't want to mess up your vcr`s heads. You can clean it if the tape is something you care about if not id throw it out.
I do wish they made HDMI SVHS adapter i am in UK you only can get Scart to HDMI in two flavors one RGB supported other is Composite only no SVHS support......
Is it worth paying 500-1000$ for a SVHS player with TBC? I alreadey recorded family home videos using VHS player and composite cables. I don't know if I should re-record them using a SVHS deck with TBC and SET 9:59 VHS + Composite 10:28 VHS + SVideo 11:20 VHS + SVIDEO + SET
I've never used a VCR with TBC. In fact I was unaware of it until recently. I'm going to be upgrading my current VCR with a Mitsubishi HS-HD2000U that does have TBC. I recommend looking into that model if you're looking for a VCR with TBC for under $500.
Of course there is a difference. Video8 is roughly the same quality as vhs, digital 8 is the same as mini dv, and Hi8 will fall somewhere in the middle.
Hi8 is same quality as S-VHS and laserdisc (5 megahertz bandwidth across all standards). LD has disadvantage of using combining the image & color (composite) which slightly degrades the image
It's DV (Digital 8 is the same in quality) that's clearly the best. It's better than DVD as it is 25 Megabits per second while DVD is usually around 10 Megabits per second. Other formats are analog and they are much worse. Among analog formats Hi8 is the best, then comes the Laser Disc, then S-VHS, then Video 8, and then VHS. That said, there's almost no perceivable difference between S-VHS and VHS, if high quality master tapes are used and if good quality equipment is used. It means there's not much difference among all these analog formats. Even the professional Betacam SP is not much different from them. However, I'd say Betacam SP and Hi8 are the best of them all, along with ED Beta or ED Betamax. The are all on par, although ED Beta claimed 500 lines of horizontal resolution. Betacam SP claimed 340 lines. (S-VHS claimed 400 lines. Video 8 and VHS claimed 240-250 lines). *In reality these were all advertising gimmicks and nothing more.* It was very disappointing for me back in the day that S-VHS didn't deliver at all. It did when you compare it to a regular VHS tape vs S-VHS tape but it was indistinguishable if a master VHS tape was used. That said, S-VHS machines had a lot of nice features. They were a must for analog editing. ED Beta, Betacam SP, LD (Laser Disc) and Hi8 were excellent in terms of colors and picture cleanness. That's all. There was never much difference between these analog formats. They are not even close to DVD, let alone DV/Digital 8. The only analog format that was as good (or even better) than digital DVD was 1'' C reel-to-reel format video. It truly had 400+ resolution and no compression like DVD had. However DV/Digital 8 is no worse (I'd say it's slightly better) than that format as compression is low on DV (25 Megabits per second) which is 5:1 compression. By the way, 1'' C reel-to-reel format was a composite format. So, no, Y/N separation didn't give enough advantage and resolution as all ads claimed. These were just gimmicks. Shocking as it might seem but manufactures sometimes exaggerate and even lie in instruction manuals and specs, which is very sad and disappointing. *Horizontal resolution meant here (and in ads, specs, or even manuals of the time) has nothing to do with pixel resolution. The pixel resolution was 720x576 for PAL and 720x480 for NTSC. The problem was that analog formats could not capture that resolution properly, except for 1'' C reel-to-reel format. However, when digitizing any analog tape, we should always use 720x576 for PAL and 720x480 for NTSC or at least 640x480 or we are gonna lose more detail and quality. If a lot of compression is used like in TH-cam videos, quality degrades a lot, so 720p and even 1080 should be used to preserve all that those old formats were capable of.*
A few points more points (while reminiscing about ole times) concerning old analog formats: These formats were evolving along with the equipment for them and the tape technology. VHS appeared around 1976 and reached its highest quality in tape and machines toward 1995. It's similar with other formats: they all improved over the years. Another huge factor is the tape. In digital it's simple: tapes and machines don't matter much - quality is the same within, like, 97-98%. However, a regular analog tape, say, VHS produces worse picture than a master VHS tape and it's easy to see. If you record on a regular tape with an older machine, the result will be much worse than if you do it with a more modern machine and a master tape.
You can see on TH-cam a lot of footage from all these formats. Depending on how they were converted, what tapes were used, how good/modern the original equipment was, the quality will vary significantly. So much so that a VHS might look better than Hi8 or Betacam SP. On TH-cam you should use only 720 or 1080 to see the potential of those formats. Examples on TH-cam that were not butchered and most of the quality of old analog formats was preserved (I don't link them for obvious reasons - you have to copy and paste): DV/Digital-8 footage: Panasonic AG-DVX100BE in 2020 (This footage doesn't look impressive because it was shot in 16:9. DV looked more impressive in 4:3 but everything looks crummy vs modern HD and 4K) One inch C reel-to-reel (it's not Betacam!) footage: Betacam SP - HD Upscale Test Betacam SP footage: Samantha Fox - Touch Me (Peter's Pop Show '86) Hi8 footage: San Francisco summer 1992 in HD (Hi8) VHS footage: Panasonic NV M1 VHS camcorder test footage. *Unfortunately many old ads cheated a bit. They shoot one type of gear or format. Then they say it was a different... a cheaper format. So, lo and behold how good it is. A lot of lies like that existed and now it's a land of confusion! Some people are unaware of rare old professional formats such as Digital S, D1, One inch C, DVC Pro and some others.*
DVD is routinely advertised as 500+ lines of horizontal resolution (note I said horizontal not vertical). Vertical for NTSC is fixed at 486 visible. 480 for NTSC-digital .
Resolution of a colour image is defined by luminance (luma, b&w) and chrominance (chroma, colour) resolution - both components are equally as important. You quote luma resolution but have ignored chroma. Chroma resolution for all domestic analog vcr formats (including VHS and SVHS) is around 30 lines and DVD is around 205 lines - the overall quality of a colour image on DVD is vastly superior to SVHS.
Laserdisc w/ S-Video > S-VHS w/ S-Video > Laserdisc w/ Composite > Super VHS w/ Composite > 6-Head VCR w/ Composite > 4-Head VCR w/ Composite I have never had a 6 or 4-Head VCR with S-Video capabilities.
Pleasant morning tell me something my mitsubishi VCR when playing a tape it is beautiful but when I press stop for a split second there is a video noise in the TV I dont have cable or antenna connected yet or programmed channels has that ever happened to you
Always use S-video because it eliminates chroma dot crawl in the image. Always better to use the higher-quality cable. The S-video keeps the image & color separated .
@@electrictroy2010 while s-video should be better, Ive heard vhs carries a composite signal like laserdisc. So if the signal does not already have the image and color separate, s-video is not necessarily better. But it definitely is with video8 and hi8 tapes, even tapes recorded on a camera that didn't have s-video out. So those must have the luma and chroma natively separate when recorded.
@@Knightmessenger Actually, VHS uses "color under luma" just like S-VHS. It is not composite, and does benefit from using the S-Video connection. How much it benefits however, depends on the machine the recording was made in since most VHS recordings were not done using VCRs with S-Video connections.
VHS over S-Video is better than VHS over composite, your test is flawed, To be able to see the difference is to toggle between the two outputs while playing the same tape and see the direct feed on the monitor, TH-cam compression wipes out every difference that existed.
I saw the direct feed while capturing the video and there was no significant difference. As I noted, the S-video footage might of had a slight improvement in contrast or brightness but it's extremely difficult to see. It may not be different at all. Either way, any apparent differences would be illegible to most people.
@@BrettDarien It depends on the quality of the VCR too, But if you don't know what to look for you may not notice it, The major differences is the chroma artifacts are reduced such as rainbowing and dot crawl, slight sharpness in the details with special contents like text, and white to black transitions, Such comparison requires certain contents to show to the average person. A movie on tape may not do justice especially if you add YT compression.
And how is this flawed? If the S-VHS tapes showed a clear difference in quality between composite and S-Video, then regular VHS should have also showed a clear difference if S-Video improved the video quality. It however doesn’t show much here.
@@Capturing-Memories extremely doubt the compression is at fault here. If it was that bad I wouldn’t be seeing much of a difference with the S-VHS footage. If you think you can do a better job, why don’t you show some examples?
@@Melibond64 RGB is better than Svideo. I think s-video looks great though. I compared an snes running svideo to rgb and there was a bigger difference between svideo and composite than between rgb and svideo.
Glad you can record because sadly although I got my first VCR in 2005 when I was 8, I was NEVER able to learn how to record! I can do basic stuff like play, rewind, fast forward, eject but other than that I can't do pretty much anything else. I tried learning to record but I never managed to. Guess these VCRs are just too old for me...
@DavidMander-rs4uk Many of the tapes I have were unfortunately kept in a humid environment. But in most cases you can clear the mold by just playing through the whole tape. If there's severe mold then you would open the cassette and respool the tape carefully by hand.
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As a user of both formats, there is a difference between normal and S vhs, especially when using the S cable, and good quality tape. I’m finding generally speaking that many of my older vhs tapes are fading and getting dropouts,, while my Super VHS tapes are holding together quite alot better.
I can say the same for higher grade VHS tapes as well compared to the cheaper ones.
It's nice to know that the manufacturers weren't lying to us!
I've noticed S-VHS even has very little or streaks going across the picture unlike basic VHS.
@@AdamsDuhStuffYes, TDK, Sony, Panasonic, They were the best tapes, The cheaper JVC, Kodak, Maxell weren't really that great as they were of inferior quality and not ideal for recording important video. I have some TDK, Sony tapes that were last used in the 90's and the print is mint and clear.
I agree with guys above. SVHS degrade at same pace as VHS. Specially if you used good quality tapes. Didnt have any problem with original VHS at all. SVHS looks bit better on more modern equipment but on small crts that everyone has back then didnt look any better. I tested both of things recently since i still watch and record vhs from time to time.
@@adokapo VHS & SVHS are obsolete formats the longer they have been stored or used the more they degrade, they were not a recommended format for video or duplication as they degrade over time.
A SVHS VCR with TBC can even make standard VHS look better than most remembered.
Built-in….I use a Panny AG-1980 the picture is sharper with TBC on most tapes. I also have Mits svhs 790 picture is good but not as sharp as Panny.
Find a Panny DMR-ES10 or ES15 and use it as a pass-through, it has always active TBC -and it’s cheap. Search online many talk about it, just make sure the S-Video input is working on the unit from the seller.
Even on regular VHS, the Chroma is stored on the tape separately from the Luma. However, S-VHS has considerably higher Luma bandwidth, which improves horizontal resolution. This also reduces crosstalk between the Luma and Chroma.
The next step up is W-VHS, which has even higher bandwidth, and natively supports both anamorphic widescreen and component video.
Don’t forget, though, that there are additional VHS-adjacent VCRs out there, such as time-lapse VCRs. Those things are badass.
Can't help but wonder if W-VHS would have been the superior format to DVD for older media...
Fancy seeing you here.
You can clearly see that there are no color-bleeding with S-Video cable compared to composite, so yes good cable make difference..
There is clearly mold on that VHS tape. You can see the white blobs.
A lot of the one I saw at the flea market had mold on them as well.
S-VHS has a better picture quality than the Standard VHS since S-VHS has 420 horizontal lines.
Blaze it~
No, it has 525. Anything more or less than 525 lines per frame would confuse an NTSC tv. You must be thinking of horizontal resolution, which is where VHS struggles.
S-video cleans up contrasting edges (less rainbowing) and prevents crawling in flat blocks of colour (particularly red). Composite causes these effects because the luminance and chrominance, although separated in frequency, overlap slightly over the single video wire. S-video transmits them on separate wires.
This clearly shows that VHS has such low quality that the edges are not an issue, but that blocks of red do show a crawling artefact. With S-VHS, the use of composite introduces rainbowing on high contrast edges and instability in block red colour.
Remember ... standard vhs was 240 lines, S-VHS was 400/420 lines and DVD was 480 lines ..
So the S-VHS is right there at dvd quality.
DVD was far superior to SVHS. SVHS only really improved the luminance bandwidth. The chrominance signal was not improved with SVHS. Even the analog composite signal on a laserdisc looked far superior to SVHS.
@@bigoranget i have S-vhs movies and dvd, both played on the same tv and they are quite similair.
To my eyes, they look very similair and to the average person they wont be able to tell 420 lines over 480 lines unless asked to see if they can see a difference.
@@ACommenterOnTH-cam it’s not the difference in resolution that people would notice. It’s the colour detail. DVD is far superior to SVHS in terms of colour detail. It’s not even close. That’s why prior to DVD, laserdisc continued to be the format of choice for video enthusiasts. As I said, laserdisc could only produce a composite signal and even that had far better color detail than what SVHS could produce.
@@bigoranget i have both, cant really yell much of a difference.
@@bigorangetTotally agree with you. DVD is noticeably superior to SVHS because the chroma resolution of SVHS wasn't improved over VHS. Reds especially could be a troublesome colour for analogue VHS or SVHS.
It all depends on electronics, especially if it uses non-differential signal path. The dynamic range is not the same as SNR. Analog video does not have gradient degradation, nor blocking effect of high compression process in dynamic scene.
If you have some time could you do a test for me?
I always wondered if a regular VHS (non S-VHS) video would look better in EP when recording on an S-VHS tape.
The test would go like this:
Record a 30 second clip using an S-VHS tape in a normal VCR (non S-VHS) in SP mode.
Then record a 30 clip with the same tape in the same VCR in EP mode (some VCRs called it SLP mode) and compare them.
The logic is that EP mode will use the same signal, it's just the tape speed that slows down and degrades the signal.
Since S-VHS tapes are better they won't degrade the quality as much when the tape slows down.
I have this question too. I had a nice SVHS deck that didn't work in SP so I should have tried this before giving it away when I moved.
The EP is significantly worse than standard mode in both VHS and S-VHS. What's more S-VHS and VHS are very close in quality if a VHS master tape is used, otherwise S-VHS looks crisper. In EP everything looks garbage. It's an advertising gimmick about S-VHS having 400 lines of horizontal resolution. Even Betacam SP is somewhat lower - 350 lines. They used the same trick with ED Betamax claiming it had 500 lines. Never it had such a resolution! Only DVD 9 or DV had such a resolution.
The main advantage of S-VHS was a flying erase head (necessary for editing) and less degradation during editing, plus some important picture improvement features. Some of such features were present on expensive VHS machines too. They made footage look stable like a DVD but it never had the resolution close to a DVD. S-VHS was about 350 lines just like Betacam SP but the latter was crisper and cleaner, and colors were richer. Hi8 and Laser Discs also had a cleaner, crisper picture and better colors - exactly like Betacam SP but these layman formats lacked advanced editing features. I had a couple of S-VHS machines back in the day. I sold the cheap S-VHS VCR eons ago. I also have an expensive VHS recorder. It's just as good as my other S-VHS machine - it only lacks serious editing functionality. Master VHS tapes look exactly like S-VHS tapes. It's hard to tell them apart even on modern high res equipment. S-VHS footage is a tad brighter + barely noticeable amount of extra resolution if we try really hard with a microscope and a team of forensics. It's not noticeable at all in my opinion. It was a commercial gimmick. S-VHS machines were poor studio alternatives to Betacam SP VCRs. That's all. If slightly higher movie quality was needed, Laser Discs were a better choice. Anyway, nobody ever was releasing movies on S-VHS anyway, except for some very rare cases.
And I always used only high quality master tapes. It did affect the quality!!! Although when it comes to audio cassettes, the difference was not noticeable at all between master tapes and average tapes. Still I used expensive (not too expensive) audio cassettes too. They were just nice, albeit 3-4 times more expensive. The same holds for video cassettes - I only used professional grade VHS and S-VHS tapes. They were a lot nicer. Ten years ago I threw all tapes which are not pro grade master tapes into the garbage. It's a pity but ... I got too many DVDs and Blu-Rays now and even they are no longer needed as we can stream the content. And there's so much content that I rarely record (=download) it. I used to record more. My DVD recorder has been gathering dust for eons now too.
To reiterate, in EP mode it's difficult to tell which was S-VHS and which was VHS tape, if both were recorded in that garbage mode because then they both look identical and indistinguishable, like total garbage. It's even more difficult to tell which is worse then :) At some point I even thought (20 years ago) that my cables were not good. Those damn manufactures. They got even me fooled a couple of times. They sometimes even lie or make huge exaggerations even in instruction manuals for crying out loud! It's all in the past... Sometimes just some nostalgia about ole good times, I guess...
By the way, picture quality on both VHS and S-VHS looks a lot better than in this video. The condition of the author's cassettes and VCRs probably leaves a lot to be desired. Such quality is kind of like time to throw them into the garbage. I mean the quality was never that bad if good tapes and good machines were used.
@@billmorrigan386 That was nice of you to write a book but it didn't really come close to what I was talking about. You should probably read my comment over again.
The answer is simple if you understand how magnetic storage of frequency and phase modulated signals work. S-VHS is a gimmick for people that don't record in S-VHS onto S-VHS tape. The short answer is that SP would look better. Why? Because high frequency content cannot be accurately recorded on slower moving iron oxide media...no matter what you do. If I go any deeper, I'd be using terms like quantum tunneling. So, no offense but what you're asking is ridiculous and nonsensical.
@@matrixate His question was not 100% nonsensical. At the same time you are absolutely correct about the tape speed and inevitable loss of quality. Physics can't be beat. The issue is how much of that quality is gonna be lost. The S-VHS format claims 400 lines of TV horizontal resolution while VHS claims only 240. Betacam SP claims 340 lines (BTW, the Betacam tape runs much faster, like, 4 times faster than S-VHS/VHS). It's logical to expect S-VHS that was claimed to be so much superior (400 lines vs 240 lines for VHS) to perform decent even at a lower speed (EP - extended play or low speed play), losing some resolution of course, but still maybe comparable to the inferior VHS at SP (standard play). And that's true to some extent. The problem is S-VHS is a gimmick in and of itself. It did have advantages for editing video - no doubt about that. Still, its quality was basically identical to VHS. The promised 400 lines were never really there, although theoretically they were, you know, like, in ads when things are exaggerated a lot but possible under some miraculous conditions = NEVER possible. At the same time, you see higher quality on an S-VHS tape but that's not because of 400 lines (there are never 400 lines, not even close) but simply because most VHS tapes were not master tapes. Master VHS tapes are indistinguishable from S-VHS tapes unless you look with a microscope and a team of forensics. That was very disappointing for me back in the day. Still S-VHS machines did give me some niceties like a flying erase head, Dynamic Drum System, etc. They were a must for editing on a low budget despite the quality of a master VHS tape being identical to that of an S-VHS tape. Some professionals also used S-VHS systems as Betacam several times as expensive.
agree completely, s-vhs with s-video cable is better to s-vhs with composite, equal to vhs with se and all possible tuning
VHS and S-VHS have big difference but you need a perfect situation in this case about the monitor/TV. Inside on all monitor/TV have a conversion and not all internal conversor is the best.
Try capture with DV format with svideo connection, you will see.
I saw a guy record Regular Show on his demonstration of how to record shows onto VHS. I don't think you will get copyrighted.
I went out and bought that Mitsubishi hsu 795 at Ebay thanks to your review
Don't forget, for a brief while, there was a pre-recorded super VHS format that studios used. They didn't make many, but those tapes will probably show you the best that the super VHS format had to offer
Will definitely say that svhs through composite looks like composite. The text had that rainbow like shimmer on it like regular vhs did without s-et. Especially when compared to svhs via s video.
Btw did you capture the vhs via a retro tink to some capture device?
I used an EZ capture device to capture all the video clips.
I love this tv setup
Thanks for your video!
I bought a super VHS recorder in the early 2000s. I would record from TV in anamorphic mode. Utilising the full resolution when playing back
Hello!! Do you know if a television with the S-VHS function is needed or it can be any tube television? I have a 2005 Philips TV that has the S-VHS option but I don't know if it is optional or mandatory to see with a better image. I don't have s-vhs players yet but I want to buy one. Thanks for your video and answer.
Are you from uk?
If you try using S/ET - S Video on S-VHS the picture will be extremely sharp and in very high quality
You cannot use SVHS-ET on a Super VHS tape. The recorder will automatically default to SVHS mode
SVHS-ET only works on standard VHS tapes
It must be remembered that whilst analog Broadcast TV in North America was only 330 lines horizontal resolution, in Europe and worldwide other PAL and SECAM countries it was well in excess of 400 lines. In the UK where the video bandwidth was marginally greater it was possible to achieve 500 lines on a top of the line TV. So there was a great advantage in using a S-VHS VCR as a time shift device in these areas. I bought one for this purpose in 1992 the improvement versus a good VHSHQ VCR was outstanding.
SVHS cannot exceed 400 lines horizontal resolution according to JVC and Panasonic specs in my owners manual.
I don’t see how PAL broadcast can achieve 500 lines horizontal resolution. NTSC broadcast has 330 but PAL video bandwidth is only 1.3 megahertz wider. 330+80 per extra megahertz == 410 lines horizontal resolution
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The normal VHS Tape does not record a separate chroma signal therefore there can't be any difference in playback quality over the s video cable.
Берете видеомагнитофон S-VHS, две кассеты VHS и S-VHS, записываете на этом аппарате на обе кассеты с одного качественного источника, например - DVD с разными входами. И только потом проверяете на этом же магнитофоне. А что тут сравнивали я не понял
Awesome !!! 😃😃😃
The standard vhs tape you used has major mold on the tape. You shouldn't use that if you don't want to mess up your vcr`s heads. You can clean it if the tape is something you care about if not id throw it out.
Really? How to tell if there's mold on it? I didn't notice anything. Can you please point out where this is noticeable?
@@maestromosesjosiah762 Look at the left reel window. The white splotches on the video tape is mold.
@@Blunko_McSqwuntley Ah, you're absolutely right. Thank you for pointing that out!
Yes its difrent S vhs looks sharper than vhs
and more 3D
I don’t know how rare my dvd/vcr combo is but it’s a dvd recorder and plays vhs in svideo n component
Excelent video, thank you.
I own a vhs/dvd player it has component out but only to dvd mode, so the vhs quality is composite at most.
I do wish they made HDMI SVHS adapter i am in UK you only can get Scart to HDMI in two flavors one RGB supported other is Composite only no SVHS support......
My understanding is SVHS increased the luminance bandwidth but the chrominance wasn’t really improved.
Test with the vcr with RG-6 coaxial cables
So the digital signal was not from Satellite TV antenna nor cable TV from a provider. It was over-the-air free digital TV right?
Correct, it was digital over-the-air broadcast using any TV antenna.
S/ET mode is brighter but i don't know that it looks better
The text is definitely sharper and clearer in S/ET mode especially when using S-Video cables.
Is it worth paying 500-1000$ for a SVHS player with TBC?
I alreadey recorded family home videos using VHS player and composite cables.
I don't know if I should re-record them using a SVHS deck with TBC and SET
9:59 VHS + Composite 10:28 VHS + SVideo 11:20 VHS + SVIDEO + SET
I've never used a VCR with TBC. In fact I was unaware of it until recently. I'm going to be upgrading my current VCR with a Mitsubishi HS-HD2000U that does have TBC. I recommend looking into that model if you're looking for a VCR with TBC for under $500.
a bit ot: to import SVHS recording on pc, wich cable would you recommend? Or justa a hdmi converter?
S-Video would give you the best quality for SVHS. For standard VHS then composite is fine. Cheap hdmi converters might work but aren't recommend.
If you can, could you do a comparison of Video8 vs Hi8 vs Digital8? I always wonder if there's a noticeable difference of these 3 formats,
Of course there is a difference. Video8 is roughly the same quality as vhs, digital 8 is the same as mini dv, and Hi8 will fall somewhere in the middle.
Hi8 is same quality as S-VHS and laserdisc (5 megahertz bandwidth across all standards). LD has disadvantage of using combining the image & color (composite) which slightly degrades the image
It's DV (Digital 8 is the same in quality) that's clearly the best. It's better than DVD as it is 25 Megabits per second while DVD is usually around 10 Megabits per second. Other formats are analog and they are much worse. Among analog formats Hi8 is the best, then comes the Laser Disc, then S-VHS, then Video 8, and then VHS. That said, there's almost no perceivable difference between S-VHS and VHS, if high quality master tapes are used and if good quality equipment is used. It means there's not much difference among all these analog formats. Even the professional Betacam SP is not much different from them. However, I'd say Betacam SP and Hi8 are the best of them all, along with ED Beta or ED Betamax. The are all on par, although ED Beta claimed 500 lines of horizontal resolution. Betacam SP claimed 340 lines. (S-VHS claimed 400 lines. Video 8 and VHS claimed 240-250 lines). *In reality these were all advertising gimmicks and nothing more.* It was very disappointing for me back in the day that S-VHS didn't deliver at all. It did when you compare it to a regular VHS tape vs S-VHS tape but it was indistinguishable if a master VHS tape was used. That said, S-VHS machines had a lot of nice features. They were a must for analog editing. ED Beta, Betacam SP, LD (Laser Disc) and Hi8 were excellent in terms of colors and picture cleanness. That's all. There was never much difference between these analog formats. They are not even close to DVD, let alone DV/Digital 8. The only analog format that was as good (or even better) than digital DVD was 1'' C reel-to-reel format video. It truly had 400+ resolution and no compression like DVD had. However DV/Digital 8 is no worse (I'd say it's slightly better) than that format as compression is low on DV (25 Megabits per second) which is 5:1 compression. By the way, 1'' C reel-to-reel format was a composite format. So, no, Y/N separation didn't give enough advantage and resolution as all ads claimed. These were just gimmicks. Shocking as it might seem but manufactures sometimes exaggerate and even lie in instruction manuals and specs, which is very sad and disappointing.
*Horizontal resolution meant here (and in ads, specs, or even manuals of the time) has nothing to do with pixel resolution. The pixel resolution was 720x576 for PAL and 720x480 for NTSC. The problem was that analog formats could not capture that resolution properly, except for 1'' C reel-to-reel format. However, when digitizing any analog tape, we should always use 720x576 for PAL and 720x480 for NTSC or at least 640x480 or we are gonna lose more detail and quality. If a lot of compression is used like in TH-cam videos, quality degrades a lot, so 720p and even 1080 should be used to preserve all that those old formats were capable of.*
A few points more points (while reminiscing about ole times) concerning old analog formats:
These formats were evolving along with the equipment for them and the tape technology. VHS appeared around 1976 and reached its highest quality in tape and machines toward 1995. It's similar with other formats: they all improved over the years.
Another huge factor is the tape. In digital it's simple: tapes and machines don't matter much - quality is the same within, like, 97-98%. However, a regular analog tape, say, VHS produces worse picture than a master VHS tape and it's easy to see. If you record on a regular tape with an older machine, the result will be much worse than if you do it with a more modern machine and a master tape.
You can see on TH-cam a lot of footage from all these formats. Depending on how they were converted, what tapes were used, how good/modern the original equipment was, the quality will vary significantly. So much so that a VHS might look better than Hi8 or Betacam SP. On TH-cam you should use only 720 or 1080 to see the potential of those formats.
Examples on TH-cam that were not butchered and most of the quality of old analog formats was preserved (I don't link them for obvious reasons - you have to copy and paste):
DV/Digital-8 footage:
Panasonic AG-DVX100BE in 2020
(This footage doesn't look impressive because it was shot in 16:9. DV looked more impressive in 4:3 but everything looks crummy vs modern HD and 4K)
One inch C reel-to-reel (it's not Betacam!) footage:
Betacam SP - HD Upscale Test
Betacam SP footage:
Samantha Fox - Touch Me (Peter's Pop Show '86)
Hi8 footage:
San Francisco summer 1992 in HD (Hi8)
VHS footage:
Panasonic NV M1 VHS camcorder test footage.
*Unfortunately many old ads cheated a bit. They shoot one type of gear or format. Then they say it was a different... a cheaper format. So, lo and behold how good it is. A lot of lies like that existed and now it's a land of confusion! Some people are unaware of rare old professional formats such as Digital S, D1, One inch C, DVC Pro and some others.*
Fun-fact S-VHS is actually very close to DVD in terms of resolution. (400 vs 480 displayed lines of resolution.)
DVD is routinely advertised as 500+ lines of horizontal resolution (note I said horizontal not vertical). Vertical for NTSC is fixed at 486 visible. 480 for NTSC-digital
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@@electrictroy2010 DVD had a big advantage... progressive scan. SVHS can't do that.
Resolution of a colour image is defined by luminance (luma, b&w) and chrominance (chroma, colour) resolution - both components are equally as important.
You quote luma resolution but have ignored chroma. Chroma resolution for all domestic analog vcr formats (including VHS and SVHS) is around 30 lines and DVD is around 205 lines - the overall quality of a colour image on DVD is vastly superior to SVHS.
I buyed a jvc 6700 svhs et recorder with a scart to hdmi converter and it looks OK.
I was wondering if because no signal that's why the noise in the blue screen
Laserdisc w/ S-Video > S-VHS w/ S-Video > Laserdisc w/ Composite > Super VHS w/ Composite > 6-Head VCR w/ Composite > 4-Head VCR w/ Composite
I have never had a 6 or 4-Head VCR with S-Video capabilities.
Pleasant morning tell me something my mitsubishi VCR when playing a tape it is beautiful but when I press stop for a split second there is a video noise in the TV I dont have cable or antenna connected yet or programmed channels has that ever happened to you
VCR is probably tuned to a channel with no content. It shows as white noise/static.
I have a svhs vcr. Since I have both Belkin brand composite and s-video cables, which one should I use to record off regular vhs tapes?
Always use S-video because it eliminates chroma dot crawl in the image. Always better to use the higher-quality cable. The S-video keeps the image & color separated
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@@electrictroy2010 while s-video should be better, Ive heard vhs carries a composite signal like laserdisc. So if the signal does not already have the image and color separate, s-video is not necessarily better.
But it definitely is with video8 and hi8 tapes, even tapes recorded on a camera that didn't have s-video out. So those must have the luma and chroma natively separate when recorded.
@@Knightmessenger Actually, VHS uses "color under luma" just like S-VHS. It is not composite, and does benefit from using the S-Video connection. How much it benefits however, depends on the machine the recording was made in since most VHS recordings were not done using VCRs with S-Video connections.
@@sneskid78 well then it would definitely benefit video that was originally recorded directly to a vhs tape, such as a vhs or vhs-c camcorder.
@@Knightmessenger
Yes, it does.
10:56
thought it said Concorde
VHS over S-Video is better than VHS over composite, your test is flawed, To be able to see the difference is to toggle between the two outputs while playing the same tape and see the direct feed on the monitor, TH-cam compression wipes out every difference that existed.
I saw the direct feed while capturing the video and there was no significant difference. As I noted, the S-video footage might of had a slight improvement in contrast or brightness but it's extremely difficult to see. It may not be different at all. Either way, any apparent differences would be illegible to most people.
@@BrettDarien It depends on the quality of the VCR too, But if you don't know what to look for you may not notice it, The major differences is the chroma artifacts are reduced such as rainbowing and dot crawl, slight sharpness in the details with special contents like text, and white to black transitions, Such comparison requires certain contents to show to the average person. A movie on tape may not do justice especially if you add YT compression.
And how is this flawed? If the S-VHS tapes showed a clear difference in quality between composite and S-Video, then regular VHS should have also showed a clear difference if S-Video improved the video quality. It however doesn’t show much here.
@@RyDawg96 It's flawed for the reasons I explained.
@@Capturing-Memories extremely doubt the compression is at fault here. If it was that bad I wouldn’t be seeing much of a difference with the S-VHS footage. If you think you can do a better job, why don’t you show some examples?
D-VHS aka D-Theater tops them all it records in 1080p blu ray quality.
Yeah if you spend 800€
It records in 1080i not 1080p
@@TheZgraen oops my bad
I want my VHS tapes to look like shit. Standard def for me 😂
Dude you sound like Billy West.
Dude your standard VHS tape is moldy
Is this Breatharian?
Do normal vcrs play svhs?
No, they look like crap
Only some normal vcrs can playback S-VHS tapes recorded in quasi mode in normal VHS resolution
Some VHS units released 1995 or later can play Super VHS tapes. The electronics ignore the higher resolution of SVHS tape and show it as VHS quality
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Is SCART better than S-Video ?
Depending on what is being sent. Scart can be RGB or composite.
@@brpadington I meant to ask about RGB specifically.
@@Melibond64 RGB is better than Svideo. I think s-video looks great though. I compared an snes running svideo to rgb and there was a bigger difference between svideo and composite than between rgb and svideo.
@@brpadington Thanks for the info mate. I appreciate it :)
Glad you can record because sadly although I got my first VCR in 2005 when I was 8, I was NEVER able to learn how to record! I can do basic stuff like play, rewind, fast forward, eject but other than that I can't do pretty much anything else. I tried learning to record but I never managed to. Guess these VCRs are just too old for me...
I got my first VCR age 12. Recording is as easy as choosing a TV channel and pressing record on the VCR.
I also learned how to setup timers to record TV while I was sleeping.
@@electrictroy2010 Maybe for you. :) Congrats!
@@electrictroy2010 For me, DVDs are easier.
I remember this stupid movie as a kid lol
VCR is quite poor, because is without TBC.
If u have older GPU in your PC (like gtx 8800) with S-Video output, you can record 4k material on s vhs.
And you can record 4k or HD from live television to Super VHS tape. However the quality is downgraded (no better than SD-DVD).
why are u buying that junk save your money on dvd players
It's UHD now, DVD was in the 90's.
Puts in a VHS tape that has mould 🙄👎
@DavidMander-rs4uk Many of the tapes I have were unfortunately kept in a humid environment. But in most cases you can clear the mold by just playing through the whole tape. If there's severe mold then you would open the cassette and respool the tape carefully by hand.