The 5V DC accessory jack is for connecting a multi-dish switch, for having 2 separate satellite dishes on your roof aimed at 2 separate satellites. This was done to receive additional programming in your program guide. Keep in mind that this was the late 1990s; DISH Network was just coming to fruition, and the satellite technology used was called DBS MPEG-2. Nowadays, MPEG-4 is the most common, but back then, the bandwidth on a single satellite was not enough to allocate their entire channel selection. So instead, DISH would uplink ethnic and special-interest programming to secondary satellites at the 61.5° and 148° W orbital slots. That way, regular customers would just need one dish aimed at the main satellite (119°) and customers who wanted ethnic or special-interest programming would require a second dish. Nowadays, it seems like a primitive solution, but that's because modern-day compression technologies allow for more channels to be squeezed onto one satellite. That's the only way they could do it back then. As DISH grew, so did their satellite fleet. DISH kept doing this throughout the mid-to-late 2000's. By then, H.264 was much more prevalent, and they slowly were able to move ethnic programming to their main satellite fleet. Even to this day, your typical dish has multi-LNBs on it for seeing multiple satellites at a time. The receiver then brings all those channels together in the program guide. Pretty interesting stuff, when you look at it. As someone who grew up with DISH Network, their technology has always fascinated me. I've come across this receiver/VCR a few times on auction sites, and I'm glad someone finally did a video on it, versus me paying out-of-pocket to see one in person. One might say this is a step in the direction towards all-in-one DVRs. After all, people used to always record off the air onto tape. It's amazing to see the transitional point between VHS and hard drive (and eventually high-definition), historically-speaking. Great video, as always!
I very nearly bought one of these for cheap when I was looking to transfer my D-VHS tapes, glad I didn't! Settled on a HM-DHX1 imported from Japan. My channel is dedicated to archiving D-VHS content (shameless self promotion)
Do you have any recordings of Lilo & Stitch: the Series, the ADV dub of Evangelion, Cardcaptors (the infamous Nelvana dub of Cardcaptor Sakura), and Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi by any chance?
Well, if these are cheap enough, they may serve as mechanical parts / head drum donor for later, true D-Theatre DVHS decks from JVC. I assume there were some models that used the same mechanism and head drum.
That Direct TV smart card sent a wave of nostalgia. My family used to have DIrect TV satellite, and our satellite box came with an almost exactly similar card that went in a very similar slot. And because I was like 7 or 8 at the time, my parents had to yell at me to NEVER. EVER. take the card out of the slot or it would reset the satellite box. So naturally I did just that, and got in a lot of trouble. Oh the memories. Still, it seems rather scummy that they'd require a card like that for you to even access basic analog 1980s VCR functionality.
Typical branded box... I live in Sweden and my operator wanted me buy their box. Nothing works without card and its locked to their channels a piece of shit that I returned. Today using an Linuxbased PVR. That record unencrypted encryoted channels to harddrive...that stream I can watch in computer or even some smart tv 😉 without box or smartcard.
@@voltare2amstereo Yep hate these kind of systems. In Sweden many PVR is this way. One reason I bought my own not branded PVR from Germany. I can record everything for example if my cable company offers temporary Freeview of a channel I can record everything on harddrive and watch it after freeview period or even without an smartcard since its not crypted in anyway 😉 This is also a good way to do if you want to take some temporary subscription. Record all movies etc and watch it later without subscription. Many people today streame everything from movies to music. But I prefer to have an unencrypted copy. Its also much cheaper way with music. Often people listen same artists and songs from spotify and pay monthly fee. When you can buy physical format or download mp3 from google music for example to one time fee.
DongDongBells same omg did that at my nanas house XD phew THAT [one time] it fixed itself before getting me in trouble... i messed with it as was fixation type of individual so fixated on it idk why lmao... autism adhd. Aspergurs all are part of it tbh... lol oh the mischief I got into lol... figured it was a credit card back then lol
@@Italodancer it seems that “pay to view” tv may gradually shift to being streamed over the internet There is one provider where i live which has recently brought out a streaming over the internet service (Well, technically it isn’t a new service, but until recently you would have needed to buy a special TV in order to use the service, where i live they now offer small streaming boxes that you can plug into an existing TV, and yes, i did sign up for that service, i have 2 of those streaming boxes, the weird thing about the streaming boxes is they have a connector for a rooftop aerial, which isn’t used at all, and they don’t make any mention of that connector existing)
D-VHS is a format that has always been of interest to me, but the fact that these units are tied to Dish Network and the fact that the "quasi" SVHS playback failed makes this is a "VCR to Avoid", indeed.
That fan isn't that loud in your video, it seems. I've got DVD players with louder spindle motors than that! Also, would have loved to see the diagnostics or the setup modes.
A couple years ago a guy in my area was selling one of these, without the satellite receiver hardware (the silver colored one), on Facebook marketplace for $80. I hesitated and never acted on it and regret it. I dont think he knew what it was, other than a fancy looking VCR. Even if I didn’t ever buy it to watch DVHS tapes, I could have sold it on EBay and made profit. The fact you couldn’t record to tapes in 1080i through component made it less appealing. Stupid DRM that didn’t want you making perfect copies of DVDs and tv shows
I wonder if that high speed data port in the back under that cover could be used to capture the MPEG-2 video data from whatever program you're watching. Like before conversion to analog but after decrypting.
Not sure specifically for this device, but depending on how the copy protection bits on the transport stream were set, you could capture the MPEG-2 data from a DVHS tape using firewire. This was actually how a lot of TV piracy was done in the early 2000s.
It's not piracy of you pay for the service and are recording for your personal viewing. It's like using a VCR and recording a TV show then watching it later when there's nothing good on.
Good video. I loved the D-VHS format. Had 5 differnet ones- 4 JVC and one Marantz(a rebranded JVC) but never had this one. I only have 1 working one as of now though. The decoder boards went bad in most of them.
I wonder how a Sky D-VHS recorder would have gone? A lot of the restrictions on this thing are similar to what Sky put on their equipment (card has to be paired to the receiver etc) I guess Sky obsoleted D-VHS recorders like this with their Sky+ PVR service, which they brought out in 2001. Sky+ recording features also don't work without a Sky smartcard/valid subscription; cancel your subscription, you can't even access programmes you've already recorded. I would have have hoped that had Sky did a Sky D-VHS recorder, only the Sky specific features would need a Sky subscription and that everything else would just work... but we're talking about Sky here, they're owned by Comcast now, but before then, they were owned by News Corp, so make of that what you will. And it has D-VHS but not D-Theatre?! D-Theatre was the whole point of D-VHS!
This is very interesting as a pre-cursor to what is normal with online subscription services now. I guess this should be viewed more as a satellite reciever that happens to have (early) digital recording built-in. The smart-card lock-out was common back then for subscription devices before the internet took off, so this is one of those "in-between technologies" things that was doomed to a quick obsolescence. No doubt if adequate internal storage solutions had existed in 1997 this would not have a tape slot at all. It must have been very expensive but maybe ownership was subsidised by which ever subscription service you were using, which might explain why it's features are locked-out from general use like they are? A bit more research in that area would have been cool. This would be a great hacking project to access its full potential in 2019.
Smart-cards could probably have helped out a lot with DIVX players, as they would have served as a stopgap for customers who lacked modems (and for once the servers went down).
Oh man that remote UHF antenna threw me back. We had four StarChoice satellite receivers in the basement and then had the feed of those split across a number of rooms in the house. Those were the days.
My mother had one for a short time, it was provided through the cable company. Certain TV channels would not record to D-VHS, due to some encrypted copyright protection. It started having mechanical problems, as it was heavily used by the previous user. She did run a cleaning cassette on it, that made it worse. A day after that, she returned it back to the cable company. They gave her a regular cable box, she connected her old VCR to it, and it worked out better. Though it was analog and recording in EP mode, it still lasted longer.
Yep, you're right. Without the ability to even play back D-Theater Movies this thing is pretty useless. And coming from the inventor of D-VHS, that's such a waste of... EVERYTHING!
I should have placed the microphone closer to the fan, apparently my camera adjusted for the noise and limited it. In any case, it was just loud and audible the entire time.
As an old fart in my 50s I have a lot of nostalgia for old technologies, but not for VCRs. Even back when they were the market leading technology, they were a pain in the backside to actually use. I dumped all my VHS tapes in a skip when I moved home in the early 2000s and don't miss the format at all. The first time I downloaded a video from the internet I knew the future had arrived.
Pretty sure there were "alternative" Direct TV cards available, that did not have those pesky limitations on them, or billing either. Wonder if you could find one, and use it on that machine, to get the non VHS side to function. Looks like the head drum is well worn though, with all those streaks on standard playback, or the amplifier is weak, but the digital side is fine as it can still error correct, though I wonder for how long, you would have to look in that diagnostic menu to see if there is any BER information for the VCR side, as opposed to the satellite side.
is there anyone out there that has the original video to the 3M tape? Btw i found that music in the 3M video. it was a Firstcom track called "Back Seat".
For S-VHS playback: try to clean the leaf switch that is under the cassette bay and senses the hole on S-VHS cassettes. Those artifacts mean that it haven't recognised it as an S-VHS cassette, and tried to play it back in ordinary VHS mode. I think, D-VHS cassettes are identified via the same hole, and maybe an other one as well. Cleaning these cassette type identifier leaf switches may make it able to play D-Theatre tapes as well (probably not... But I assume good chances with S-VHS!)
@@donbest5024 That only works acceptably on very high quality VHS tapes (like TDK E-HG, maybe Chrome-dioxide BASF, but never tried the latter yet), and still a compromise. VHS tape has about 600 Oe coercivity, S-VHS tape has 1000. That's too much difference to be negligible. S-VHS tape is not snake oil, they have quite different formulation (unlike the D-VHS tapes, since those are the same as S-VHS, AFAIK) Why don't you use an S-VHS ET capable deck? This is the proper solution, it probably will give better quality than true S-VHS recorded on VHS tape (but still only on high quality tapes). And if you really want to use VHS tapes as S-VHS, I suggest to drill the cassettes, and leave the switch alone. What happens if you play a VHS recording with the S-VHS sensing switch defeated, so the deck thinks it's an S-VHS tape? I've either never tried that, or I don't remember. I've drilled used VHS tapes to try them as S-VHS, so almost sure I've tried to play the VHS recording in S-VHS mode, but it was many years ago and I don't remember the result.
@@NJRoadfan Maybe not just for backwards compatibility, but D-VHS decks are checking both holes? I don't know. But it seems tape formulation is the same between D-VHS and S-VHS cassettes, so why they made a new standard for it? Probably just for sell them more expensive. If that was the case, they've digged the grave for D-VHS from the beginning. S-VHS tapes were already too expensive, preventing S-VHS from becoming mainstream. Making specific D-VHS cassettes just for sell them even more expensive was not too wise of an idea. Maybe the tape lenght is different? But if that's the case, they still shouldn't have prevented recording in D-VHS format on S-VHS tapes by that extra ID hole.
I still have some DVHS recordings from my HD DirecTV / D-VHS setup. I had to have a PC going all the time for it to work. Not sure what I even did that but it did work.
You're right. DVRs were introduced in the early to mid 90s. This was an obvious attempt to keep people from switching to that format. When DVR recording machines finally came out, they blew VHS out of the water, so much so that videotapes were essentially gone by the early to mid 2000s (if my memory serves me correct, you could still rent VHS tapes until about 2003-2005 at Blockbuster). I still have my VHS to DVD burner that I got in the late 90s-early 2000s, and it still works.
i wonder if there is a Canadian bell expressvu version of this since they used alot of hand me down equipment from direct tv. if u had direct tv would it even work anymore i know up here bell switched all there stuff to mpeg4 a couple years back so any old boxes that only worked on mpeg2 don't even work anymore.
Would the high-speed data port be a firewire connector? I think some of the later D-VHS decks had them. _ Oh it's a full card-edge expansion slot, saw the rest of the video.
This JVC’s vcr it play videocassette VHS, S-VHS, D-VHS recorded with play speed SP and EP also SLP and VHS-C and S-VHS-C with adaptor. Didn’t play possible speed LP and cassettes W-VHS recorded (like cassette Digital-S).
Fabulous old tech, we didn't really get DVHS in the UK but amazing the blank tapes were sold here. I have several still sealed TDK pro DVHS tapes complete with beautiful pro boxes.... 😎😎😎
I have a late 90's JVC VHS that I am happy with due to the simple design inside of the tape mechanism. I would like a mid to late 80's VCR but my last one had gearing problems that could not be fixed. Any suggestions on one of that era that is big with allot of buttons I don't need type?
Wow JVC really nobbled this. In the UK, only two D-VHS machines were sold and they wouldn't even play each other's tapes. The format was doomed to fail from the start. Makes Beta look like a runaway success. Actually Beta was because it spawned Betacam including DigiBeta and HDCAM, so Beta derived professional formats made it into the HD age and sold in large numbers, whereas VHS derived professional formats all bombed.
I'll be honest, I barely heard that fan. Stupid idea, though, needing a smart card to even operate the recorder. Was the unit supplied by the satellite TV company to the consumer in a kind of hire per use package? Do you need the smart card to even watch pre-recorded VHS tapes? That deck mechanism looks really cheap and nasty, very plasticky
Even if you got this hooked up to a Dish Network satellite dish, the modulation they use now is 8PSK, not the QPSK that was used with their original MPEG-2. So it wouldn't even lock to any signal now. Plus most of dish network is now using H.264/MPEG-4, so the MPEG-2 decoding is useless. Also, I believe just as it states on the front, it's recording the bit-stream directly onto tape with no decoding, just as it came down from the satellite. You then play back and the internal IRD decodes it like a satellite signal, except it's coming form a tape source. So since the smart card is now hopelessly out of date, I don't think it would even decode an old recording. Or any recordings made after the card last had it's keys updated, but they've stopped using that smart card for a long time now. I'm not sure how this is considered a D-VHS deck, since it's only recording a proprietary bit-stream that no other D-VHS deck could decode or play back. I guess the technology behind it is D-VHS, (per the JVC deck) but I believe D-VHS actually recorded MPEG-2 directly to tape, so you could fast forward and rewind with picture and all. Still frame, slow mo, frame advance etc. I would be curious for those who had this deck with Dish Network, could you fast forward and reverse and see a picture, or did you have to wait for the IRD to lock into the signal off the tape? Like you were changing transponders? Interesting bit of hybrid technology that's completely useless now..
I'm glad my parent's TV recording box I got for my parents doesn't have any ridiculous restrictions on it although sadly where I live in the world you have to pay a "TV tax" in order to legally watch (or record) ANY live TV, or to use the [BBC] catchup site or app thankfully all the other catchup sites and apps no longer require paying the "TV tax" to use
Thank Arceus that we Americans do not have a 'TV tax' like you do though. It's such a stupid and idiotic law that I honesty wonder why anyone thought it was ever a good idea to begin with! And besides, TV (for the most part) is so terrible these days. Seemingly all it is these days is unfunny sitcoms, bad revivals/adaptations of beloved IPs, sappy Hallmark movies, melodramatic Lifetime movies, boring news, trash political propaganda, overly childish cartoons, and the dreadfulness that is the vast majority of reality TV.
@@Astolfo2001 All the money from the “TV tax” (or as the [BBC] call it, a “TV licence”) goes directly to the [BBC] And the government are currently trying to scrap the “TV tax” As you may expect, there is backlash from the [BBC], but there is (sadly) also backlash from some members of the public I seriously hope that one of 2 things happen: either the government ignore the backlash, or there is a public vote
after a while they disable the reciever and force you to get an updated reciever. back in the late 90s maybe even 2000 i help a neighbor put up a brandnew direct tv dish it was one of those self install kits that came with the dish lnb some coaxial cable the reciever and the smart card and remote and compass it was a whole complete kit you could buy he got his from radioshack . got all setup and working after calling direct tv to activate the smart card . he had his service for less then 4 hours and a error message poped up and said smart card disabled and invalid i know how could this be ? well direct tv had took upon them selves to do some updates/upgrades to their smart card system which required getting a new smart card or you had no service. and no the rep on the phone never said anything about this. he called customer service and said wtf . and was told about the smartcard updates and such and as you guessed it he wasnt happy and he wasnt the only customer either . what really upset him is he was placed on a waiting list to get a new card sent via usps. in the good ole snail mail. and couldnt give a time frame as to when he would get the new card . and that they where not going to put his account on hold or give any discounts they wanted him to pay for service he couldnt get without a new card .it was almost 2weeks that went by until the new card arrived .
I still think it's good you go these even though you can't record, thanks for showing them! Too bad about that horrible high-band luma demodulation though. Can't help but wonder if that's an oscillator FM problem; of course it could be one or more bad caps or power supply voltage or other problem.
yes infact comcast still does its called a cable card its a pcmcia type of card though . if you get a tv that can take a cable card and are in a comcast serverd area you can rent the card install it in your tv and youll get eveything in the channel packages your subscribed too however ondemand wont work. you can get a device called the hd homerun pro which accepts the cable card and use that and make your own dvr with a computer or a nas aka network attached storage . as the homerun pro connects to your home network .
the older motorola cable boxes had provisions for cards in them on the rear under a small cover. they also had a phone jack on them too. and the phone line had to be hooked up or after a week or so the box would shutdown and customer service had to be called to reactiveate the box . this was before the cable modems in the boxes where bidirectional like today. and the cable system was hybrid analog and digital . now everythings digital and encrypted and scrambled so either a cable box for each tv is required or a cable card . without a cable box the digital qam tuner in a tv wont get nothing the tv will either display no signal or a message saying this channel is scrambled and or encrypted. my sanyo lcd tv displays the this channel is encrypted or no signal message on the screen,
Bummer. maybe you can get access to a dish at some point. As long as there is a card in the slot, there are at least a couple channels that come up for free so you could show us the recorder capabilites.
Reminds me of the Mitsubishi machines, they only do DVHS through firewire, so you needed a separate satellite box to do anything. What you could try is playing back a regular DVHS (non Dtheater) tape, perhaps record something on a later unit, you can use a DH30000 or later. With the Mitsubishi machines, you can playback tapes through VLC player on windows XP machines, bit weird but it works. Another suggestion is to get a DVB modulator that support MPEG2, this will allow you to have some fun with it. www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-HD-Modulator-W-Universal-ATSC-DVB-DMBT-ISDB-T-TV-Channel-Output/312097888804?hash=item48aa7bda24:g:I-oAAOSwL1hbfLg2
What a horrible design. I'm sure it was designed specifically for a high end market that would only record off satellite, but there's too few D-VHS machines as is. Super interesting video by the way. I really enjoyed it.
What kind of invention is a " smart card" if it makes things unusable that's no good... is it like the cable card that aparently once was useful for peeps that were a few years older... idk something like that
Techmoan has a digital HD VHS machine. Interesting to think HD widescreen VHS existed. That fan isn't loud. Don't ever hook up a satellite dish to these VCRs!! These are very likely obsolete receivers and the only thing they will do is brick them remotely.
Now I have two comments in one. 1. Who in their rightful minds would make a VCR that requires a special card to operate? No other VCR had that. 2. You think these are not good? Compare this to a Funai VCR. They suck!
These kind of combos were the perfect avenue of having the corp. having control over everything you do. At least with seperate units, you had the possibility of putting a DRM stripper box inbetween and so forth. So with this unit- FAIL
I don’t remember the UK getting this, prob due to licensing and BSkyB dominance of the Satellite network. We got a much better looking version in Champaign with no front transport controls unless you pull down the front door, really cool looking machine, although was huge. Philips also brought out the same one albeit with a modified front panel with a viewing window in the centre.
I suppose this deck must recording DTV with analogue transfert, no directly all digital for copyright The unique digital all comme from digital camcorder with IEE 1394 port( camcorder pictures are not copyrighted)
Das Gerät hätte ich mir 1999 fast gekauft als ich in Amerika war. Aber da er nur NTSC konnte ließ ich es. Da ich ausschließlich in DE lebe. Sonst ein interessantes Gerät.
Me growing up using the VHS format...I simply cannot figure out why would a company like JVC would even agree to creating a VHS machine like this. 🤔 What a disappointment and ripoff this was and I bet purchasing this VHS player cost a small fortune back in the day...smh 🙄
The 5V DC accessory jack is for connecting a multi-dish switch, for having 2 separate satellite dishes on your roof aimed at 2 separate satellites. This was done to receive additional programming in your program guide. Keep in mind that this was the late 1990s; DISH Network was just coming to fruition, and the satellite technology used was called DBS MPEG-2. Nowadays, MPEG-4 is the most common, but back then, the bandwidth on a single satellite was not enough to allocate their entire channel selection. So instead, DISH would uplink ethnic and special-interest programming to secondary satellites at the 61.5° and 148° W orbital slots. That way, regular customers would just need one dish aimed at the main satellite (119°) and customers who wanted ethnic or special-interest programming would require a second dish. Nowadays, it seems like a primitive solution, but that's because modern-day compression technologies allow for more channels to be squeezed onto one satellite. That's the only way they could do it back then. As DISH grew, so did their satellite fleet. DISH kept doing this throughout the mid-to-late 2000's. By then, H.264 was much more prevalent, and they slowly were able to move ethnic programming to their main satellite fleet. Even to this day, your typical dish has multi-LNBs on it for seeing multiple satellites at a time. The receiver then brings all those channels together in the program guide. Pretty interesting stuff, when you look at it.
As someone who grew up with DISH Network, their technology has always fascinated me. I've come across this receiver/VCR a few times on auction sites, and I'm glad someone finally did a video on it, versus me paying out-of-pocket to see one in person. One might say this is a step in the direction towards all-in-one DVRs. After all, people used to always record off the air onto tape. It's amazing to see the transitional point between VHS and hard drive (and eventually high-definition), historically-speaking. Great video, as always!
I very nearly bought one of these for cheap when I was looking to transfer my D-VHS tapes, glad I didn't! Settled on a HM-DHX1 imported from Japan. My channel is dedicated to archiving D-VHS content (shameless self promotion)
Do you have any commercials recorded off of Cartoon Network and TBS from 2000-2004?
Where would you even find D-VHS tapes? All the ones I've found are completely blank.
Do you have any recordings of Lilo & Stitch: the Series, the ADV dub of Evangelion, Cardcaptors (the infamous Nelvana dub of Cardcaptor Sakura), and Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi by any chance?
From the back it looks like they stuck 2 separate devices together!
They really did It..!
Just like some standalone DVHS decks had a fan surface mounted on to the machine.
Well, if these are cheap enough, they may serve as mechanical parts / head drum donor for later, true D-Theatre DVHS decks from JVC. I assume there were some models that used the same mechanism and head drum.
That Direct TV smart card sent a wave of nostalgia. My family used to have DIrect TV satellite, and our satellite box came with an almost exactly similar card that went in a very similar slot. And because I was like 7 or 8 at the time, my parents had to yell at me to NEVER. EVER. take the card out of the slot or it would reset the satellite box.
So naturally I did just that, and got in a lot of trouble. Oh the memories. Still, it seems rather scummy that they'd require a card like that for you to even access basic analog 1980s VCR functionality.
Haha, shouldn't have done that! Yes, without the smartcard, no functionality and a nice error saying "insert smart card." GRRRR! Thanks for sharing.
Typical branded box...
I live in Sweden and my operator wanted me buy their box.
Nothing works without card and its locked to their channels a piece of shit that I returned.
Today using an Linuxbased PVR. That record unencrypted encryoted channels to harddrive...that stream I can watch in computer or even some smart tv 😉 without box or smartcard.
@@voltare2amstereo Yep hate these kind of systems. In Sweden many PVR is this way. One reason I bought my own not branded PVR from Germany. I can record everything for example if my cable company offers temporary Freeview of a channel I can record everything on harddrive and watch it after freeview period or even without an smartcard since its not crypted in anyway 😉
This is also a good way to do if you want to take some temporary subscription. Record all movies etc and watch it later without subscription.
Many people today streame everything from movies to music. But I prefer to have an unencrypted copy.
Its also much cheaper way with music. Often people listen same artists and songs from spotify and pay monthly fee. When you can buy physical format or download mp3 from google music for example to one time fee.
DongDongBells same omg did that at my nanas house XD phew THAT [one time] it fixed itself before getting me in trouble... i messed with it as was fixation type of individual so fixated on it idk why lmao... autism adhd. Aspergurs all are part of it tbh... lol oh the mischief I got into lol... figured it was a credit card back then lol
@@Italodancer it seems that “pay to view” tv may gradually shift to being streamed over the internet
There is one provider where i live which has recently brought out a streaming over the internet service
(Well, technically it isn’t a new service, but until recently you would have needed to buy a special TV in order to use the service, where i live they now offer small streaming boxes that you can plug into an existing TV, and yes, i did sign up for that service, i have 2 of those streaming boxes, the weird thing about the streaming boxes is they have a connector for a rooftop aerial, which isn’t used at all, and they don’t make any mention of that connector existing)
To quote James "Angry Video Game Nerd" Rolfe, "What were they thinking?"
D-VHS is a format that has always been of interest to me, but the fact that these units are tied to Dish Network and the fact that the "quasi" SVHS playback failed makes this is a "VCR to Avoid", indeed.
That fan isn't that loud in your video, it seems. I've got DVD players with louder spindle motors than that!
Also, would have loved to see the diagnostics or the setup modes.
I think my uncle had one of these. The BIT STREAM RECORDING sticker is what stands out in my memory the most.
A couple years ago a guy in my area was selling one of these, without the satellite receiver hardware (the silver colored one), on Facebook marketplace for $80. I hesitated and never acted on it and regret it. I dont think he knew what it was, other than a fancy looking VCR. Even if I didn’t ever buy it to watch DVHS tapes, I could have sold it on EBay and made profit. The fact you couldn’t record to tapes in 1080i through component made it less appealing. Stupid DRM that didn’t want you making perfect copies of DVDs and tv shows
I wonder if that high speed data port in the back under that cover could be used to capture the MPEG-2 video data from whatever program you're watching. Like before conversion to analog but after decrypting.
That's a really cool question. I'd love to know.
Not sure specifically for this device, but depending on how the copy protection bits on the transport stream were set, you could capture the MPEG-2 data from a DVHS tape using firewire. This was actually how a lot of TV piracy was done in the early 2000s.
It's not piracy of you pay for the service and are recording for your personal viewing. It's like using a VCR and recording a TV show then watching it later when there's nothing good on.
Looks like the SVHS tape is playing in VHS mode.
Yes, probably the S-VHS identifier leaf switch has bad contact.
...and it might be the cause of not playing D-Theatre tapes as well! It probably should play at least the ones with SD resolution.
mrnmrn1 Nope, he made a mistake on this video. This unit does not support SQPB at all. It’s only regular VHS or D-VHS.
Good video. I loved the D-VHS format. Had 5 differnet ones- 4 JVC and one Marantz(a rebranded JVC) but never had this one. I only have 1 working one as of now though. The decoder boards went bad in most of them.
Audio Gear Also Philips D-VHS (clone JVC HM-DR10000E D-VHS PAL) and Thomson (D-VHS PAL clone JVC HM-DR1 D-VHS NTSC).
@@pippolupin8715 OK I had not heard of those units. Was only familiar with the JVCS, Marantz and Mitsubishi units. Was a great format while it lasted.
I wonder how a Sky D-VHS recorder would have gone? A lot of the restrictions on this thing are similar to what Sky put on their equipment (card has to be paired to the receiver etc)
I guess Sky obsoleted D-VHS recorders like this with their Sky+ PVR service, which they brought out in 2001.
Sky+ recording features also don't work without a Sky smartcard/valid subscription; cancel your subscription, you can't even access programmes you've already recorded. I would have have hoped that had Sky did a Sky D-VHS recorder, only the Sky specific features would need a Sky subscription and that everything else would just work... but we're talking about Sky here, they're owned by Comcast now, but before then, they were owned by News Corp, so make of that what you will.
And it has D-VHS but not D-Theatre?! D-Theatre was the whole point of D-VHS!
This is very interesting as a pre-cursor to what is normal with online subscription services now. I guess this should be viewed more as a satellite reciever that happens to have (early) digital recording built-in. The smart-card lock-out was common back then for subscription devices before the internet took off, so this is one of those "in-between technologies" things that was doomed to a quick obsolescence. No doubt if adequate internal storage solutions had existed in 1997 this would not have a tape slot at all. It must have been very expensive but maybe ownership was subsidised by which ever subscription service you were using, which might explain why it's features are locked-out from general use like they are? A bit more research in that area would have been cool. This would be a great hacking project to access its full potential in 2019.
Smart-cards could probably have helped out a lot with DIVX players, as they would have served as a stopgap for customers who lacked modems (and for once the servers went down).
Wow, so they took a VCR & strapped a satellite box to the top of it???
Oh man that remote UHF antenna threw me back. We had four StarChoice satellite receivers in the basement and then had the feed of those split across a number of rooms in the house. Those were the days.
I remember buying the WCW Starcade 1997 PPV oh how I miss the 90s!
My mother had one for a short time, it was provided through the cable company. Certain TV channels would not record to D-VHS, due to some encrypted copyright protection. It started having mechanical problems, as it was heavily used by the previous user. She did run a cleaning cassette on it, that made it worse. A day after that, she returned it back to the cable company. They gave her a regular cable box, she connected her old VCR to it, and it worked out better. Though it was analog and recording in EP mode, it still lasted longer.
Yep, you're right. Without the ability to even play back D-Theater Movies this thing is pretty useless. And coming from the inventor of D-VHS, that's such a waste of... EVERYTHING!
at least you can use it as an Aesthetic Door Stop.
wonder if VHS will make a comeback like vinyl? I use my stereo VCR now to record music....just as good if not better than a reel to reel
I love how those RF inputs look to be the typical European standard connectors instead of F connections in the states.
Damn, that's some impressive fan noise. Pentium 4 levels of fan noise!
I should have placed the microphone closer to the fan, apparently my camera adjusted for the noise and limited it. In any case, it was just loud and audible the entire time.
As an old fart in my 50s I have a lot of nostalgia for old technologies, but not for VCRs. Even back when they were the market leading technology, they were a pain in the backside to actually use. I dumped all my VHS tapes in a skip when I moved home in the early 2000s and don't miss the format at all. The first time I downloaded a video from the internet I knew the future had arrived.
Pretty sure there were "alternative" Direct TV cards available, that did not have those pesky limitations on them, or billing either. Wonder if you could find one, and use it on that machine, to get the non VHS side to function. Looks like the head drum is well worn though, with all those streaks on standard playback, or the amplifier is weak, but the digital side is fine as it can still error correct, though I wonder for how long, you would have to look in that diagnostic menu to see if there is any BER information for the VCR side, as opposed to the satellite side.
is there anyone out there that has the original video to the 3M tape? Btw i found that music in the 3M video. it was a Firstcom track called "Back Seat".
For S-VHS playback: try to clean the leaf switch that is under the cassette bay and senses the hole on S-VHS cassettes. Those artifacts mean that it haven't recognised it as an S-VHS cassette, and tried to play it back in ordinary VHS mode. I think, D-VHS cassettes are identified via the same hole, and maybe an other one as well. Cleaning these cassette type identifier leaf switches may make it able to play D-Theatre tapes as well (probably not... But I assume good chances with S-VHS!)
I used to take the switch out and use regular VHS tapes to record S VHS quality, but would not work right in regular VHS VCRs
@@donbest5024 That only works acceptably on very high quality VHS tapes (like TDK E-HG, maybe Chrome-dioxide BASF, but never tried the latter yet), and still a compromise. VHS tape has about 600 Oe coercivity, S-VHS tape has 1000. That's too much difference to be negligible.
S-VHS tape is not snake oil, they have quite different formulation (unlike the D-VHS tapes, since those are the same as S-VHS, AFAIK) Why don't you use an S-VHS ET capable deck? This is the proper solution, it probably will give better quality than true S-VHS recorded on VHS tape (but still only on high quality tapes).
And if you really want to use VHS tapes as S-VHS, I suggest to drill the cassettes, and leave the switch alone. What happens if you play a VHS recording with the S-VHS sensing switch defeated, so the deck thinks it's an S-VHS tape? I've either never tried that, or I don't remember. I've drilled used VHS tapes to try them as S-VHS, so almost sure I've tried to play the VHS recording in S-VHS mode, but it was many years ago and I don't remember the result.
DVHS tapes have an additional detection hole on the bottom. They also have the SVHS detection hole for backwards compatibility.
@@NJRoadfan Maybe not just for backwards compatibility, but D-VHS decks are checking both holes? I don't know. But it seems tape formulation is the same between D-VHS and S-VHS cassettes, so why they made a new standard for it? Probably just for sell them more expensive. If that was the case, they've digged the grave for D-VHS from the beginning. S-VHS tapes were already too expensive, preventing S-VHS from becoming mainstream. Making specific D-VHS cassettes just for sell them even more expensive was not too wise of an idea. Maybe the tape lenght is different? But if that's the case, they still shouldn't have prevented recording in D-VHS format on S-VHS tapes by that extra ID hole.
I still have some DVHS recordings from my HD DirecTV / D-VHS setup. I had to have a PC going all the time for it to work. Not sure what I even did that but it did work.
I don’t remember, wasn’t DVR around the corner when this was released?
You're right. DVRs were introduced in the early to mid 90s. This was an obvious attempt to keep people from switching to that format. When DVR recording machines finally came out, they blew VHS out of the water, so much so that videotapes were essentially gone by the early to mid 2000s (if my memory serves me correct, you could still rent VHS tapes until about 2003-2005 at Blockbuster). I still have my VHS to DVD burner that I got in the late 90s-early 2000s, and it still works.
DVR just a machine with a built in Hard Drive usually 120GB
@@7JANEWAY meanwhile I was stuck recording VHS over the air even after we finally got an OTA digital box for Freeview.
i wonder if there is a Canadian bell expressvu version of this since they used alot of hand me down equipment from direct tv. if u had direct tv would it even work anymore i know up here bell switched all there stuff to mpeg4 a couple years back so any old boxes that only worked on mpeg2 don't even work anymore.
Is the cooling fan in this VCR as loud as the early PlayStation 2 cooling fan?
so,if my dog eats smartcards, this pile of iron becomes a useless trash??????
Would the high-speed data port be a firewire connector? I think some of the later D-VHS decks had them. _ Oh it's a full card-edge expansion slot, saw the rest of the video.
This JVC’s vcr it play videocassette VHS, S-VHS, D-VHS recorded with play speed SP and EP also SLP and VHS-C and S-VHS-C with adaptor. Didn’t play possible speed LP and cassettes W-VHS recorded (like cassette Digital-S).
Looked at the manual, says it does not have any form of SVHS playback.
Fabulous old tech, we didn't really get DVHS in the UK but amazing the blank tapes were sold here. I have several still sealed TDK pro DVHS tapes complete with beautiful pro boxes.... 😎😎😎
JVC sold one DVHS deck in PAL regions. It really didn't catch on.
I have a late 90's JVC VHS that I am happy with due to the simple design inside of the tape mechanism. I would like a mid to late 80's VCR but my last one had gearing problems that could not be fixed. Any suggestions on one of that era that is big with allot of buttons I don't need type?
Wow JVC really nobbled this. In the UK, only two D-VHS machines were sold and they wouldn't even play each other's tapes. The format was doomed to fail from the start. Makes Beta look like a runaway success. Actually Beta was because it spawned Betacam including DigiBeta and HDCAM, so Beta derived professional formats made it into the HD age and sold in large numbers, whereas VHS derived professional formats all bombed.
I'll be honest, I barely heard that fan. Stupid idea, though, needing a smart card to even operate the recorder. Was the unit supplied by the satellite TV company to the consumer in a kind of hire per use package? Do you need the smart card to even watch pre-recorded VHS tapes? That deck mechanism looks really cheap and nasty, very plasticky
Yes, you need the smart card to even watch pre-recorded VHS tapes!!! UGH!!!
@@databits that's ridiculous, such a crappy machine
Even if you got this hooked up to a Dish Network satellite dish, the modulation they use now is 8PSK, not the QPSK that was used with their original MPEG-2. So it wouldn't even lock to any signal now. Plus most of dish network is now using H.264/MPEG-4, so the MPEG-2 decoding is useless. Also, I believe just as it states on the front, it's recording the bit-stream directly onto tape with no decoding, just as it came down from the satellite. You then play back and the internal IRD decodes it like a satellite signal, except it's coming form a tape source. So since the smart card is now hopelessly out of date, I don't think it would even decode an old recording. Or any recordings made after the card last had it's keys updated, but they've stopped using that smart card for a long time now.
I'm not sure how this is considered a D-VHS deck, since it's only recording a proprietary bit-stream that no other D-VHS deck could decode or play back. I guess the technology behind it is D-VHS, (per the JVC deck) but I believe D-VHS actually recorded MPEG-2 directly to tape, so you could fast forward and rewind with picture and all. Still frame, slow mo, frame advance etc.
I would be curious for those who had this deck with Dish Network, could you fast forward and reverse and see a picture, or did you have to wait for the IRD to lock into the signal off the tape? Like you were changing transponders? Interesting bit of hybrid technology that's completely useless now..
The expansion connector looks like a PCI connector
I'm glad my parent's TV recording box I got for my parents doesn't have any ridiculous restrictions on it
although sadly where I live in the world you have to pay a "TV tax" in order to legally watch (or record) ANY live TV, or to use the [BBC] catchup site or app
thankfully all the other catchup sites and apps no longer require paying the "TV tax" to use
Thank Arceus that we Americans do not have a 'TV tax' like you do though. It's such a stupid and idiotic law that I honesty wonder why anyone thought it was ever a good idea to begin with! And besides, TV (for the most part) is so terrible these days. Seemingly all it is these days is unfunny sitcoms, bad revivals/adaptations of beloved IPs, sappy Hallmark movies, melodramatic Lifetime movies, boring news, trash political propaganda, overly childish cartoons, and the dreadfulness that is the vast majority of reality TV.
@@Astolfo2001 All the money from the “TV tax” (or as the [BBC] call it, a “TV licence”) goes directly to the [BBC]
And the government are currently trying to scrap the “TV tax”
As you may expect, there is backlash from the [BBC], but there is (sadly) also backlash from some members of the public
I seriously hope that one of 2 things happen: either the government ignore the backlash, or there is a public vote
@@pineappleroad That still doesn't excuse it from being scummy though.
I'd try to hook it up to a dish to see if there is any software update that would unlock some features. It is unlikely, but it's worth the shot.
after a while they disable the reciever and force you to get an updated reciever.
back in the late 90s maybe even 2000 i help a neighbor put up a brandnew direct tv dish it was one of those self install kits that came with the dish lnb some coaxial cable the reciever and the smart card and remote and compass it was a whole complete kit you could buy he got his from radioshack .
got all setup and working after calling direct tv to activate the smart card .
he had his service for less then 4 hours and a error message poped up and said smart card disabled and invalid
i know how could this be ?
well direct tv had took upon them selves to do some updates/upgrades to their smart card system which required getting a new smart card or you had no service.
and no the rep on the phone never said anything about this.
he called customer service and said wtf .
and was told about the smartcard updates and such and as you guessed it he wasnt happy and he wasnt the only customer either .
what really upset him is he was placed on a waiting list to get a new card sent via usps. in the good ole snail mail.
and couldnt give a time frame as to when he would get the new card .
and that they where not going to put his account on hold or give any discounts they wanted him to pay for service he couldnt get without a new card .it was almost 2weeks that went by until the new card arrived .
I still think it's good you go these even though you can't record, thanks for showing them! Too bad about that horrible high-band luma demodulation though. Can't help but wonder if that's an oscillator FM problem; of course it could be one or more bad caps or power supply voltage or other problem.
I just liked that dvhs compatibility legislation meant I could hook up a computer to the cable box over FireWire for a few years.
i had a philips vcr which produced less noise during super high speed rewind.
where can i get the smart card for this?
eBay!
Finally! Its been awhile Brad! :D
I've been hiding! :P
I thought those only stored dish network sat signal, not actually encode video to digital.
Even without a satellite subscription could this unit still pick up over-the-air signals with an antenna?
Analog only tuner, so a converter would be necessary.
DirecTV had a compatible DVHS deck, too, but it was connected to a Samsung receiver via FireWire.
Honestly had no clue DVHS ever made it stateside, thought it was Japan only
D-VHS was not a popular format, only a few films were released on D-VHS not many and it was expensive to manufacture and was a disaster for JVC.
Also did Comcast or any other cable provider offer a similar device for use with cable TV instead of satellite?
No such device existed. Cable boxes in the US were required to have Firewire ports per the FCC which can interface with DVHS decks.
yes infact comcast still does its called a cable card its a pcmcia type of card though .
if you get a tv that can take a cable card and are in a comcast serverd area you can rent the card install it in your tv and youll get eveything in the channel packages your subscribed too
however ondemand wont work.
you can get a device called the hd homerun pro which accepts the cable card and use that and make your own dvr with a computer or a nas aka network attached storage . as the homerun pro connects to your home network .
the older motorola cable boxes had provisions for cards in them on the rear under a small cover. they also had a phone jack on them too. and the phone line had to be hooked up or after a week or so the box would shutdown and customer service had to be called to reactiveate the box . this was before the cable modems in the boxes where bidirectional like today.
and the cable system was hybrid analog and digital .
now everythings digital and encrypted and scrambled so either a cable box for each tv is required or a cable card .
without a cable box the digital qam tuner in a tv wont get nothing the tv will either display no signal or a message saying this channel is scrambled and or encrypted. my sanyo lcd tv displays the this channel is encrypted or no signal message on the screen,
Thanks you helped me avoid a bad purchase!
What's so bad about a VCR-Satelite combo?
I was hoping we'd get to see some DVHS samples
the drive mechanics is surprisingly cheap. so many flimsy plastic parts where you had cast metal 10 years before in JVC chassis.
D-VHS players use S-VHS technology, so why wouldn’t it be able to natively record S-VHS?
Bummer. maybe you can get access to a dish at some point. As long as there is a card in the slot, there are at least a couple channels that come up for free so you could show us the recorder capabilites.
D-VHS was a brilliant idea that suffered from awful execution. If JVC weren't so afraid of Hollywood, then I think it would've succeeded more.
Reminds me of the Mitsubishi machines, they only do DVHS through firewire, so you needed a separate satellite box to do anything. What you could try is playing back a regular DVHS (non Dtheater) tape, perhaps record something on a later unit, you can use a DH30000 or later. With the Mitsubishi machines, you can playback tapes through VLC player on windows XP machines, bit weird but it works. Another suggestion is to get a DVB modulator that support MPEG2, this will allow you to have some fun with it. www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-HD-Modulator-W-Universal-ATSC-DVB-DMBT-ISDB-T-TV-Channel-Output/312097888804?hash=item48aa7bda24:g:I-oAAOSwL1hbfLg2
this is something I look at a old paper of dish receivers I just want to now the time line of dish.
What a horrible design. I'm sure it was designed specifically for a high end market that would only record off satellite, but there's too few D-VHS machines as is. Super interesting video by the way. I really enjoyed it.
HDML? Was that supposed to be HDMI by any chance?
the company didn't want to pay licensing fees
No, its a video capture device. Thanks for asking.
Very interesting video. I’ve never seen a vcr satellite receiver before. Probably never had them in England.
What kind of invention is a " smart card" if it makes things unusable that's no good... is it like the cable card that aparently once was useful for peeps that were a few years older... idk something like that
Techmoan has a digital HD VHS machine. Interesting to think HD widescreen VHS existed.
That fan isn't loud.
Don't ever hook up a satellite dish to these VCRs!! These are very likely obsolete receivers and the only thing they will do is brick them remotely.
Videocassettes of logo D-Theater 1080p with D-VHS compatibile.
Now I have two comments in one.
1. Who in their rightful minds would make a VCR that requires a special card to operate? No other VCR had that.
2. You think these are not good? Compare this to a Funai VCR. They suck!
I had a Funai (Emerson) VCR back in high school. Worked well up until it broke (which was about 5 years, IIRC).
Hey VCR King! If you find one these, as long as the smartcard is ALREADY paired to it, you can use the VCR, but only analog recording.
5 years see now that's a short lifespan for a VCR. I've seen a lot that lasted for over 20 years.
Maybe. But talk about getting ripped off.
Nagravision is also used by Virgin Media for program control.
WTF @ 8:01 DVD (MPG2) better quality than Mini DV... No Way, Mini DV was/is an Uncompressed format vs the Compressed MPG2 format
MiniDV is _not_ an uncompressed format. It uses a MJPEG-like compression. Only the audio is uncompressed.
DV/MiniDV is short compressed video SD with format DCT. Audio format PCM for DV is best same CD/DAT.
Wrong. DV uses lossy compression.
These kind of combos were the perfect avenue of having the corp. having control over everything you do. At least with seperate units, you had the possibility of putting a DRM stripper box inbetween and so forth.
So with this unit- FAIL
never seen anything like it the first PVR I got was a sky+ box with 40gb hdd.
The REAL VCR To Avoid: Funai DV220FX5! (and clones)
Nigel Montezuma avoid anything funai
I don’t remember the UK getting this, prob due to licensing and BSkyB dominance of the Satellite network. We got a much better looking version in Champaign with no front transport controls unless you pull down the front door, really cool looking machine, although was huge. Philips also brought out the same one albeit with a modified front panel with a viewing window in the centre.
lol "HDML" isn't the brand name, it's to avoid HDMI licensing fees.
HDMI didn't exist in '97...
@@BilisNegra its a modern capture device
I suppose this deck must recording DTV with analogue transfert, no directly all digital for copyright
The unique digital all comme from digital camcorder with IEE 1394 port( camcorder pictures are not copyrighted)
Those units need hacked to not need those cards.
I thought there were chinese cards for this problem 🤔
Was I the only one who couldn't hear the fan?
But it's got MPEG2 BIT STREAM RECORDING!!!
I just bought one of these for $1 I can't figure out how to record Netflix shows
So much technology and effort for a crappy 480i picture.
Are you trying to sell me your VCR? based off your spec sheet Lool
Nope, both are already sold.
Mail?
That's an HU card! They can be cracked and reprogrammed, I used to do it when I was a kid.
Das Gerät hätte ich mir 1999 fast gekauft als ich in Amerika war.
Aber da er nur NTSC konnte ließ ich es.
Da ich ausschließlich in DE lebe.
Sonst ein interessantes Gerät.
Anyone remember when people was hacking the directv football cards to get free satellite? lol
I bet this one dish failed ideals that was not out there for very long needs smart card to play vhs tapes
I use to have a remote similar to yours kinda
AC-3 is not 5.1
Me growing up using the VHS format...I simply cannot figure out why would a company like JVC would even agree to creating a VHS machine like this. 🤔 What a disappointment and ripoff this was and I bet purchasing this VHS player cost a small fortune back in the day...smh 🙄
Why this smart card WTF?! Good word
"and of course Cancel"
Pay per view is still a thing
What a POS! No wonder it failed. It can't even play DVSH videos? That sucks. I guess it would be OK if you had Dish Network.
Anyone get a Dtv love letter in the mail?
What a stupid concept. If you loose the card, or it gets damaged, you can't use the VCR!
Exactly!
wait DVHS Predated Blu ray by a few years. what?a smart card that is not the same as the unit is a paperweight. curse you hollywood.
Wow Smartcard Pairing 1997