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Flat Transfer VHS / S-VHS so it can be corrected in the Digital Realm…
My RS-422 videotape editing suite from the 1990s provided me with many frame accurate editing techniques that I cannot replicate in the Non linear world. However, the ability to talk to the non-linear world via RS-422 could prove advantageous for a myriad of reasons when it comes to Tape to Digital processes.
VHS / S-VHS transfers to the digital realm could benefit if tapes could be stopped, color and audio adjusted during playback, then locked with a digital record device so a digitally corrected master could be created that would be identical in running time to the original VHS / S-VHS source.
Unlike other videotape formats such as Betacam sp or Digital 8mm, the VHS format’s playback quality can actually be enhanced in higher end RS-422 machines so the real time playback signal hitting the digital realm would already be remarkably improved. This could result in not requiring super high resolution codecs because the original VHS / S-VHS tapes were transferred “flat”.
I have personally been able to create Betacam sp edit masters from VHS and S-VHS source masters that look remarkably better than the original VHS / S-VHS played back flat.
However, since it is 2023, does anyone know of a way to slave together an RS-422 protocol machine with a digital hard drive recorder that also uses RS-422 protocol, the key issue being the digital hard drive recorder would need to work exactly as a videotape RS-422 edit recorder would work, which means pre-view edit, settable pre-roll, insert and assemble edit, one or both audio channel insert, post roll, video insert edit on off during a preview edit, time-code insert.
While NLE editing systems might exist that do to some degree can use RS-422 they probably do not do all the tasks mentioned above.
Being forced to record the transfer to an NLD still means the signal is being unnecessarily processed a second time so that it conforms to the NLE system being used.
My concept is the source VHS / S-VHS tape that is being corrected as the tape is playing, would be re-captured digitally as a raw, hi quality digital signal that could then be accessed as needed by any NLE system.
I recall digital hard drive RS-422 recorders being introduced in the late 1990s, but, that would mean they were not present day HD quality.
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1 Reply
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The goal is to be able to re-archive VHS and S-VHS without being software dependent, but rather hardware / embedded chip protocols so there is no worry that the product being used one day no longer works.
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