22-07-2016, 08:16 PM
The basic picture quality of VHS (and Betamax for that matter) was poor but it was the best that could be done at the time for a reasonable cost. The public didn't seem to mind. SVHS was an improvement but never took off in a big way. VHS sound was greatly improved later.
DVD started with a much better picture quality, provided the programme makers didn't push the data compression too hard. DVD does have downsides. The lifetime of recordable discs is poor, much worse than typical VHS tapes where even old tapes are still usually playable. The whole business of regional coding and forcing you to sit through copyright notices did nothing to endear the format to users.
Dubbing VHS to DVD is fine for viewing but not for archiving. Ordinary "spinning rust" hard drives are cheap and reliable. A 1TB HDD will hold the equivalent of over 200 DVDs for under £50. What's more you can clone it with ease to give extra backup.
DVD started with a much better picture quality, provided the programme makers didn't push the data compression too hard. DVD does have downsides. The lifetime of recordable discs is poor, much worse than typical VHS tapes where even old tapes are still usually playable. The whole business of regional coding and forcing you to sit through copyright notices did nothing to endear the format to users.
Dubbing VHS to DVD is fine for viewing but not for archiving. Ordinary "spinning rust" hard drives are cheap and reliable. A 1TB HDD will hold the equivalent of over 200 DVDs for under £50. What's more you can clone it with ease to give extra backup.
www.borinsky.co.uk Jeffrey Borinsky www.becg.tv
