No market for S-VHS

[yamahaha]

I am a part time picker. An old fellow I know was one of those wedding video guys for years in the 80s and 90's. He had me over as he wants to sell all his gear.

I bought a few classic VCR's from him but the pro S-VHS gear ... I really didn't know what I would do with it. This guy spent thousands on this stuff I know. He has a few Cameras, playback decks, editing deck about 10 VCR's .... slide projectors, you know the ones that took pictures of negatives to place into the videos.

I don't like to break an old guys heart but I don't know anyone that uses any of this anymore.

I even called 2 film schools who told me they gave away all their old school stuff years ago. As in 10 years ago.

The short of this long wind is ... does anyone even collect anything but the good prosumer decks? I am hoping to get him taking a look at these answers because he is still in denial although he totally wants all this stuff out of the house. From what I can tell, its like my 486 computers. They were a few grand each at the time but worthless today.

[Dude111]

Welcome to Videokarma

I wouldnt like S-VHS I dont think...... I like reg VHS,it is just like you what you would experience from analogue cable and Its beautiful... (Its even NICER than analogue cable in a couple ways)

[Electronic M]

I used to grab S-VHS and S-VHS-ET decks from the thrifts for 3-10$ (cheaper than tape if you can't buy individual ones) three to five years ago. Back then I still time-shifted and archived on S-VHS-ET machines. I still keep the machines hooked up and have the tapes I made, but I don't use them much. Some decks still fetch decent money on ebay, and if he wants the most he can get out of them then ebay is the only way to go....Still there is no way he'll get even half the money he put in back even if he does well.

I would not trash the gear as it still has value, and is going to get harder to find as time goes on...Assuming it all still works.

[Ed in Tx]

Not sure why anyone wouldn't like S-VHS other than maybe just not aware of what it is/was. It's like VHS except it has superior horizontal resolution (230 lines std VHS vs 400 lines S-VHS) you can see on most any TV, much closer to actual broadcast quality. The S-VHS machines will play standard VHS just fine, sometimes better, and will have S-Video out to send cleaner separated Y-C video to a lot of 1987-88 and newer year model TVs that had S-Video inputs.

I got my first one a Panasonic in 1988 to record the picture quality I was getting on my big satellite dish. The old standard VHS just didn't cut it anymore. I have several hundred S-VHS tapes I recorded during about a 10 year period mostly off satellite. But I digress..

[Chip Chester]

I've got 8 or 10 Panasonic 7750's that are in climate-controlled storage waiting for a VHS resurgence similar to the recent vinyl bump. Here's hoping...

Chip

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by Chip Chester

I've got 8 or 10 Panasonic 7750's that are in climate-controlled storage waiting for a VHS resurgence similar to the recent vinyl bump. Here's hoping...

Chip

The pinnacle, apex, zenith of S-VHS editing machines from Panasonic.

[Ed in Tx]

You can get a case of 10 H471S tapes shipped to your door for a little over $6 ea ( * no affiliation! *) ... get 'em while you can! THE best.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-10-Ne...item4627dad8de

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

Not sure why anyone wouldn't like S-VHS other than maybe just not aware of what it is/was. It's like VHS except it has superior horizontal resolution (230 lines std VHS vs 400 lines S-VHS) you can see on most any TV, much closer to actual broadcast quality. The S-VHS machines will play standard VHS just fine, sometimes better, and will have S-Video out to send cleaner separated Y-C video to a lot of 1987-88 and newer year model TVs that had S-Video inputs.

I got my first one a Panasonic in 1988 to record the picture quality I was getting on my big satellite dish. The old standard VHS just didn't cut it anymore. I have several hundred S-VHS tapes I recorded during about a 10 year period mostly off satellite. But I digress..

I feel, they were superior as well. I found the tapes too expensive.
The consumer grade S-VHS will record on a non-S tape, at standard resolution. I even had a newer VCR, that played back S-VHS tapes, but wasn't an S-VHS machine.

[Ed in Tx]

Last time I bought a case of Fuji S-VHS H471S Pro tapes they were a little over $5 a piece. I consider that a bargain. Especially when I clearly recall paying $25 for a blank RCA T120 tape when I got my first VCR, and waiting in line at 4 AM to buy Scotch T120s at a 24 hour sale for a mere $9.99 ea! About 1981-82 was the first time I saw blank tapes for less than $10 ea.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

Last time I bought a case of Fuji S-VHS H471S Pro tapes they were a little over $5 a piece. I consider that a bargain. Especially when I clearly recall paying $25 for a blank RCA T120 tape when I got my first VCR, and waiting in line at 4 AM to buy Scotch T120s at a 24 hour sale for a mere $9.99 ea! About 1981-82 was the first time I saw blank tapes for less than $10 ea.

That's a long time ago! I bought my first VCR, January 1982. I bought two tapes from the same dealer for $14.00 each. The were GTE branded with a Panasonic part number, which were made by TDK. Then I bought a couple of Memorex. Very poor compared to the GTE's.
Bad habits die hard. I just bought a mess of VHS tapes, at two different thrift stores.

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I feel, they were superior as well. I found the tapes too expensive.
The consumer grade S-VHS will record on a non-S tape, at standard resolution. I even had a newer VCR, that played back S-VHS tapes, but wasn't an S-VHS machine.

Yep they tried "Quasi" S-VHS playback on some later standard machines to make them compatible with S-VHS recordings. The feature supposedly a bigger deal in Japan where pre-recorded stuff was available in S-VHS. Never saw a commercial S-VHS pre-recorded movie or anything else myself.

An interesting thing unknown to most because the tapes were "expensive" was how a S-VHS tape could make a visible improvement in the Rec-PB quality of a standard VHS machine. It would play back with higher level from the heads through the head amplifier. Measurable at the "RF" test point where tape path alignments are monitored too. S-VHS tapes used to record on a standard VHS would playback several dB higher signal at the RF output from the head amp, and since it is an FM recording process the higher the signal the quieter and less noise in the end result. Less noise so finer picture details could be seen.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

Never saw a commercial S-VHS pre-recorded movie or anything else myself.

There were some, and one mail-order company (Super Source Video) specialized in Super-VHS prerecorded tapes in the late 1980s. They had ads in the back of Video magazine and others.

[dr.ido]

I got $100 for my Panasonic AG-7750 when I sold it a few months ago. I let it go when I realised I'd probably put less than 10 hours on it since I got it (used). The buyer had tapes he wanted to transfer - which is probably the only (non collector) market for these now.

I'd originally bought it capture my VHS collection, but lost interest in the project when I found existing downloads for most it. Even playing back tapes recorded on a crappy $99 funai VCR they looked better than when played on decent consumer VCRs.

[Chip Chester]

I was introduced to the 7750 back when it first came out ($5000). I was tangentially involved in a project to send personalized political tapes to individual potential donors. Create the video, mass duplicate them, then cut in personalized intros and closes to the mass-dubbed tapes, using 7750's and Amiga computers. They stood up well.

Fast-forward a few years and I needed good-performing, timecode-capable, RS-422-controlled decks, also with good manual shuttle/jog capabilities. I had maybe five workstations worth, at two decks per workstation, going for 6 or 8 years. Worst failure experienced was one of them got a little weak on rewind. No electronic issues at all. None of them ever ate a tape -- and I was given some pretty cheap tape to work with sometimes. Better reliability than my BVW-75s and BVU-800 -- and those things are built like tanks.

Now I could do the customization project on my phone. And I haven't turned on any of those decks in two years.

Chip

[Electronic M]

I understand YOU won't buy it, You are only looking for big profit...

I do buy stuff like this, but I keep my search local since there is plenty of local stuff to be had, and shipping on one thing could eat the budget of the next. Also just because I'm not knocking on every door looking for them does not mean I'm not looking. I've got 6 S-VHS machines, and while I'd like to find and compare some other brands and models on the cheap, is it worth my time to tear heaven and earth apart broadening my search for something that already has representation in my collection?...
There are a wide variety of things that I'd like to have or get more of, but if I tried to find every single one of each thing still in existence then I'd need to buy at least one warehouse to store it all. I get enough as it is by letting the stuff find me. I try to save as much as I can even if it is only for parts.
I only go out of my way when I don't have an example of something, want it bad enough, and don't think one will just come to me.

I have been to many museums, including the early television museum in Ohio...If I've heard of a good museum and am in the area then I visit it.

To use something vintage day to day you have to MAKE a use for it.
My AV rack consists of the following video gear: S-VHS, Betamax, U-matic, EIAJ VTRs, Hi8 professional VTR, CED selectavision video discplayer, Laserdisc, DVD decks, DVR, DTV box (for when cable is out), and a computer used to play videos streamed or downloaded from the net...My audio rack consists of a record player, 2 reel-to-reel players (one quadrophonic), 2 8-track decks (one quadrophonic the other dolby), a cassette deck, CD/SACD player, reverbs, equalizer, 3 different amps (including a quadraphonic tube OTL I designed and built mostly out of parts from my junk piles).
And while about half of my video gear, and an eighth of my audio gear gets used much less than daily the rest gets plenty of use. And while I could just digitize all my media and dump most of my gear that would ruin a good portion of the enjoyment I get out of my media, my gear, and mark the death of my soul as an engineer.

I use a 1940's Silvertone radio on weekdays when I get home before my favorite talk show host is done with his show, for about 5 years now over 90% of my TV watching hours are spent in front a 1964 Silvertone round screen color TV, and a 1971 tube/solid state hybrid Zenith (I like the SD on CRT better than anything shown on a flat panel), me and a friend exchange reel tapes of our favorite records, and the list goes on and on. I use the S-VHS units mainly for watching tapes I made on them, 0.50$ movies/shows from the thrifts, and occasionally when I'm going on vacation and can't record all the shows I want on my newer equipment.

Old equipment is only useless when it breaks or you find an excuse to stop using it...If you want to use it bad enough you WILL find a purpose to use it.