Hi-Fi VHS - The "Poor Man's" Reel To Reel? 

Until cheap digital recording became available in the mid 2000's, LP Hi-Fi VHS was how many commercial radio stations would archive their output for the mandated 42 days required by the Radio Authority. I still have many of our old tapes and even at LP, providing the machine wasn't hitting its limiter, the quality is actually very good.

Once Used a HIFI VHS deck to record a Jazz Concert at "The Rhythmic Club" Islington. I basically did this by asking the in house PA engineer to give me an output feed from his desk and then fed this into the line inputs of my HIFI VHS deck. This actually work really well. Very nice recording which I later mastered to DAT and CD back home.

This was a well kept secret that I shared with a lot of people when I was into this format. I used to record music for parties, 4 hours of music on one cassette and let it play. Of course this was days before CD changers. On top of that, the quality was nearly as clean as digital, depending on the source. Back when everyone was striving to get digital quality music on cassette, I was recording everything I had on VHS cassettes. It was a mostly a convenience factor along with high quality audio. I used to call it my poor man's DAT, even though it is an analog recording, but a damn good one. I could not afford a DAT in the late 80s when they slowly started to get released after the RIAA Sony thing resolved. Anyway, I still have several cassettes with music on them and a few HiFi VCRs. I still play them today, even though I have a real DAT. I still think these VCRs are great and way less finicky than a DAT. One thing I did test was the quality difference between SP, EP and SLP. Aside from losing hours of recording time, I did not hear a enough of a significant difference in the quality to record at a higher tape speed. Could just be my subjective opinion though.

Incredibly low wow and flutter in VHS, no azimuth settings, no speed issues. HiFi VHS is the best sounding analog format

VHS Hi-Fi is the ultimate analog audio format, accessible to all. No calibration needed, no bias adjustments, no noise reduction debates, no azimuth blues and absolutely no wow&flutter... Just high quality analog 20-20KHz bliss, and that's Hi-Fi! For vinyl recordings archive, home studio rehearsals, long play streaming selectas, or even as mixtapes masters. VHS-Hi-Fi is so good and soooo cheap today... Really sounds astonishing, great dinamics (>90db). An experience that any real tape head must enjoy. Cheers 🇵🇹

Since I've used VHS quite a bit for two channel analog audio, here's a nugget of information regarding the EP/SLP speed. The bottom line is, the sound quality itself is basically the same. There is little if any difference. However, tracking is fussier. In audio tapes recorded at that speed, a bit of tracking adjustment on other VCRs is normal. At SP it is much more forgiving.

Brings back memories, used to have a couple of VHS HIFI tapes with music for parties, I think it was up to 8 hours in LP mode and it was still pretty good quality.

Watch ebay prices skyrocket due to the techmoan effect

I’ve used VHS for audio since the 90’s and just now it’s starting to come up on the internet.

Please don't bin the fried Panasonic VCR. Those NV-70s are great decks, definitely worth a repair. If you are not interested in reparing it or get it gepaired, give it to someone who is interested.

My VHs tapes from 1991 play today just as good as they ever did in 1991...

What you did not mention was that VHS HiFi started the whole home cinema craze. Prerecorded cassettes came out with HiFi tracks so films had superb audio. Dolby noticed this and as many releases on VHS had the surround info embedded in the two HiFi tracks, they brought out a 'Dolby surround' chip, later followed by a Dolby prologic' one, for amp manufacturers to incorporate into units, creating the first AV amps. I was a teenager at the time and took advantage of this development, and boy, was it fun!

I used to use VHS tapes to record from the radio too.

The first album that the band Primus released in 1989, "Suck on This", was a live album that was recorded on-location (at the Berkeley Square club in Berkeley, CA) to a Tascam Portastudio 388 (8 tracks on 1/4" open-reel tape), and mixed down to 2-channel stereo on--you guessed it--Hi-Fi VHS, with the LP and CD releases mastered from it. The album sounds pretty good overall.

Yes, the early Hi-Fi VHS machines even had a Simulcast or 'Radio Record' mode that would let you feed-in stereo audio from a tuner, and then overlay it with the recorded picture (for example, Last Night Of The Proms with audio from Radio 3, or Top Of The Pops with audio from Radio 1). This was in the few years before the dawn of NICAM Digital Stereo, so recordings would usually be in mono. PS: Your NV-F70 probably has a dodgy low value start-up cap in the primary of the power supply (a common fault), or a shorted zener protection diode caused, again, by leaky capacitors drifting in value. Usually quite an easy fix in the right hands..

I used to use Hi-Fi VHS for all my cassette 4 track , two channel master mixdowns from my Fostex X-15 and later a Tascam. Thanks, Tony!

A lot of us did this back in the day. We would record up to six hours of music on these then let play during at cookout or Church gatherings. All you needed was a VHS HiFi system and you were ready to go. I still have three VHS tapes with 18 hours of Music on them. This was my original "External Drive" for Music storage.

Years ago the only way I could get a recording of the long version of Deep Forest's "While The Earth Sleeps" (with Peter Gabriel) was from the end credits of the film it was made for - Strange Days (Ralph Feinnes and Angela Basset) so I recorded it from the VHS over to my tape deck and was blown away at how clear and good the source was. Was pretty much CD quality to my untrained ears...

I used my Mitsubishi Hi-Fi VHS to record the top 102 songs of the year from the radio on a six hour tape with indexing. If I remember correctly the SNR was better than most CD players of the day.

VHS HiFi has some dynamic compression issues, but otherwise sounds good. It also can have audible buzz, caused both by crosstalk from the video sync, and from the head switching of the HiFi audio heads. Non of these issues were very audible in this experiment, although the very beginning showed a bit of the dynamic compression issue.

Back in the old days, I used VHS hifi for copying CD audio. Had audio cassette decks but they couldn't match CD quality. But VHS hifi could come very close. And the VCRs and tapes were cheap, compared to DAT which nobody I knew could afford. It worked resonably well for home use. The main problem was having to play the CD into the VCR in real time. It took hours to record and hours to play it back. Nowadays, the problem is that I don't have a working VCR any more. Last time I moved, nearly all my VHS video and the VHS audio went to the landfill. Sad times.

I am using HiFi VHS to record rare LPs my friends giving me to listen

For those interested: make sure you get a recorder with RCA in- and outputs (for line in and out), then it's very easy to incorporate in a normal hifi-setup, or to connect to a mixer. And no need to worry about any noise reduction! Looking back to living in Amsterdam in the 90s, I used a SONY SLV-E80 to record nighttime radio shows (mostly ambient house), relistened and indeed: re-recorded on regular compact cassette. The manual stated 80 Db signal-to-noise ratio, which was hard to match on a cassette deck. But... a midclass SONY cassettedeck cost a third of that videorecorder... Now I have recently bought a SONY SLV-E90 (which adds useless editing options, but also a display-upgrade and manual setting of recording levels) and I will indeed use it to record record playing sessions (I'm not saying I DJ :-) ) in a local restaurant. Used to do it with cassettes, but had to keep my eye on those, as the sessions are 6 hours long. On long play I will only need one tape! Prices in The Netherlands for a Hi-Fi unit are 30-50 euros, and upwards for higher spec JVC/Panasonic/Sony. So, in short: I didn't care about the all-talk video, I can totally relate!

I remember once in the days of VHS that our families favorite radio station was having all day telethon charity fundraiser, so I recorded a continuous six hours of it by connecting the output of the radio to the sound input of the VCR set to SLP.

Thanks man, I saw your video just hours before I was set to buy a reel to reel recorder and you saved me $250 !!!

Used to run a mobile disco in the 80’s. We used a service called video pool that produced vhs tapes of all the current music on a monthly basis. Used 2x hifi videos and tv’s. Sound quality through the pa was brilliant.

I still love VHS. There's nothing quite like a 1980s episode of Inspector Morse on VHS, seeing all the old cars and quiet streets. There's just something about the lack of colour and gloss I like too. Never recorded audio with one but will have to have a go now

The evolution of VHS was pretty amazing. The first one my family owned was a toploader bought around 1981 and the earliest ones even had giant chunk-chunk tuners in them. They weighed like 50 pounds and there were thousands of parts in them. The last ones were so light that pushing in the tape would make them slide across your entertainment center and they were better in every way to the first ones. They went from a thousand 1975 dollars to 49 1998 dollars. I have a mitsubishi from the early 2000s that has auto-biasing and SVHS plus q-svhs that does outstanding high-res video on the cheapest oldest tapes I have. It was only like 150 dollars. The audio quality is outstanding too.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I used a Panasonic Hi-Fi VHS machine to record orchestral concerts from FM radio and I thought the sound quality was outstanding.

Back around 1985, I used VHS-HiFi to record my dad's and friends' CDs. I used SLP (6-hour) mode. I played those tapes MANY times with NO degradation!

Oh yeah, I did this all the time. The tape speed on a casette is 1 7/8 ips. With the helical scan of the VHS, the tape writing speed was something like 19 FEET per second. The sound was pretty amazing.

I thought I was the only one who used the hifi "videos" for sound only back in the day.... Nice video and a tri down memory lane !!

Now I never knew this actually was a format type!! Every day is a school day!!

I experimented with VHS HiFi audio recording back in the day... it does work very well.. although for some strange reason we tended to use open reel / high end cassette decks ... I also have a Sony PCM recorder like yours and its a lot more portable.. it would be interesting to AB between a live recording between a Sony PCM and one of these

I recall making 6-8hr music vhs tapes on our Samsung deck. Awesome sound - the vhs format added a lot of warmth to CD sound, and rolled off the harsh highs. Recently discovered that re-encoding audio to 24kbps HE-AAC+v2 sounds identical to vhs hifi

This idea was mentioned in Stereophile 20 years ago. I have over a hundred VHS HIFI tapes that are music only. It is a great medium to record music!

There were actual professional studio equipment that recorded in vhs tapes, so it's not as crazy as it may seem

In the mid 80s, we had a CD rental shop downtown. I owned a Panasonic NV-70s including full service documents. So, the project was, modifiing the FM sound to meet the highest standards. For this, I switched off the video signal and boosted the FM sound signal slightly. This modification got rid of the noise from the head switching, which is the only disadvantage with VHS HiFi. After this, I copied a large amount of CDs onto E240 tapes in LP. In the end, I had some 100 cassettes full with music. I documented it by hand into a notebook. At this time, I hoped, that there will be a chance one time to convert it to digital media. Well, I had to wait 'til 2003. By that time, batch converting to MP3 was possible via the Messer software, which divided the tracks. So each morning, after work and at bedtime I put in another tape. This took me several months. In the end, it ruined the old panasonic NV-70. So, for the last few tapes, I had to get another VCR. So, in the beginning, I started dumping it to CDs, later DVDs and then portable HDDs. And now, the whole stuff fits onto a SD card inside my smartphone. Minor drawback, still no ID tags since this has to be done manually. Instead, I scanned the pages of the old notebook and saved it next to the mp3s. :))))) Later, I dumped most of my videos to DVD just before the tapes deteriorated. Pew...

I used to put all my records on vhs and use it for parties. You'd get 3hrs of music non stop.

Adamo we made that I still have the master VHS still sounds amazing. All recorded live, everything bleeding through everything else, but man, it feels like it's a practice in front of you. Desk recordings at gigs dint always work as the output has bn made for the f.o.h. mix So sometimes the output is all vocals or drums, or no guitar. I have many of them, but when you luck out on a good live mix, it's AWESOME!!!

I first heard about this from Anadialog, and picked up a deck and tapes. It was so good and got hooked. No hiss and great dynamics, just have to allow time for the hifi signal to kick in. I've tried regular and hifi tapes, and I don't hear any difference. Maybe the hifi tapes are more durable. I use a preamp with volume control to adjust the recording level, as it seems what level I put in is what is recorded. I haven't tried the SP vs LP either because no remote, but have read it doesn't affect it much. I can put multiple albums of an artist on a tape and then listen for hours. And it is easy to move from one system to another. I still love my compact cassettes as the sound and experience is what appeals to me. I basically just love playing with all the different formats of music, from digital to analog to see what you can get out of them. Truly a fun hobby!

When I was giving up my turntable in the early 90s I transferred a bunch of albums to HIfi VHS. Sounded great.

Ideas are good and I left a box of VHS tape on the curb yesterday. Live and learn thank you for the lesson.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, I used my Toshiba VHS hi-fi to record audio. I had my Amiga 500 plugged into the video input and I'd make video titles with Deluxe Paint to go over the audio. This made it easy to find a song in fast visual search mode. My Toshiba hi-fi was from the mid 80s and was a beautiful unit with level controls and LED VU meters. I wish I still had it.

I dug up my grandpa's old ep vcr and recorded about 4 hours of my music onto a blank. I didn't expect much, but I was blown away to hear the audio quality of that tape. 240 minutes of hifi sound on a single-sided tape that I didn't need to flip. I just put in the tape, listened to all 4 hours, and it auto rewound and ejected. Pushing that tape in to play once a day might become a bit of a habit of mine

I used a hi-fi vcr as part of my home recording set-up in the late 80’s/early 90’s alongside Tascam & Yamaha 4 track cassette recorders. Great way of keeping partial mixes available that you could go back to, loss of quality over a couple of generations was far better than could be achieved on cassette tapes. I still have my Aiwa hi-fi vcr just in case the need ever arises !

Tip: Use NiMh rechargeable batteries in your remotes, like I do... It saves me money, and is less likely to make a mess if forgotten.

The reason, I think, that the audio sounds between so similar between LP and SP is because the record head for hi-fi audio is on the helical scan head, which is still moving at the same rate across the tape in a diagonal pattern as the tape moves along. SP was overkill.

I did often record music on my HiFi VHS. The were better than most of the casette decks back in the days. Also because of tape size an speed on a VHS mashine. Much less tape hiss, you did not need Dolby. The old mono tracks on VHS were really bad, but the Hifi tracks were a whole other level.

I discovered hi-fi audio back in the day and started to record mixtapes to be played back at home on my fathers vhs hifi… he had high end equipment, and it sounded as good as a cd with no background hiss

I was doing this 20 years ago. Our local radio station had a 4 hour country music oldies show on Saturday morning, so I'd dutifully tape it every week.

In the 90's when I played in a band. We used a Panasonic VHS as a master tape for our live gigs. We played electronic music and as we needed playback for most of the music live we used the VHS and it was brilliant!

Another interesting video from the cassette guru I never thought about using a VHS for audio recording before

VHS tapes have 20hz-20khz of audio range, a Reel to Reel at 7.5 ips is 30hz-24khz on my Akai GX220D. VHS Hi-FI was really really good.

Back in the 90's Panasonic made a 7750 Super VHS editing deck that was around. $5k, $8K in today's dollars. Two types of audio, one hi-fi with 90db of dynamic range and Dolby noise reduction which could be engaged. They sell for around $400 now, are built like tanks and I recall the audio being exceptional. And the had XLR inputs and outputs. Add an inexpensive mixer and some mic's and it would be a nice tool for recording bands live. I don't know where you could find SVHS tapes, though.

That Panasonic deck is probably one of the best Vintage VCRs you could get

Used to do this to record my DJ mixes then play back from the Hi Fi VHS to cassette for high quality dubs :D

I've been "quietly" building up my HIFI VHS setup for a little while now. Very few peeps talk about this in my circles. Yet, I'm a HUGE cassette tape,VHS, and MD fan. And this video just gave me inspiration to refocus on this project. Now is the time to actively test it on my end. Thx for the in depth video, and acknowledging that this IS STILL a thing. Peace...Netm8kr

i still have a JVC Hi-Fi VHS that i bought in about 1985 stored up in the spare bedroom with all my old PC and audio gear i might just get it out and give it a try and i still have the remote and i took the Batteries out lol

Awesome! I've been doing some audio recording on VHS for a make believe radio for Halloween and Christmas. My friends love them. Good to see I'm not alone. Will watch .Thanks

dammit man, now I need to add VHS to my mastering chain. cheers for the flac demo, sold me on it!

Great video 👌 Excellent job, you inspired me to get my Panny NV-HS850 s-vhs machine out and run it up. I bought it originally just for video editing as I had some original Pro svhs videos and I was into amateur video recording. But as it happened dv came along shortly after I bought it so I never used it for editing, in fact I put probably less than half a dozen tapes as we had a Sony slv 474 for every day use. I'm going to have some fun tying in with mini disc, cd and my old reel to reel. New subscriber too 👍

I had a Stereo Hifi Zenith Camcorder in the 80's. The sound was incredible. Especially live music.

I my self was shocked when i recorded a few vinyl records and Cds on VHS especially when you use the High Grade TDK and Maxell high grade Tapes. I was blown away with the sound detail captured as clean as my source using a Sony HiFi VCR.

Some radio stations used VHS HiFi recording to record and playback non stop music through the night when there were no programmes scheduled, and the recordings sounded good too.

One thing to note was I need a TV picture input in order to record the audio from the radio etc. In other words I couldn't just connect the audio to my tuner and expect it to record to VHS HiFi.

I’m living in the past , I have 3 video decks , one built into a small tv , and about 200 tapes that I’ve been watching on and off for 35 yrs, also have a hi fi with audio tapes , and lots of mini discs and 3 mini disc players ,, and of course cd and players , cheers Shane uk 🇬🇧

I did this in the 90’s on my JVC VCR. Even on long play it sounded excellent! I remember thinking why aren’t people doing this?!

This video has just reminded me that for a year or so before introducing a MiniDisc recorder into my home studio, I had a transition period where I’d moved away from ‘mastering’ on a Fostex X26, to a stereo video recorder (Nicam?) - which had far superior recording quality over that old 4-track. I’d totally forgotten about that and now I want to find my mid 90s ‘techno’ on those video tapes!! I’d completely forgotten this 😂.

Having a 240 minute tape using EP mode, we could have 16 hours of continuous play!

Cool! I have tons of VHS tapes in collection. I started collecting VHS tapes back in the early 1990’s beginning with the Disney with the “Black Diamond” and “Masterpiece” editions. I have them all and still collectables to this day. I also buy blank VHS tapes to record what was on TV like movies, episodes of a TV show, TV specials including the holiday stuff, vintage cartoons, and so much more. VHS was a much better format than Betamax in which Sony first introduced in 1975, VHS came a year later in Japan in 1976, and in the US by 1977 when both Panasonic and RCA started to come along. This VHS tape itself was a cheap slim cartridge, but in the old days, it was bulky with different reel designs from various brands.

The dead Panasonic Will be aged Capacitors, definitely worth repairing. Great video as usual 👍👍

I was advised by a video dealer sales rep about using VHS HiFi as an audio format for recording long-form radio music shows, such as song countdown specials; where the recording length could be adjusted from two to six hours in length. When it came to audio quality, the VHS HiFi format didn't have the issues of tape hiss (during playback) that's been the bane with audio cassettes since day-one.

Yes VHS and Betamax HiFi are analog but it's not the same clean simple process used in say a reel to reel or cassette recorder. Remember these consumer video formats ran at 1ips or less linear tape speed. You can't get HiFi sound via direct analog recording at that tape speed. So they they took the audio signal and modulated it to an FM frequency of around 1mhz. That was then recorded with the rotating video heads which equate to several hundred ips tape speed. But there were two major problems: 1) Because the audio FM had to share spectrum space with the video FM and color information, the deviation was limited. Low deviation with FM means more noise. So they fixed that by companding aka DBX process. The bad result was gain pumping. 2) The tape is only half wrapped around the video head disc. So to maintain constant tape contact they use two heads and switch back and forth between them. This happens 30 times a second (25 time in PAL). The head switch produces a DC offset in the FM carrier which is audible. It's very low but once you hear it, you will always hear it. In video this switch can be hidden between frames. Analog audio has no "frames" and is a linear signal. PCM audio recorded on VHS and Betamax did not have these uses because first, they didn't record video when in PCM mode and digital audio can be stored and written to tape in faster than real time thus getting around the head switch problem. In reality a good high end cassette deck of the mid 1980s would outperform Beta and VHS HiFi. True, the cassette didn't have the dynamic range or frequency response of the Beta/VHS HiFi, but it also did/t have the artifacts which many audiophiles found to be a non starter for Beta/VHS HiFi as a high end audio recorder.

@Cassette Comeback I definitely remember different VHS tape formulations back during the 1980s and early 90s. If you exposed the tape itself you could see the different color shades of dark brown or dark grey, and more or less polished tape surfaces as well. They would even advertise that fact on the labels, sorry it's been so long I can't recall the technical aspects of what those specs were.

I used to record Radio ONE Essential Mix on Saturday nights on to my JVC D-VHS deck (which I still have) and then edit down to cassette (and later to MiniDisc). I thought I was the only person in the world who was doing that. None of my mates understood what I was going on about at the time. I was never sure I was getting the best quality of recording doing it this way but it was the only way to record a two hour Essential Mix without having to stay up until late to pause out the chatting between tunes etc. This has confirmed my suspicions. Thanks.

It's my favorite underground format. I used to mix my master 4track mixes to it. It was considered the Poor man's DAT!

Great job. Inspired me to pop my tape into my 86 Yamaha hifi VHS deck. Still sounds great. I recorded Cock Sparrer onto a JVC tape from a CD.. now this is fun because I plugged a PS1 into the VCR. So you can use the controller to change the video while recording both AV signal and make cool patterns to accompany the music. Try it it’s fun! Then you can play your artwork at parties for background 🤙🏻

Hell... years ago I used VHS tapes as 8-track recording tapes... It's a shame it didn't last...

Yes to sound quality of this format is excellent. I had hoped that a smaller tape format for stereo audio would have been developed based on this technology. It could have been the best format available,

My first VHS of any description was a JVC. A beast of a player but was plagued by tracking issues from day 1. Recording several records and CDs on one tape was ideal for general listening because you could leave it to run for hours on end. The specs are impressive, and the format designers knew the original linear sound needed a big improvement to make the most of film soundtracks.

I love vhs hi fi audio recording. The sound is superb. It’s unfortunate that VCR’s stopped putting audio controls and VU meters on the units. Without them how do you know your input recorded volume? To low? to high? How do you record without volume controls?

I always recorded on VHS HiFi Stereo, Opus Radio from the Astra Satellite (beautiful classical music), Radio Luxembourg International via the Astra Satellite (which basically was Radio Luxembourg all day without the night time fade of 1440 kHz and whistling distorted reception of 49.26 metres Shortwave which got right around the world), Sky Radio for its high quality CD music and jingles / ad breaks, Quality Europe FM for the Tesug Satellite Surgery every Saturday afternoon, SWF3 for the English language music, Radio 10 Gold, Eclipse FM, Radio Nova Ireland in mono via Lifestyle on channel 5, Asda FM, Supergold, World Radio Network for the weekly broadcast of Radio Netherlands Media Network programme Thursdays, Radio Sweden Mediascan programme, Radio Vlaandren International for Radioworld, plus TV ident jingles too. I had flawless clear sound recordings because the Astra Satellite receiver I used was a decent quality Nokia Sat 1700 equipped with genuine (not soundalike) Wegener Panda 🐼 1 noise reduction fitted unlike the crappy Amstrads and other brands of satellite receiver with their useless non Panda 🐼 like noise reduction circuitry. Non genuine Panda like noise reduction circuitry fitted to other brands of Astra Satellite receiver often sounded slightly hissy or very hissy indeed. Wegener Panda 🐼 1 noise reduction compressed the analogue mono / multilingual / stereo sound before satellite transmission and the receiver circuitry would expand it restoring dynamic range without the hiss and noise, but if you didn't have genuine Panda 1 noise reduction fitted to your Astra Satellite receiver, you still got a fair amount of hiss and noise on the sound which made for unpleasant listening.

The reason a HIFI VHS tape still worked in a Ferguson top loader non HIFI VCR was not because FM is analogue, it was because even the last generation of VHS recorders still recorded a mono linear audio track (some did linear stereo too) along the edge of the tape, completely separate to the embedded HIFI audio. That older Ferguson had absolutely no way to read the embedded HIFI audio tracks, it just didn't know they were even there.

You also have the SVHS standard, not sure how much difference the better tape/heads would potentially make to the HiFi audio and if they're basically the same standard audio-wise.

Tape speed doesn't matter on VHS Hi-Fi, the relative tape-head speed is way higher than any other analog audio recorder could dream of, SP or the slowest EP it's all the same.

That Toshiba combo is an off the shelf rebrand of Japan’s Funai VCR combo. Panasonic hands down made the best VCRs. The ultimate consumer VHS tape was the BASF or EMTEC PHG-HiFi. Another really good one was the Panasonic HD (High Durability, not definition!) Master series. I was always a huge fan pf Fuji’s German/Japanese tapes, especially the SHG HiFi range.

I used to make compilations for parties on VHS... even in LP is sounded good and 6 hours worth of tunes! :-)

Good practice would be to monitor the input level to the VHS recorder via an output of a mixing desk, or even an output of a cassette deck in record standby mode. Test and trialing the output level of the desk/cassette deck until finding the perfect level that works. Great video Tony, and a great system for recording live onto a stereo recorder.. Not so great if you want to record individual instruments onto a multitrack and mix afterwards (Dare I even mention ADAT 🙈)

i think SP means Standard Play? LP = Long Play

The original low quality audio signal was recorded in a linear format like an audio tape, using a regular head (not a helical head). The first VCRs recorded audio like this, along with a corresponding drop in quality when recording in LP mode due to the decreased tape speed. When “Hifi VHS” was developed, the “hifi VHS” signal was recorded by an extra pair of heads helically in spare space next to the video tracks. All Hifi VHS recorders also recorded the old linear audio signal for compatibility with older players. So when you play a VHS Hifi tape in an old Ferguson top-loader, it’ll play the lower quality linear audio track and just ignore the FM recorded hifi track.

Some guys calculated that the speed of tape vs rotating tape heads in HiFi VHS is 5 m/s! 90 min audio cassette is 132 m. So it is 27 seconds of recording with SP VHS Hifi standard. Incredible speed, high quality. Even if tape is bad, this speed allows to record audio in a very good quality

I used to record all our gigs just by lining out to my vhs hi-fi from the desk. Still got them all, some mixes were great, I sometimes lined in a video camera but it was usually just hanging from the desk area..

The only thing imperfecting the VHS HiFi standard's quality is the noise that can occur during the procedure of the helically scanning heads switching around (thousands of times per second). Then again this issue is caused by design and until the late 80s it was compensated for in recording. At that point it was truly great! Many high end VCRs allowed disabling the automatic level control and gave you manual level controls like a cassette deck

In the late 80's, for about a full year before I got my first DAT machine, I mixed down my cassette 8-track Tascam songs to VHS-HiFi. The quality was very close to reel to reel- between the DBX noise reduction on the Tascam 8-track cassette and the nearly noiseless VHS-HiFi, noise was never an issue, even before digital multitracks (like the Alesis ADAT) and digital DAT machines. The quality was DEFINITELY warmer, with a pleasant lo-fi quality to the recordings. Listen to "I am a Scientist" by Guided By Voices- they recorded this song in a similar way.

It was like having a reel to reel with half inch, instead of quarter inch tape, running at a (relative) tape speed of 5 m per second, with a perfect noise reduction system and with "dirt cheap" tapes, that could record up to 12 hours. The only thing that mattered in regard to the tapes: Drop outs. Bias adjustments were not needed, so you could use any tape from a reputable manufacturer. Genuine chrome (as from BASF, Agfa or PDM) or substitutes from TDK or Maxell all worked in the same good way.

I have that NV-70 VCR too and mine did the same when I plugged it in once. I'm pretty sure that that fault is because of bad electrolytic capacitors in the power supply.

I’m all over this. I’ve always wanted a reel to reel, but good news is, I ALREADY HAVE everything I need for this! And truth be told, isn’t an enclosed tape a cleaner and easier way to go about it? No handling tape, no messing about with leaders. It’s like how I always though minidisc should be superior to cds fir the same reason. Aren’t cds like the most ridiculously fragile things? They feel like an unfinished design prototype. A step in the process and not a finished product.

Back in 1992, I took my first real paycheck and bought a JVC HR-S4700U SVHS machine specifically with the idea of recording audio with it. It worked out brilliantly... for two months. After that, it wouldn't record anything onto any tape without dropouts galore. No tech I brought it to could fix it, until I finally gained enough experience myself as a tech to dig into it. Long story short, the Hi-Fi section was out of alignment and I had it working in five minutes. But this was two months before I ended up going to DVD and retiring the machine, which no longer works and I couldn't get it going again this year. Good news, though... I just restored one just like it plus the next model up using parts from my machine. Both of those are flawless thanks to my old one!

Not poor at all. HiFi VCR runs loops around any RTR for long play performance hands down. We used HiFi VCR as the mainstay of radio broadcast transfers and logging throughout the '90s.