VHS Hardware Emulator ? \ VOGONS

VHS Hardware Emulator ?

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First post, by Jo22

Posted on 2023-10-21, 23:23

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Hi everyone,

There's something that just crossed my mind while browsing through my small VHS collection.
Is there, by any chance, an equivalent to an electric audio cassette?

I mean these passive AF to cassette devices containing a recording tape head.
Video is understandable more complicated, also because it has higher bandwidth and uses helical recording. 🙁

Also, a physical tape or ribbon must be available of some sort, because the video head drum is deep inside the VCR, in stark contrast to the playback head of a cassette player.

But technically speaking, would it be possible to build something like this? And how?
In principle, I mean. I'm not going to attempt to make one.

I mean, in theory, there are two approaches that come to mind.

a) to install a miniature, record-only VCR inside the tape chassis. It writes the actual video on a physical endless tape (loop).
It's entirely analogue and fed by an external source over a flat cable (like the audio cassette equivalent).
Problem is the helical recording. How can this be done, considering the height limitations?
A normal helical drum wouldn't fit inside, sadly.

b) Use of an hypothetical electrical tape that's not moving. It has a fixed lenght and just covers the video head drum/playback head, like a real tape.
Not sure how this hypothetical tape may work, though.
Maybe like a long, flexible version of a VCR write head.
Maybe like an magnetic version of a CCD chip.
Or a ribbon with set of miniature coils that are individually controllable.
It doesn't need to be the whole size of the dummy video tape, I assume.
Just long enough to cover the video head drum/the playback head accordingly.
The low resolution nature of VHS would even suit the project, maybe.

That being said, this is just a thought experiment.

Any ideas or thoughts welcome. ^^

Best wishes,
Jo22

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Reply 1 of 6, by BitWrangler

Posted on 2023-10-22, 00:50

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Because the head has to be at an angle and has to swipe the full width of the tape, I don't think there's any way to make it fit in a cassette, even if it's a smaller diameter.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 2 of 6, by Fujoshi-hime

Posted on 2023-10-22, 04:32

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The problem here is that there's no purpose. Now, I don't that it'd be possible to invent one, but there's no reason to do so, there's no problem to solve.
The 'headphone jack to audio casette adaptor' solves a specific problem: Plugging other devices, normally a phone or MP3 player int a car stereo with no aux input, so that the music can be played on the cars speakers for all passengers to enjoy. There's probably a few other scenarios it's useful in but that'st the most common.

But there's no need to do this for VHS, you can already plug sources directly into the output device: The TV. You can convert digital to composite. You can plug any composite source into a TV. TV only does RF? You can convert composite into RF no problem. Even a TV with built in VCR, but no AV inputs, would still have an RF input for cable TV or the antenna, so you can still get your video source into that without a VCR. So no one would invent such a device as it's a solution to no problems.

Reply 3 of 6, by BitWrangler

Posted on 2023-10-22, 12:05

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There might be a very specific problem of a 1990s conversion van or Recreational Vehicle that has a built in 9-15" CRT TV and VHS unit, that you want to play DVD/Bluray or something on. The probable normal way to solve that would be to hang a portable DVD player in front of it, the advanced way would be to have a tech bring out a composite input, or a car electronics or conversion place to upgrade the unit.

Since the VCRs head is deep inside and you gotta take the signal to it by way of tape, you'd probably be using about a 2ft loop which is about 20 seconds of lag, so I don't think you'd want to do this to play your N64 on.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 4 of 6, by wiretap

Posted on 2023-10-22, 13:57

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We already have audio cassette size tapes for this, some even smaller. They were used heavily in camcorders. MicroMV, Video8, Hi8, Digital8, MiniDV, VHS-C, BetaCAM, etc. No need to reinvent the wheel..

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