how many hours can a dvhs tape hold in SP mode on a svhs vcr

[kenmasters83]

i am going to be getting a few dvhs tapes soon from a friend and i was curious as to how many hours can i expect to get if i were to use the tapes with my jvc hr-3911u..

i will be using the SP mode which gets 2 hours on a regular tape but i see the DVHS tapes say 5 hours on them..

now is that 5 hours in EP mode or SP mode when used with a super vhs vcr??

i know someone has atleast tryed what i am thinking of doing if so could you please share your experience's with this idea.

thanks!!

[redwudz]

Unless you have a DVHS recorder, you can only play them back, AFAIK. If you can record on them with a regular SVHS or VHS recorder they will be the same as any other tape. Thoses times you have are probably for a DVHS recorder.

Here's a DVHS site:http://www.dvhsmovie.com/

[kenmasters83]

lol...yeah i forgot to mention the tapes i am getting are blanks's...

and yes they will be used strictly for super vhs recordings..

what kind of picture quality can i expect with them??

[redwudz]

From what I can tell, DVHS are just high quality VHS tapes, probably similar or even the same as your high quality SVHS tapes. The main difference is probably the cassette that has different holes in it for DVHS activation. If it has the SVHS activation holes also, it should work fine as a SVHS tape.

When I had a SVHS VCR, I used to drill the SVHS activation hole in VHS cassettes to save money. As long as I used a high quality tape, I never saw much if any difference in quality. Cheap tapes wouldn't work well, though. I then found a source of used SVHS tapes. They came from airlines, used for on flight movies. Half of them weren't even erased, but they all had the same 'airline' movie.

[lordsmurf]

The tape is higher grade materials that S-VHS tapes.

Use D-VHS only for D-VHS work.
Use S-VHS for S-VHS work.
Use VHS for VHS work, maybe VHS for S-VHS-ET work.

The hours tapes can hold is in the manual for the JVC D-VHS units.

[Bodysurf]

and yes they will be used strictly for super vhs recordings..

what kind of picture quality can i expect with them??

Probably no better than any other high-quality SVHS tape. And this should come as no surpise. It would be like asking: "I just got a Blu-Ray recorder and I am gonna recorder SD shows -- what kind of PQ (improvement) would there be over my DVD-Video recorder?"

Where DVHS shines is when it is paired with a DVHS recorder.

[kenmasters83]

my dvhs tapes came today and here is the official recording times with the DF-300au jvc dvhs cassettes..

1.SP mode 2 hours and 56 minutes

2.EP mode 7 hours and 45 minutes

and the quality of these tapes are UNREAL!!!

i did a test with the EP mode on the tapes and they make JVC"s standard svhs tapes look like rubbish

[lordsmurf]

Those D-VHS tapes, on a D-VHS recorder, can record like 20-30 hours of S-VHS quality material on them.

[kenmasters83]

i know that too lordsmurf i want to buy a dvhs deck so bad but the high price of one ruins the idea..

in the mean time i will be using these tapes as svhs tapes until i get a dvhs deck.

i knew the quality was better than standard svhs tapes i just didnt expect this kind of quality with an analog svsh deck..

i am very impressed these tapes look the same as the fuji 471s broadcast svsh tapes i have!!

[cinemaware]

How much do DVHS units go for today?I bought mine for $299 2 years ago so prices should be lower.

If you record a lot video I suggest you get a DVHS unit the quality surpasses SVHS and DVD even if you only record SD (standard definition) content.Of course the ability to record HD is great, which is something you can't do with dvd. You can also connect the unit to your computer via firewire to copy video from all your DVHS/svhs/vhs tapes.

I'm happy I didn't listen to the tape nay sayers 2 years ago with their "bluray is going to blow dvhs out the water" talk.These last 2 years I've recorded
on 30 tapes with no problems the same can't be said for burning dvds these last 2 years, or burning bluray discs as there're not available in the USA.

I hope jvc makes a quality h264 DVHS unit, that would be a nice upgrade from regular DVHS.

I've ran out of my stash of DF360 tapes does anyone know where to get some for a decent price?

[lordsmurf]

Fry's (outpost.com) has D-VHS tapes.
There are places online too, that specialize in tape.

A friend of mine bought a D-VHS on clearance for like $100-150 many months ago, but prices are still like $300-400 on the norm.

[cinemaware]

After some checking seems like the DF360 is discontinued, guess I'm back to using DF300s.

I've ordered from tapewarehouse before they seem like good folks.I just don't want to go to ebay.

[kenmasters83]

cinemaware...silly you.. talk too much...