VCR with laser reader.

[Caius]

About 7 years ago, when I started to like working with VCRs and related, I participated in a group, I don't remember now, but I believe it was some group of these chans, technology, I posted something about a better VCR that existed.

Someone posted a picture of a model, where there was not a rotating head, but a laser reader where the tape passed in front of it and did the reading. According to the author of the post, this device had been manufactured precisely to convert analog tapes without any loss, and had been requested by a large TV station, and only a few were manufactured, but they were not put on sale.

According to the guy, the device could detect what type of tape it was, and was already downloading to an internal HD of this VCR model.

I don't know if the guy who posted that photo was deceiving me or not.

But have any of you heard of this model?

A few years later I remembered this post and started looking for it on the internet and haven't found anything, I think the guy there was trolling me.


Also, it was because this that I got here in forum.videohelp.com, maybe I even posted a question about it here a few years ago, I don't remember.

[dellsam34]

If you keep creating non sense threads you put yourself in a position to be trolled.

[themaster1]

So the laser was scanning radio frequencies ? i doubt that lol

[El Heggunte]

Caius == gamemaníaco -_-

[Eric-jan]

You can't remember you posted that rumor yourself ?

[lingyi]

I have a vague memory of this tangentally being brought up, possibly in this discussion at tapeheads.net which fits the OP's timeline, 2015.

[Cornucopia]

Lasers are OPTICAL. They can read via reflection, refraction, intensity & phase changes.
VHS tapes are recorded MAGNETICLY. There is no optical difference between the various magnetic charges on the tapes. They were all laid down using the same mass-produced layered techniques.

So there is no way for laser to "read" a vhs tape.

What a load of malarkey!


Scott

[lingyi]

Lasers are being used to get higher density on hard drives. We currently have 20 & 22TB drives and up to 50TB+ in the future.

Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) (pronounced "hammer") is a magnetic storage technology for greatly increasing the amount of data that can be stored on a magnetic device such as a hard disk drive by temporarily heating the disk material during writing, which makes it much more receptive to magnetic effects and allows writing to much smaller regions (and much higher levels of data on a disk).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat-assisted_magnetic_recording

Yes, worlds away from reading the magnetic data on a tape.

[dellsam34]

No, not even close. The technology is not new, it has been used for recording Sony Mini Disc and other data disc systems, The laser or other means of heating is only used to heat up the magnetic layer during recording, During playback a magnetic head is used to read the data not laser.

[jwillis84]

Well.. technically.. Lasers have a polarization, which is alternating Magnetic and Electrical fields that can rotate in a magnetic field.. Kind of like Twisting a Torsion balance.. so "yes" Laser light can read a magnetic field.

Its not the sort of thing an Arm-chair Amateur Physicist normally considers from a High School level education.

To amplify the effect something like a Interferometer with a light gate would be used.. but it would be extremely delicate.

Years ago it probably would cost a lot.. not so much today.

I could see a High School student building a VHS Tape reader using an Interferometer with Polarized Laser Light "today" .. but lacking the understanding of how to decode the signals.

A quick example is those "magnetic inspection sheets" with magnetized particle fluids, or Polarized light stress field viewing tools.. it may not be immediately obvious and intuitive.. but its one way to get around having to re-manufacture video heads from thirty years ago.. with a Laser pin point bouncing off a piece of tape.

The thing is you would need something to sweep the beam, like a lighthouse across the Tape, probably at the same angle.. so some eletromechanical actuator would be needed. But the scanning assembly in a photocopier does something like that with a multi flat sided spinning wheel. I think we've moved on to acoustic diaphragm things these days.. and laser sweepers are just not uncommon anymore bouncing back and forth with tiny flexible springs or .. my point is.. yeah if someone were to re-constitute a brand new way of reading VHS tape without a precision chrome helical head.. it would probably look more like a DVD or Blu-ray drive.. perhaps using the same components. And it wouldn't have to worry about abrasion from video heads, and less so about mold.

If you don't have to worry about playback speed and replicating real-time tracking, you could probably grab a Tape FF/RR rewinder and just use that to move the tape.. and capture signal at faster than normal playback speeds. Then pump it through a Software defined video decoder.. so you didn't have to replicate all the jungle circuitry in VCR boards designed for real-time playback speeds.

The Floppy disk archivists did this about ten years ago for 2.5 and 3.5 inch floppies .. we might be sort of heading in this direction.. but its beyond the scope of these forums.

[Eric-jan]

It must be the recordplayer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_turntable
The only other optical storage of video was a german experiment with holograms. which makes the OP a troll i guess… without any replies though...

[El Heggunte]

............
which makes the OP a troll i guess… without any replies though...

Of course he is a troll, because he is the infamous gamemaniaco...
And oh by the way, he's been banned for the umpteenth time, of course.

[lingyi]

What makes you think he was gamemaniaco? Nothing about his posts indicated gamey to me. He was still active at digitalfaq.com up to early this year, when he was finally banned. He tried to return a few months ago, but there were telltale signs that it was him. don't want to disclose them in case he's still lurking here.

I will say that early on when he was here, there were numerous forums, including some in Brazil, where he was banned for his incessant, obsessive questions.

My personal theory is that gamey is really lordsmurf trolling us in a long term game!

Luv you blue guy!

[El Heggunte]

What makes you think he was gamemaniaco? Nothing about his posts indicated gamey to me.

Evidently you need to drink more

[lingyi]

Nope, still don't see it.

[jwillis84]

Maybe he saw this VHS tape used as a Plasma Mirror for a Laser experiment.

https://escholarship.org/content/qt30q272x4/qt30q272x4_noSplash_7e41b0ffd057b7abe1deed360af0ee9c.pdf

Berkley does some weird science sometimes.

It wasn't theoretical, but actually did take place in 2016.. novel use of a VHS Tape for something useful, but had very little to do with reading the recorded signal on it.

It seems it was just a simple way of providing fresh, unused material in a rapid fashion that was easily sourced.

[johns0]

Thread closed since the op has been banned.