Picking a vintage tape: Hitachi, Fuji or Philips?

[VCR_Fan]

Hello,

I'm planning to record the upcoming inauguration just for old times' sake. I picked-up three NOS vintage VHS tapes and I'm wondering if anyone knows which is the best and which is the worst...


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[dellsam34]

For VHS SP don't matter much.

[TreeTops]

Todays phones will probably do a better job than a tape recorder. Higher resolution and better color. But have fun.

[Barrythecrab]

Todays phones will probably do a better job than a tape recorder. Higher resolution and better color. But have fun.

Oh fa cryin out loud, having fun IS THE POINT.

[chronic898]

Hello,

I'm planning to record the upcoming inauguration just for old times' sake. I picked-up three NOS vintage VHS tapes and I'm wondering if anyone knows which is the best and which is the worst...

Username checks out!

Hey.. Vintage tech has an appeal.. For some reason...
Now, to get back to backing up my UHD Blu Rays...

[916Area52]

@ VCR_Fan ...

Sounds like a fun project. Other than locating quality blank VHS tapes, have you had other challenges? I decided to give it a try...My mileage so far... The VCRs can't see/recognize the digitized over the air signals. Bought a box (https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Converter-Box-ATSC-Cabal/dp/B07Z5RGLK6/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?...1zcF9hdGY&th=1), and now the VCRs are able to pick up the digitized over the air channels. However the subsequent test recordings are filled with noise and colors are blown out (these same VCRs give me quality captures).
What have you done to insure a quality VCR/VHS recording?

[dellsam34]

Not only the quality is not there, the main challenge is the aspect ratio, modern TV channels are 16:9 format, VHS is 4:3, you have 3 compromising choices if possible: Crop the sides of the wide frame and lose about 30% of the frame, Use letterboxing to allow black bands on top and bottom of the frame to form a new 4:3 frame, Squeeze the frame horizontally and watch skinny people walking (this is not an issue if watching on a 16:9 TV, just un-squeeze it to restore the frame).

[916Area52]

@ dellsam34

Thank you for the heads up

[916Area52]

Here is my milage today… These OTA recordings were accomplished with the following hardware/workflow…

Samsung TV 2015 model UN32J5500AFXZA
Z Jbox (link above)
Panasonic ES-15 (with and without)
Panasonic PV-S9670 VCR
Sony Premium Grade VHS tape

The OTA captures were done with my standard workstation…

YMMV

[916Area52]

Here is my milage today… These OTA recordings were accomplished with the following hardware/workflow…

Samsung TV 2015 model UN32J5500AFXZA
Z Jbox (link above)
Panasonic ES-15 (with and without)
Panasonic PV-S9670 VCR
Sony Premium Grade VHS tape

The OTA captures were done with my standard workstation…

YMMV

I should mention that the ES-15 was used as a pass-through for the OTA recordings, as well as part of my capture work station.

And without ES-15

[dellsam34]

As I expected, your OTA box is spitting a horizontally squeezed frame, Which is about the only right option if your viewing TV is a 16:9 panel or watching in a computer so the frame can be restored back to 16:9 with limited horizontal definition (720).

[Alwyn]

916Aea52, that video of Jimmy looks OK to me (I mean, it's VHS, pretty ugly, but for old time's sake... ). All you need to do is resize it to 16-9. The heads currently are stretched vertically by the looks of it to me, so "squashing" it (to 16-9), to my eye, corrects that.

[Cornucopia]

@vcrfan, when I last bought tapes regularly, I stuck with FUJI, for about a decade, and didn't have problems with expected quality. Of course, I haven't bought one since probably 2010, so who knows what the market is like now.


Scott

[916Area52]

@ Thread...
Thank you for the feedback.

@ VCR_Fan...
Apologies, was not my intent to hyjack.