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https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-restore/1567-vcr-buying-guide.html

https://www.digitalfaq.com/editorials/digital-video/professional-analog-workflow.htm

This is important information. Distributor/studio quality varies. For example, I collect Asian movies and they're often available in both DVD-9 and DVD-5, with the DVD-5 clearly being lower quality. In general, Japan and Germany have the highest quality releases and Malaysia the lowest, with the price matching accordingly.

Too articulate to be gamey. However AI translation has gotten better! Hmmmm....:study:

Objectively, it may be that that the DVD mastering may not be as good to lower production cost for a lower demand product.

Subjectively, it may be that your expectations of quality are higher because of the videos you're now viewing. Going from OTA TV > videotape > Laserdisc > Blu-Ray > UHD has raised the expectations of viewing quality. This, in combination with better quality viewing screens and the knowledge gained by some of the regulars here, what I thought was excellent quality n the past has dropped down and notch or two.

Once the disc is decrypted and ripped, it will be region free.

MakeMKV now has the ability to save DVDs as .ISO, retaining the full disc structure, including the menu.

Sony DVD and Blu-Ray players have always been the most likely to not allow non-hardware hacking for region free.

MakeMKV is the go to software for ripping DVDs as now it allows you to rip DVDs, but not Blu-Rays* to .ISO. Which is then region free and can be burned to a blank DVD disc.

*Blu-Rays can be ripped to the folder structure, but not directly to .ISO.

If you're on Windows, only use Imgburn to burn you disc. Be sure to download it from the link provided as other versions may contain adware. Imgburn hasn't been updated for over a decade, but burn technology hasn't changed.

Unless your blank discs are Verbatim AZO https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/391272-Beware-of-new-Verbatim-non-AZO-packaging or Taiyo-Yuden, don't use them as you may have playback issues on 2nd tier or worse discs. Better to spend a few dollars than have to burn new discs or ruin your Dad's viewing experience.

https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/news/14224-unfortunate-2024-update.html

Please send him as much positive energy as possible!

Here's a good article discussing airflow. It's about PC cases, but the theory is the same for all types of cooling. https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/set-up-pc-case-fans-for-airflow-and-performance

Typical 2.5" HDD drives are 7mm (1 platter), 9.5mm (2 platters), 12mm (3 platters), 15mm (4-5 platters). Each platter is double-sided, so there's two heads, top and bottom for each platter.

In theory, the fewer platters/heads, the less likelihood of failure, but in reality, there's little, if any difference. The reason your old drive is fat, is because it required more, lower density drives to achieve the level of capacity. Here's a blog with lots of info about platter capacity. https://rml527.blogspot.com/

Single platter 2.5" has maxed out at 1TB, and the largest 2.5" HDD is 5 platters = 5TB, and is likely to the end of the line for 2.5" HDD technology as SSDs have taken over the 2.5" form factor space.

Note that with [the exception of] a handful of specialized drives, all 2.5" drives 1TB+ are SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording). SMR as it's name states, shingles the data tracks like the roof tiles, requiring new data to partially erase and overwrite previous data, causing writes/rewrites to be slower, especially as the drive fills up. Read speed is the same as on [non-]SMR drives.

In general, yes, a fan blowing air across a drive will give better cooling. However, most external hard drive cases and multi-bay enclosures pull air across the drives. But this is because they're designed to draw air in from the front and exhaust out the back. The ideal situation, as found in most PC cases is have both a fan(s) pulling air from the front and a fan(s) exhausting out the back.

That's a PAL model, so the connection may be SCART that requires a breakout cable.

The U.S. equivalent is the SL-2000/TT-2000, the successor the SL-3000, the first portable Betamax. According to a Sony rep, the SL-2500 and SL-HF2700 uses the same slim mechanism inside a single case.

Be very careful with these models because the loading ring uses folding guide pins to achieve the slim profile. Never pull out a stuck tape as it's very easy to break those pins. I had to have my SL-HF2700 repaired multiple times because the early loading ring design was prone to breakage. The last time I had it repaired, they used a new ring design that was supposed to be more robust. After the last repair, it just sat on my cabinet and rarely used.

The only non-ED-Beta machine with S-Video is the SL-HF2100 which is very rare and expensive. The OP's best bet is the Japanese ED-Betas on eBay as there were several Japan only models, EDV-5000/6000/8000.

I don't know if he's still in business, but mrbetamax.com sells refurbed units. Outside the U.S., palsite.com has a marketplace.

Also, visit digitalfaq.com as there's a couple of members there who are Betaphiles. We're a rare breed and I'm just a former Betaphile.

Finally, my pet peeve #186. Betamax are only Sony Betas. Beta is the format, just as VHS is the format. This is why we have SuperBeta, ED-Beta, BetaSP, etc.

Edit: Having owned the SL-HF900, SL-HF2100 and EDV-7500, IMO, the picture quality was best on the EDV-7500.

I recently ripped all of my DVDs to MP4.

Being pedantic.

You didn't "rip" to MP4. You Ripped to MPEG-2, then either remuxed to the MP4 container or you reencoded your MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 Part 14, which includes the H.264 and H.265 video formats. If you did the latter, you've increased the possibility of compression errors as well as reduced the quality.

You stated you're using WonderFox. This is almost certainly ripping and reencoding. Stop. Use MakeMKV and either rip and remux to .MKV (container) or rip to an ISO or DVD folder/file structure.

Then I can capture the DVDs which have glitches by playing them from the DVD Player in realtime, into a black magic shuttle.

In theory, if the recording was done on a cheap machine with a weak erase head, it may be possible to recover some of the poorly erased audio. However, anything that may be there will probably be below the noise level of the tape itself. This is one of the reasons why you could sometimes faintly hear the remnants of the old recording when you reused a tape. And why audiophiles like I was would always bulk erase the tape before rerecording.

Trivia: Before the advent of multi-track tape machines, Sound on Sound was a technique for producers to overdub audio on tape. The erase head was disabled or covered with something thick enough to disable the magnetic field and you could layer a new track on top of the old one.

*SIGH* I remember that test tape! It came with my EDV-7500s.

I never had any personal high quality video source, but I did record some of my Laserdiscs to ED-Beta and definitely saw the quality difference on my uncalibrated PVM-2530.

AFAIK, no non-pro Beta machine had a built in TBC, but I believe some the high end professional, SLX series did. The ED-Beta X500/X300/X000 series were prosumer machines, with the tunerless EDW-30F the professional version of the EDV-9500/9300/9000.

The OP is in PAL country where Beta was never popular and the high end machines like the SL-HF2100 and ED-Beta were never made available in PAL. There may be a super rare multi-system machine with SuperBeta and Beta Hi-Fi, but I've never read about their existance.

It's hard for others to understand, but I think I'm the same as the OP. I can't think in time-space. For example, I'm bad at chess, checkers and even tic-tac-toe because I can't think 2-3 moves ahead. I have the same problem with even the simplest programming. I can conceptualize how an IF, THEN statement can branch off into two possible other statements, but can't how those two branches will break off into future statements. Does this make sense? This may not be a good example. I'm walking on a path and see a fork in the road leading left and right. While others see that the left path branches off to three other paths and the right path branches off to two other paths, all I can see is the fork in front of me.

Edit: I realized this when I had to do a simple montage video for a friend. It was a slideshow with a voiceover, but I couldn't conceptualize how the entire video would look like. I had to break it up into sections according to what the voiceover was and hope that the sections worked together. Maybe that's how video editing works, but it was a major pain for me.

Doesn't matter since you should have at least two backups. One offsite in case of a local catastrophe.

Yes. There are no special drives for any external.

I never owned a Toshiba portable, but according to reports they haven't been regular SATA drives for years. As for Verbatim or any other third party portable, check the SMART with a program like CrystalDiskInfo and if the drive is anything other than a Seagate, it's very likely not to have a standard SATA drive inside.

In addition, any third party portable or 3.5" external maker can change their drive supplier at any time. The exceptions are LaCie, which is owned by Seagate and Sandisk Pro/G-Tech(nology)/G-Drive which is owned by WD.

The real mystery is why WD and Toshiba does this? In theory, it may reduce the chance of failure vs a detachable interface, but the more likely answer is that it forces you to by a new drive when the interface fails.

I recommend not buying 2.5" WD or Toshiba externals because:

The USB port and interface are integrated into the mainboard, unlike Seagate portables which are regular SATA drives with a detachable interface. If/when the interface fails on a WD or Toshiba, you have to mod the board to a SATA interface for data recovery. Which is every expensive, $$$.

In addition, Passport drives have an encryption chip that must be bypassed for data recovery, which incurs an extra fee.

https://www.300dollardatarecovery.com/data-recovery-prices/#usbpcb

Don't pay extra for USB-C or USB 3.1. USB 3.0 is more than enough for any hard drive because the available bandwidth is ~480MB/s, but any conventional hard drive maxes out at ~200-250MB/s.*

2.5" hard drives max out at 5TB. All 3.5" hard drives require an additional 12V power supply.

The only hard drive manufacturers are WD, Seagate and Toshiba.

If you want a >5TB USB powered drive, you have to get an SSD, which is very expensive compared to hard drives.

In theory, IF your USB-C port and cable supplies the 12V passthrough, you could DIY a breakout to use that power a 3.5" external drive. But there's no off the shelf solution that I'm aware of.

There was a 3.5" external that ran off USB-C, but has been discontinued. Very likely because not all USB-C ports and cables support the 12V power line.

Get a physical universal remote as some devices require different types of IR. The Phillips RC122, which is very common and cheap lists Akai DVD players as compatible: https://d15yx0mnc9teae.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/sup_remote-manual_philips-rc122-twc.pdf

It's a learning remote, so if the codes don't work you may be able to get to to work. They're only $9 at Amazon, but even that's probably more than your player is worth.

Edit: Some of the higher end Logitech Harmony remotes have multiple LEDs to cover more devices.

Much better done in software, if at all.

Start by reading lordsmurf's article:https://www.digitalfaq.com/editorials/digital-video/professional-analog-workflow.htm Everything in there applies to home capture except the needing video cameras and non-VHS machines, assuming you only have VHS tapes.

Then read this current thread, lots of good info: https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-workflows/13285-best-vcr-digtilize.html

Forget the Elgato, known as Elcrappo here and at DigitalFAQ and a hardware upscaler.

Just remembered, up to Blu-Ray, DVD and CD only. The Kaleidescape Disc Vault allowed up to 320 discs to be loaded and copied to the internal hard drive(s). A 4K upgrade was available, but the 4K content was only what was available for download from Kaleidescape.

The current models only allow download and playback of movies available from Kaleidescape. Prior to UHDs, this was the only way for home users to view 4K content.

Most likely the tape has become sticky because the binder is failing. Play the tape completely through to prevent possible further damage. Your second question doesn't make sense. If it's moving correctly without screeching, the tape is likely fine. Be careful with standalone rewind/fast forward machines. They sometimes go too fast and can snap a sticky tape. Some cheap models don't have a brake to sense the end of the tape and will keep pulling until you eject.



Doesn't matter. That section of tape is ruined already. As far as repair. The proper thing to do is not to splice the tape as the splice may cause severe damage to your videoheads and gum up the other parts.

The proper thing to do is to remove the reels and place them individually into new shells with an empty reel.

Every play causes specks of the tape to wear off, causing dropouts, those white specks you see. This is why head cleaning is occasionally required. You don't lose detail or it gets blurrier, but with use, the tape stretches slightly, causing timing errors which usually appear as skewing of the picture. \



Their top quality machines are prosumer/professional machines built to higher specs with better components. Both manufacturers have lower level machines that aren't recommended by lordsmurf.



Jack of all trades, master of none.

No 4K though and seems to be long discontinued.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/video-player/blu-ray/sony-bdp-cx7000es-blu-ray-player-review/

In theory, you could create your own by installing a multiple optical drives into a tower based on the Automatic Ripping Machine (ARM) https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-ripping-machine

Edit: Mods, I apologize for getting too off-topic. The OP's question has been well answered.



I disagree. The artwork shown is definitely from the LD release and most Asian VCD covers I've seen are much more eye-catching, i.e. larger pics and text because of the CD sized case. At least for Hong Kong and Japanese releases, almost everything was released on LD, except the most obscure, low budget movies.

Oddly, I don't see Dances With Wolves listed as a release at LaserDisc DataBase (lddb.com), so it's likely a bootleg. https://www.lddb.com/search.php?search=dances+with+wolves&sort=title

LD trivia for those few who may be interested.

Since you're interested in vintage tape systems, you may be familiar with the V2000, which as Techmoan says, was: The format that came third in a two-horse race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeSz6MoX00Q www.v2000.palsite for more info.

I highly recommend Techmoan's channel, especially for someone like you who's interested in vintage tape systems.

Correct. With the exception of a handful of multi-system, usually PAL/NTSC/SECAM Beta VCRs, all other VCRs are system specific. Here's a thread with a list of models: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/396147-Betamax-Player-Dual-Format-NTSC-PAL

These were primarily for the UAE market and were very expensive. I considered getting one during my Betaphile heydays, but decided against it as reports of the time [stated they weren't as good as single system units]. I believe in addition to the machines listed in the thread above, Aiwa also made a multi-system model.

Note that AFAIK, none of these machines did any system conversion internally. You needed an external converter or a multi-system TV.

Chinese or HK? I don't recall many boot LDs not coming from HK.[/QUOTE]

Ahhh...good for you catching [me] committing my Pet Peeve #218! :o Using the term Chinese generically to describe anything from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan or mainland China as Chinese nationality versus ethnicity. My apologies to anyone from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan!

Off topic, but trivia of another of my interests.

Don't know the legal specifics of each title/release, but there were definitely non Hong Kong releases from companies like Long Shong in Taiwan. These were usually the Taiwanese theatrical versions of Hong Kong movies, which were often released there before Hong Kong itself. And sometimes were different than the Hong Kong releases. Probably the best known Taiwanese version of a movie is the longer alternate version of John Woo's The Killer https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=476290 Unfortunately, AFAIK, there never was a [Taiwanese] LD release of The Killer.

Edit: Some/many? of the Taiwanese, don't know if there were any Mainland Chinese LD releases, were created from the same source, possibly even directly recorded, from the VHS versions.

I just took a closer look at your picture and it's 1000% not an original. Not only is the tape not in a retail case, it has Chinese wording and the LaserDisc logo on the bottom. So it's very likely a copy from a Chinese LD.

An L-750 is 750 ft, ~229 meters and can record up to ~4:45m in Pal / 4:30m in NTSC. The times listed on the box are for NTSC. Not sure about VHS, but all Beta tapes could record up to ~5 minutes more in βII. Almost useless trivia time. IMO, "B" when used to refer to Beta speeds is incorrect. It's β (for Beta) or Beta I, Beta II, Beta III.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax

Unlike VHS where the number designated the running time, Beta tapes were all listed by the length of tape inside.* So VHS tapes for Europe were prefixed with an E and therefore an E-120 was equivalent to a T-120 in the U.S., for recording time, but held less tape.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS#:~:text=A%20VHS%20cassette%20holds%20a,play%22%20(SP)%20quality.

*However, professional Beta tapes such as Beta SP, were labeled by their running time.

I saw you mention this elsewhere a while back. I didn't know that. :o

Betamax is the deck brand, sort of like Nikon has Nikkor lenses.
Beta is the tape format.

Somehow, it was retconned where the tape format is Betamax. And I think Sony endorsed it, especially by using Betacam as the next format. And yet, ED-Beta and SuperBeta.[/QUOTE]

The master learned something from me? :o: yeah:

Trivia: IIRC, probably read it in Akio Morita's excellent book, Sony couldn't trademark the Beta name and letter, so they added -max and trademarked that in 1974. Interestingly, at least to me, is the the trademark covers cassettes, TV receivers and tape recorders. https://trademarks.justia.com/730/89/betamax-73089740.html Makes sense since the the first Betamax was integrated into a TV console.

Thank you for saying Betacord and not Betamax! Beta is the format and Betamax is only Sony Beta VCRs.

Any consumer Beta VCR other than the first Sony Betamax will play back βII and βIII. Most professional Beta machines will only play back and record βII.

The max playback time of an L-500 (which is the amount of tape in feet) is 195m for PAL, 180m for NTSC at βIII. So the movie must be on a L-750, L-830 or if it's a commercial release, a custom length. Look at the dust cover, the spool length may be printed there.

L-750's are standard and will probably work fine in any machine. But beware of any L-830 as they use an even thinner tape than the L-750 and are prone to jamming and breakage.

While playing with vintage electronics is fun, VCRs are extremely complex and it's likely the belts and other rubber parts are probably worn out and need replacement. IMO, best not to stress them doing unnecessary recording and playback as they're all well past their end of useful life. As much of a Betaphile as I was (20+ Betamax), when I moved in 2017, I sent them all to a well deserved final rest.

Understand. But you didn't address the question gamemaniaco...errrr...patrion87 asked.

How many months can a notebook HDD remain unused without damaging its mechanics and data? to keep its mechanics healthy and the data turn on the HDD every day?

The real answer is that there's no definitive answer. Only situational, anecdotal experiences like yours and the others that in no way is indicative what anyone else may experience. Especially when it comes to data integrity. Data on a drive that's working right now, may fail in the next second or be good for another ten years.

Since you're new here, gamemaniaco, patrion87 and a half dozen other names under which he's been banned, has a serious problem accepting any answer given him, in a attempt to preserve his precious game ROMs.

The point I do agree on is that a drive minimally turned or or left on, will likely fare better than one continually [edit: infrequently] turned on and off.

Working and working correctly are two different things. Just because the disk is spinning and recognized doesn't mean the data is intact. And the disk you had to format is useless for its archived data.

I've read (Probably in Akio Morita's excellent "Made In Japan) that while the basics of Beta were based on U-Matic, it was much more complex because of the smaller size required. When a former co-worker told me he used to do VCR repairs, I asked him if he could fix my machines and he just groaned, saying he could, but would hate it! LOL