[drmpeg]

Linus Tech Tips just did a video on D-VHS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=papQ8xQxizA

When I was at LSI Logic, I developed the IEEE1394 interface for the second generation JVC D-VHS decks (the HM-DH40000U and HM-DH5U). I worked directly with engineers in Japan and I used to get them to bring me copies of the Japanese ham radio magazine "CQ ham radio" when they would come to visit us in Milpitas. I can't read Japanese, but it's just a wonderful magazine about 300 pages thick (like the old Byte magazine).

https://www.w6rz.net/IMG_0103.jpg

[h2odragon]

Very cool! Thank you for sharing that.

When I was hunting information for that client; I found a deck and interface card on ebay for some fairly trivial amount, $200 or so. I was really tempted to grab it just for the "neat weird gear" pile but couldn't justify it. The tapes they wanted read had been submerged for some days and were crusty. The media might have been recoverable but it would have meant pulling it out and putting the tape into new cartridges.

Am I correct in remembering that standard VHS tapes were usable in these drives?

[xattt]

Just want you to know that those particular DVHS decks were an object of desire for a geeky teenager wanting the latest and greatest!

I had no practical use for them as my family didn't have an HDTV for a few more years, nor lived in an country where 1394 was enabled by default on cable boxes. However, the very idea of having a MPEG TS captured on a commodity tape was alluring in being able to have a perfect copy of whatever was on TV.

[PaulHoule]

I think of how most of the established ham radio brands are Japanese like that ICOM on the cover.