[ShadowBanThis01]

Wow, you used non-Hi-Fi VCRs? I used a VHS Hi-Fi unit as an audio recorder, and also to bounce tracks from a POS Tascam four-track.

Before DAT, Hi-Fi VCRs were by far the best audio recorder you could buy for home use. The only problem (which I pretty much never heard talked about) was a "purring" noise that would accompany high-frequency sounds. I suspect this was caused by switching between the audio heads on the spinning head drum.

[ofalkaed]

They were most likely hi-fi (weren't all the non-hifi ones coax?) but it would not have mattered if I had used a 2" Studer, bouncing down is not a good way to maintain quality, especially how I was doing it. Most of my gear was from the 60s and 70s and probably not in the best repair, even if perfect such gear would generally have noticeable noise and I generally used this gear during the bouncing down as well to apply filtering and the like. So 2 track and 2 track to 4 mixed tracks, then 4 mixed tracks and 2 tracks to 6 tracks, then those 6 and another two recording over the 4 track mix, repeat for as many tracks as were recorded. All that noise is getting copied over and over and adding to the total noise floor and those tapes being reused over and over meant wear on the tape since the vast majority of VCRs like the majority of consumer tape based gear had shit transports.

[ShadowBanThis01]

If there was surface noise it probably wasn't Hi-Fi. Hi-Fi recorded the audio as FM on the tape alongside the video signal, if I remember correctly.

I was overdubbing with my setup and discovered that the shitty Tascam four-track had speed variations all through the song, on every take. I had to memorize where they occurred and ride the pitch control while copying to the VHS. It took days, and by the time I had an acceptable mix the original tape was wearing out. I kept a VHS first-gen copy I think.

When computer audio became a thing I of course digitized all the original tracks and gleefully made a perfect mix. Maybe someday I'll do a surround one.

Kids today will never know what it's like to try to edit on consumer audio equipment! I remember memorizing how long it took the pause control to release on my tape decks, to make seamless edits.

[ofalkaed]

>Hi-Fi recorded the audio as FM on the tape alongside the video signal, if I remember correctly.

So they broke the format when HiFi came out, tapes recorded on a HiFi VCR could not be played on a pre-HiFi one? Something like that may have happened but if it did it happened back during the early days of the format. From what I remember HiFi just meant it had RCA outs which bypassed the internal RF modulator that was used to modulate the signal to channel 3 or 4 standards so you could watch it on your old fashioned TV. In the early days if you recorded something off of broadcast TV it would be demodulated by the VCR, recorded and later when you watched it it was remodulated back out to the TV which would than demodulate it again, this was not a perfect process, as cable TV grew in popularity demand came about for getting rid of the now useless RF modulation which only served to degrade the signal. I could be misremembering and I was not exactly following this stuff closely back than, I was a bit on the young side but I can not ever recall their being two standards for VHS.

[ShadowBanThis01]

Hi-Fi had nothing to do with RCA outputs. You may be thinking of S-video, which was separate luma and chroma signals available from Super Beta and Super VHS decks (and, years earlier, from Atari and Commodore computers). On a side note, LaserDisc did not offer it because those components were mixed on the disc and there was no point in providing discrete outputs for each.

And no, they did not break the tape formats. Beta Hi-Fi came out in the early '80s and VHS Hi-Fi followed a couple years later. From Wikipedia:

"Around 1984, JVC added Hi-Fi audio to VHS (model HR-D725U, in response to Betamax's introduction of Beta Hi-Fi.) Both VHS Hi-Fi and Betamax Hi-Fi delivered flat full-range frequency response (20 Hz to 20 kHz), excellent 70 dB signal-to-noise ratio (in consumer space, second only to the compact disc), dynamic range of 90 dB, and professional audio-grade channel separation (more than 70 dB). VHS Hi-Fi audio is achieved by using audio frequency modulation (AFM), modulating the two stereo channels (L, R) on two different frequency-modulated carriers and embedding the combined modulated audio signal pair into the video signal. To avoid crosstalk and interference from the primary video carrier, VHS's implementation of AFM relied on a form of magnetic recording called depth multiplexing. The modulated audio carrier pair was placed in the hitherto-unused frequency range between the luminance and the color carrier (below 1.6 MHz), and recorded first. Subsequently, the video head erases and re-records the video signal (combined luminance and color signal) over the same tape surface, but the video signal's higher center frequency results in a shallower magnetization of the tape, allowing both the video and residual AFM audio signal to coexist on tape."

I sold a decent number of HR-D725s where I worked in high school. You see very few products with its build quality today. I still have the original JVC promo tape that showcased the release of VHS Hi-Fi, featuring a voiceover by Don Adams (Get Smart).