Victor HR-W5....my new toy....

Just picked up a W-VHS player....my first one. Looks like everything is in good working order. Some shots below...








The lines on top of the TV image in the first picture are from my shitty-ass TV. I'm going to try to hook up my XBOX and record some 1080i VHS video from Modern Warfare II to check it out. Depending on how much I drink this week I might make a YouTube video, not sure yet.

 

So is this a 1080i VHS recorder? If so does it use standard tapes or special ones? I can't see you fitting much on to a standard VHS tape in NTSC format.

Yakumo

 

This looks identical to the D-VHS machine that was released in UK/ Europe, but didn't support recording of high definition. Philips had an OEM which had SCART sockets.
I think you can use either D-VHS or A-DAT compatible S-VHS tapes in these. My local Poundland store had loads of TDK D-VHS tapes for just £1 each. I bought around 20 even though I only have an S-VHS machine, but you can still record in S-VHS quality onto them.

 

I'll see if I can get a picture of the tapes. You need a special W-VHS tape to play it in 1080i. I'll check on the dual recording. I'm pretty sure I can plug in my 360 to the back on the bottom ports and do a direct recording of the gameplay. I don't have any other HD items right now....sold my laserdisc players.

 

Finally found one after all these years? I remember you talking about it many years ago, so how long have you been looking? Find it for a good price?

You can buy the 180 minute tapes easily enough, they go for about 2500 yen on Amazon.co.jp.

W-VHS isn't like D-VHS as it records in analogue format rather then digital format (but can only record in 1035iand for things with a lot of black it tends to look a lot better (compare a MUSE LD with a DVD..).

 

Yeah, I finally found one with a good enough price to take the risk. Most of the ones I see aren't working and the ones advertised as working are expensive. This was cheap and looks like it works perfectly.

 

While that thing is really cool, exactly what could you use it for?

 

1035i AND analog? I'm nursing a semi.

Is the picture free of warps/lines (at the beginning of cuts, etc), or does it have some of the same effects (I'd assume much less apparent) than VHS?

How big is that, maybe a CD-case tall?

 

Ah yes that's the one, thanks for clarifying.

IIRC In Japan you could record HD TV programs off satellite using a special decoder. And to think this is a mid-nineties technology! We've only just got a handful of HD channels here in the UK

There's some more interesting links below:

http://movie.geocities.jp/w_vhs/w-vhs_museum/1f/information.html
http://movie.geocities.jp/w_vhs/w-vhs_museum/1f/HR-W1/a.html
http://movie.geocities.jp/w_vhs/w-vhs_museum/1f/hr-w1/a.html

http://www.paradisearmy.com/img/consumer_electronic/Ca0030.html
http://movie.geocities.jp/w_vhs/w-vhs_museum/1b2/8/a.html
http://movie.geocities.jp/w_vhs/w-vhs_museum/1b2/9/a.html

 

Don't be thinking Japan TV system is so great. In the UK you've had HD Digital TV a lot longer than us in Japan. Sure, we had that BS Satellite crap but how many people do you think had access to it? Last figures I saw was only 30%. Japanese analogue TV also has F*ing awful reception. Not like in the UK where every channel looks clear. well, apart from Channel 5.

Yakumo

 

Not everywhere - even in Sheffield centre I don't get great reception, don't get C5 at all. Digital reception is virtually non existant too, get a couple of BBC channels and they still freeze every few seconds. Its probably down to geography but paying for a license fee you'd expect them to sort it out. Especially as the digital switch over is soon. That said I do most of my TV viewing online so isn't of massive importance atm, though the Digital Economy Bill will piss all over that.

 

Really? I never knew we were ahead in that department (I guess it makes a change for once!). I'm not a big fan of Sky nowadays, much better in the early to mid nineties when it was cheap (and you could choose your own hardware).

It's funny you mention Ch5 as my mate used to own a really old late seventies TV that could pick it up pin-sharp on a normal set-top aerial, but the modern portable telly right next to it would struggle.
I think the TV's back then must've had ultra-sensitive tuners as colour broadcasting was still early days.

 

Channel 5 was always the one channel i never got perfectly in away and i still barely get it with a freeview box using a signal booster when i can get every other channel i perfect quality one way or another..

Anyway never saw too many of them W-VHS players so nice to see some pics and looks like a nice unit.

 

Yakumo is on his Japanese TV rant again

Analogue HDTV broadcasting via Satellite has been around since 1994 and Digital HDTV since 2006. 93% of households in Japan can get Satellite TV and in percentage terms there are more HDTV satellite systems out there in Japan then there are Sky HDTV systems in the UK..

As for reception, Japan like the UK does have areas which are crap (see above...)

As for Digital TV, here in Ibaraki they have already switched off the analogue system and the Digital reception is good (although not I've watched anything sans the English audio track of NHK news).

 

We get NHK World on digital free-to-air satellite. I catch 'Imagine-Nation' every now and again, which normally has a few interesting video game related features/ interviews etc.

Unfortunately the two presenters are a bit weird. Maybe they talk that way so that Japanese language subtitles will make sense or something. It's really quite cheesy and annoying. TALK NORMAL GODDAMMITT! :dammit:

 

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but what exactly is the point of this kind of device in this day and age?

Is there something on those magical 1080i VHS tapes that I m missing out on?

 

Other than a soft spot for obsolete and obscure media? Hmm.... :shrug:

 

I see.. that's alright. I wouldn't mind owning a Laser Disc setup and disc-set one day..maybe..oh well..

also, why is this unit SO big??

 

Because most awesome things are big.