Mass Media & Technology

VHS Copy degradation

YT video (December 2015)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
DV
DVB Cornwall
Not seen this 2008 YT video before, some here might like to observe how re-recording VHS sourced material over 23 generations sees the content disappear and when the distinct stages of loss of detail and features occur .....

nwtv2003, London Lite and Nathan gave kudos
DB
dbl
Very interesting, but somehow eerie. Glad we've switched to Digital.
London Lite and Nathan gave kudos
NA
Nathan
The music is oddly fitting. The video is 'fading like a flower' as you go through the generations.
:-(
A former member
PC
Paul Clark
Especially enjoyed the demonstration of this on Channel 4 - using familiar bit of material - from 1991's The Secret Life of Machines... Skip to around 21:00:

JA
james-2001
dbl posted:
Very interesting, but somehow eerie. Glad we've switched to Digital.


Yes, that's one thing about digital- as long as you're just directly copying the footage, and not doing any sort of conversion and transcoding you can copy something a million times and it will still be exactly the same as the original.

All familar though, I have a VHS tape full of low quality multi-gen copies of old pres material that I was sent around 2004-ish!
Last edited by james-2001 on 31 December 2015 6:30pm
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Fascinating, though why anybody would want to do 23 generations of a VHS tape in the first place is beyond me but there you go.

Must watch that Channel 4 clip in full at some point, as that looks interesting as well. Thanks!
MA
Maaixuew
Just like I imagine Alzheimer's slowly takes away the memories of a beloved Sad

9 days later

SD
sda|
That's cheered me up no end.

Anyway, influenced by Hunkin I once did the same with some flash ident animations I stuck on a tape, was quite fun for a bit.

58 days later

JA
james-2001
Speaking on Hunkin, I was at London Zoo a couple of weeks back, and there's a clock he designed outside the bird house there. Though the fact it was running 15 minutes slow doesn't speak too well for it...
IS
Inspector Sands
The last time I was at the Science Museum they still had an exhibition based on The Secret Life of Machines in the basement
james-2001 and thegeek gave kudos
JA
james-2001
Yes, that's still there as well. Unless they've got rid of it in the past 11 days since I was last there anyway!

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