Mass Media & Technology

Memories Of Video

What's your oldest recollections? (March 2020)

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NL
Ne1L C
I could never get PDC to work. Videoplus was better but certainly not flawless. Even now we have sky+ I set it to record 2 mins either side.
JA
james-2001
Videoplus could be a mess if your VCR clock was a minute or two off or if a programme started early or finished late. Plenty of times I lost the beginning or end of shows because of it.
NL
Ne1L C
Which could be annoying to say the least Mad
AG
AxG
Did anyone own or remember Sony's SmartFile technology? Bought one about 20 years ago an SLV-SF90, still working today although relegated to the conservatory. Fascinating at the time being able to see what was recorded on the VHS whether it was inside the machine or waived in-front of the sensor, almost akin to how DVDs and DVRs today apart from the long wait for the tape to fast-forward or rewind to it.
NL
Ne1L C
AxG posted:
Did anyone own or remember Sony's SmartFile technology? Bought one about 20 years ago an SLV-SF90, still working today although relegated to the conservatory. Fascinating at the time being able to see what was recorded on the VHS whether it was inside the machine or waived in-front of the sensor, almost akin to how DVDs and DVRs today apart from the long wait for the tape to fast-forward or rewind to it.


I've never heard of that one Shocked
TE
Technologist
All video-plus did was to set your VHS machine “time date and button number” using a low entropy system for when common programmes came on.

PDC had two elements ...
preselection which could be done from a Ceefax page ..
Using codes hidden in a packet x/26
But few vhs machines had full teletext decoders ...
So it was either you doing time date channel
( original billed time which was the unique identifier Used)
Or using V+ .....
The BBC delayed launching PDC until V+ can along.

And record control . Which was transmitted by packet8/30/2
And as the name suggests controlled the VHS machine

But no recorder manufacturer made a VHS machine which met the spec for record control ..
A compliant machine should when not recording should be scanning all its channels to see if there was a signal matching what it was set to record. If so get ready to or / then start recording(PRF )
If not carry on scanning .

But every VHS machine woke up say a minute or two before when it thought the programme would start and wait for the signal matching ...,
Not much good if Wimbledon moves from the afternoon to the morning !
And could miss out on a early or late start !
And as I said when not recording .... it should be scanning ....
DV
dvboy
If I remember correctly not all ITV regions supported PDC anyway.
RO
robertclark125
Initially, Videoplus had to be purchased as a separate remote control. Later on, Panasonic became the first to offer a VCR with built in Videoplus.
NW
nwtv2003
dvboy posted:
If I remember correctly not all ITV regions supported PDC anyway.


From memory PDC didn’t work 24 hours a day. I remember using PDC to record some programmes on ITV Night Time and quite often I got 10 minutes of shows before and miss the last 5 minutes of the programme I wanted. Granted there may have been live Sport earlier in the evening (it was around the 1998 World Cup) but PDC was meant to help that.
TE
Technologist
I cannot speak for itv ....
and each company had its own policy in whether it would do it in any case ... some did not !
And then how you derived the time & “schedule “ that each label was transmitted .

And that is before you apply the clairvoyance needed to start transmitting the label before the programme starts ..... because as I explained earlier the VHS machine should be scanning all available channels to see if it has a match with what it is meant to be recording.,

So for the BBC the label with PRF set appeared 30 secs before the point at which
the recording was meant to start ( I.e start if symbol) and PRF cleared to start the recording
this was based on the VHS recorder taking a second to retune then a second before the first label appeared ... another 2secs to get the next two label ..so that if you had three reception of the label you knew it was there ... ( they were every second)
So say 5 secs per channel times 5 channels = 25 sec so add a bit = 30.

But if the programme under ran .... a straight cut to symbol ... but the CA would be told to talk for a bit “in half an hour ...” before the intro Health warning etc to current programme to get at least a fighting chance that the VHS would see the label.
Over runs were good fun .. ideally agree an out time with the live programme
and change the schedule ...
Or guess what is the approx out time and edit the schedule then say 20 sec before the cut to symbol HOLD the schedule .... the PRF label will then be transmitted until the schedule is “un held” and there is a quick symbol and into the next programme ..
RO
robertclark125
Here's an interesting IBA video from 1977, showing trials using Oracle, to set VCRs to record programmes, in this case for schools.

JA
james-2001
Interesting VT clock at the start!

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