VHS tapes for backup drives back in 80s/early 90s?
Hey all - just curious if anyone actually used modified VHS tape players/recorders for backing up their BBS or computer in generally back in the actual day? I understand you can get a few GB on the tapes which would have been a huge amount in the late 80s and still useful up until at least the mid-90s.. If yes what was the setup, and how did it attach to your computer? what software was used?
On 5/11/21 2:27 PM, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Hey all - just curious if anyone actually used modified VHS tape players/recorders for backing up their BBS or computer in generally back in the actual day?
I understand you can get a few GB on the tapes which would have been a huge amount in the late 80s and still useful up until at least the mid-90s..
If yes what was the setup, and how did it attach to your computer? what software was used?
I ran a Metrum data tape system at a US Gov't-related facility in the early 1990s on a VAX. It used VHS tapes, and the interface was a Qbus board. We required no software other than standard VMS BACKUP. I don't recall the capacity offhand, but it was LARGE. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
I never used them for backup but saw them advertised. LGR did a video on one such system. I don't think you need to mod the VCR. IIRC they wrote the data 3 times, in order to deal with dropouts and corruption. I have a lot of 3/4" U-Matic, Beta and SVHS tapes that contain data that is used by a box to decode analog signals from the digital data stored on tapes. 4 x 12 bit analog for two X + Y and then RGB color via 6 bit DAC I think. It's basically laser shows stored on video tapes! When you look at it on a monitor you can pretty much just see the data. I have videos of it on youtube but some of them got copyright strikes due to the music from the tapes. The later firewire camcorders, I think you could actually cram 8GB of data per tape if you stuff it through the firewire interface as video. When I worked at NASA I recall someone saying that the STK / IBM drive system we were using in the big libraries (Powderhorns) were actually some kind of commercial SVHS VCR rebuilt and then sold for $100K a pop. - Ethan
Hey all - just curious if anyone actually used modified VHS tape players/recorders for backing up their BBS or computer in generally back in the actual day?
I understand you can get a few GB on the tapes which would have been a huge amount in the late 80s and still useful up until at least the mid-90s..
If yes what was the setup, and how did it attach to your computer? what software was used?
On May 11, 2021, at 2:27 PM, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hey all - just curious if anyone actually used modified VHS tape players/recorders for backing up their BBS or computer in generally back in the actual day?
I understand you can get a few GB on the tapes which would have been a huge amount in the late 80s and still useful up until at least the mid-90s..
If yes what was the setup, and how did it attach to your computer? what software was used?
Corvus had a Mirror option for their Winchester drives that allowed backup to VHS https://ia803205.us.archive.org/2/items/bitsavers_corvusserviceManual_190300... <https://ia803205.us.archive.org/2/items/bitsavers_corvusserviceManual_1903004/Corvus_Mirror_Service_Manual.pdf>
On a related subject, Sony had a system called PCM-1630 that stored digital audio data as an RS-170 (B&W 525/30) video signal which was recorded on modified U-Matic VCR’s. The bandwidth was 1.5 Mbps after error correction to be able to record 44.1KHz sample rate 16 bit stereo audio. The system was pretty reliable since almost EVERY CD made between 1982 and 1997-98 used that system for mastering: There was also a consumer version called PCM-F1 which recorded 44.056/14 audio on consumer Betamax. Matt Sent from my iPhone
On May 11, 2021, at 2:27 PM, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hey all - just curious if anyone actually used modified VHS tape players/recorders for backing up their BBS or computer in generally back in the actual day?
I understand you can get a few GB on the tapes which would have been a huge amount in the late 80s and still useful up until at least the mid-90s..
If yes what was the setup, and how did it attach to your computer? what software was used?
Work did. Digi-data drive on a VAX. Drive was fully controlled by the computer. Had online/eject/rewind/write enable buttons. System admin thought it was a good improvement over the 9 track previously used. On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 02:27:03PM -0400, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Hey all - just curious if anyone actually used modified VHS tape players/recorders for backing up their BBS or computer in generally back in the actual day?
I understand you can get a few GB on the tapes which would have been a huge amount in the late 80s and still useful up until at least the mid-90s..
If yes what was the setup, and how did it attach to your computer? what software was used?
participants (6)
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Dave McGuire -
David Gesswein -
Ethan O'Toole -
John Heritage -
Matt Patoray -
Peter Cetinski