Are there commercial movies on Super VHS?

Guest · Posted: 19 Oct 2011, 04:49

I know this is DVHS, but I haven't really a better place to ask this. I'm just curious to see what a well mastered SVHS tape would look like.

elahrairrah · Posted: 19 Oct 2011, 14:12

I've been trying to find that out myself. Only thing I've been able to discover is that there are some promo/demo tapes with some footage of movies, but no actual movies.

Of course, I've never actually come across any of those demos either!

I do like S-VHS. Have 3 machines myself (though I would like to upgrade to D-VHS or a MiniDV or Digital8 Deck somewhere down the line.)

Guest · Posted: 19 Oct 2011, 18:29

when I first got an S-VHS player I scoured video stores, thrift stores, and music stores. I'm thinking its likely that most of them have probably been trashed. I believe this is because when people tested them they wouldn't work on regular VCRs so they just threw them away. I know some exist, cause I have found this article:

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/198 ... -vhs-orion

elahrairrah · Posted: 19 Oct 2011, 18:55

Very cool. After reading that article, I did a search for Super Source Video, but all I could find is this other article from the Chicago Tribune (one year older than the article you found):

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988 ... vhs-format

Here's another from the LA Times:

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-10-06/ ... per-source

That one even says that some cool titles like The Princess Bride and Blade Runner have been released on S-VHS. Those I'd love to find on the format!!!

I am tempted to call that 800 number to see what comes up!

Guest · Posted: 19 Oct 2011, 20:11

Well they are out there. Now the question is how are they marked, and how do conventional VCRs react when trying to play them. If this is like SACD where they're inconsistently marked, or marked with a small difference, as I suspect, they may all be mostly gone. I'm assuming the only difference will be an S in front of the VHS on the spine.

elahrairrah · Posted: 19 Oct 2011, 20:26

Well, if we go by what happens when I insert one of my S-VHS recorded tapes into a normal VCR and try to play it back, you do get a picture but there is a LOT of interference.

Of course, the last time I tried that, I was using a Toshiba 6 head VCR. Not sure if that would have made that much more of a difference in trying to play back a S-VHS recorded tape.

tkmedia · Posted: 29 Oct 2011, 05:13

I have paramount svhs promo tapes that came with my svhs deck. city slickers and indiana jones last crusade.

elahrairrah · Posted: 29 Oct 2011, 06:09

tkmedia wrote:

I have paramount svhs promo tapes that came with my svhs deck. city slickers and indiana jones last crusade.

Nice! How do they look? Just below LD quality or so?

tkmedia · Posted: 29 Oct 2011, 23:29

They were pan and scan and look like a higher quality VHS that you would dupe at a studio or at home. You can generally record better quality S-VHS on your own compared to the prerecorded type.

Now the Video8 prerecorded format had better support in the late 80's early 1990's from Sony with the portable video walkman. I recall having Ghostbusters, pink panther, Crocodile Dundee, chinatown, mad max, money train on Video8 tape.

mikeystoyz · Posted: 30 Oct 2011, 00:15

I believe I owned the Princess Bride on SVHS. I seem to remember it. I never had a player and bought the tape in order to get a tape. I just never found one. I do not have it now though.

elahrairrah · Posted: 31 Oct 2011, 15:26

tkmedia wrote:

They were pan and scan and look like a higher quality VHS that you would dupe at a studio or at home. You can generally record better quality S-VHS on your own compared to the prerecorded type.

Now the Video8 prerecorded format had better support in the late 80's early 1990's from Sony with the portable video walkman. I recall having Ghostbusters, pink panther, Crocodile Dundee, chinatown, mad max, money train on Video8 tape.

I do still see Video8 movies on Ebay. Wonder why they never jumped to Hi8 though for movies after that format came out. Hi8 has about the same video specs as SuperVHS (or is the chroma resolution higher for Hi8?)

yazorin · Posted: 04 Nov 2011, 05:18

i picked up an s-vhs player at good will once, worked great except the stop rewind/fast forward function was broken, every time i tried to do it it would make this horrifying crunching noise and then just go forward or reverse slowly

elahrairrah · Posted: 11 Nov 2011, 04:58

Not quite pre-recorded movies on S-VHS but on Ebay there is a seller, apparently some p0rn company selling a pile of S-VHS masters of their movies :lol:

Here's the description:

Quote:

You are bidding on a lot of 19 full length SVHS duplicating masters. These are from our archives from when we sold VHS Videotapes. These were submasters we made copies from. This is a great lot for someone seeking adult stock footage as there is plenty of 8mm material transferred from old loops.

SUPER VHS MASTERS #2:

Here is a large lot of SVHS Duplicating masters from when we sold VHS years ago. These are all in excellent condition and loaded with tons of rare footage, especially the Candy Samples masters. A lot of 8mm transfers and rare video tape footage as well. Stars include: Linda McDowell, Rene Bond, Linda Shaw, RJ Petty, Tara Aire, Kathy Harcourt, Angel Cash, Pepper Bond, Laura Sands, Leslie Winston, Tina Marie, Candy Kane, Annie Sprinkle, Hannah Viek, Keli Steward, Uschi Digard, mary Waters, Lisa Deleeuw, Little Oral Annie, Anna Ventura, Busty Belle, Mona Page, Anne Alli, John Holmes.

I wonder what the master was? BetaCam? U-Matic SP?

Maybe I'm thinking about it too much :lolno:

Guest · Posted: 31 Dec 2011, 06:29

I have a sealed 2-tape SVHS version of Godfather III I received with a JVC deck in the '90s. It's not that I intentionally kept it sealed, I just watched it in other formats.

Guest · Posted: 29 Jun 2012, 17:14

elahrairrah wrote:

You are bidding on a lot of 19 full length SVHS duplicating masters. These are from our archives from when we sold VHS Videotapes.
I wonder what the master was? BetaCam? U-Matic SP?

Man that must have been a ripoff. Either you have lots of Chroma noise or really blurry chroma.

As for masters, that really depends on the time period and country. Secam countries prefered Betacam. U-Matic in its forms might have been cheaper. I remimber U-Matic low band decks being available in Germany for as little as 1500 DM. Back then that was the price of a decent VHS Hifi.

hippyman73 · Posted: 20 Jul 2012, 01:00

I do know of one that I saw not to recently on eBay that I know for a fact is genuine as I have the very same copy of The Terminator.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Terminator- ... 2ec055c53a

elahrairrah · Posted: 03 Aug 2012, 17:38

hippyman73 wrote:

I do know of one that I saw not to recently on eBay that I know for a fact is genuine as I have the very same copy of The Terminator.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Terminator- ... 2ec055c53a

Thank you for that. I bought it!

There's also this Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade S-VHS tape, but this guy is asking waaaaay too much!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Indiana-Jones-a ... 58950b1b35

flcl4evr · Posted: 09 Sep 2012, 16:43

What's even worse is that someone actually bought for 60 dollars....

Guest · Posted: 13 Sep 2012, 11:50

Although no original, Anime Fansubs back around '90-'94 or something were distributed on SVHS to do the different outlet's. Basically they used Japanese LD's w/ genlocks and created SVHS masters, but alot of them used to create masters or offer them. I had a good chunk of them and they looked fantastic, and comparable to LD itself in my opinion. I no longer have any of them, and from time to time I look on eBay seeing if any popped up (because there were loads) but no luck.

laserbite34 · Posted: 13 Sep 2012, 13:08

I'd like to own S-VHS from JVC one of the early Hi-Fi Nicam models that came out I think around 1988 and at the time was priced around £700.00? My JVC Hi-Fi Nicam deck I got was cheap midrange model £450.00 I can't recall the model number as the deck packed up sadly but I still have the users manual. It was brought around the same year 1988, but the S-VHS was so much nicer looking. I think it had drop down panel with dial control for shuttle forward-reverse.

Are there commercial movies on Super VHS?

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