Have a bunch of D-VHS articles I've found in some magazines here and there. Though I might share them here.

I'll keep adding more as I find them and get them scanned in.

This first one is from the July/August 95 issue of Video Magazine! Affirms what I've been telling people as how D-VHS was initially a SD format before it became HD.

Thanks for sharing those articles! Still own a player plus a small selection of movies and every time I watch one of those I'm seriously impressed by the quality and soundstage...

You're welcome

Here's another, but it isn't D-VHS per se.

It's from another 1995 issue of Video Magazine. It talks about an HDTV VCR from a company called "Captain" where they provide not only the hardware but also pre-recorded movies for said VCR (and both items were FAR from affordable)!

I can only imagine that this was actually a rebadged (I mean literally--looks like that logo plate is just plastered on there!) W-VHS VCR, as the only other HD videocassette system back then that I know of is in Sony's HDVS line, and with all of those being gigantic Pro type decks this being one of those is highly unlikely.

I would LOVE to know what movies they made available for purchase. These titles would most likely be the 1st means consumers could get officially get movies in any type of HD in North America (despite the insane prices.)



Now that I look more closely, the barely discernable logo on the top right of the front bezel of the deck might actually say "W-VHS"

And here's a JVC/Victor HR-W1 deck, so yeah . . . that was a rebadged W-VHS

Woooo, the HR-W1 ... always wanted one of those beautys to play around with! But working units are sooo hard to find these days and still are expensive as hell. I too am curious about those feature films that Captain offered, would be interesting to know which films they transferred and what the quality was like...

If I were to hazard a guess, I would imagine the movies would be what was available on Hi-Vision LD since it would be easy for "Captain" to record the movies from Hi-Vision LD to W-VHS.

So more than likely a handful of really rich folks have some W-VHS tapes of Jurassic Park, Top Gun, Back to the Future and/or A River Runs Through It lying around!

Japan had quite a bit of Hi-Vision movies broadcasted over the air that you could record on W-VHS.

I remember that the Star Wars movies from WOWOW were quite in high demand.

Julien

I picked up a bunch of W-VHS tapes. Mostly Japanese talent shows (including one that really resembles idol and all those ones we've copied 20 years later!!) also some crazy game shows, soap opera and even some morning TV. No such luck to find any cool HD movies.

Considering none of that stuff sounds like something that'd be released on a contemporary format, wouldn't those be of far more value than some movie you can just buy on blu-ray instead?

It's like 50+ tapes, and most of them are actually in SD so that's 9 hours recording with W-VHS! I scanned them quickly and there was a couple of highlights like a chunk of the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony in HD, unfortunately the tape runs out just as Kylie's performance starts!! A couple of hilarious talent show bits and also stumbled on a couple of cool Hi-Vision ads but for the most part just run of the mill 90's TV for which I don't think there's much value other than curiosity attached at all.

I've made a couple of Captain style tapes just recording some films off blu-ray! It really looks surprisingly good even on a projector-size screen.

You may call it run of the mill, but how many other people have that stuff still?

I've been meaning to rip an old VHS I have so I can edit the commercials out and upload those on youtube.

Does anyone really care about preserving old episodes of the days of our lives? OMG as a sick child at home in the 80's and then into the 90's
I wished they all just died in some plot twist so that a mildly entertaining show might take over. It's the same for a whole heap of crap TV of the era, I really don't think that Japanese TV is any different!


I assume that with extremely rare exceptions they don't have it because it's not worth keeping.



Why edit the commercials out?? In the "time capsule" sense these were often the most informative; not to mention entertaining elements!

What I meant was editing the movie out so I'd be left with the commercial breaks as standalone that I could easily upload on youtube.

Hey Elahrairrah,

Are you able to re-post this photo (or even potentially super-amazingly more info/scans from the article?). Unfortunately due to LDDb's dependency on 3rd party photo hosting sites (yes screw you photobucket) what you previously posted appears to have been lost....

Absolutely, uploaded a new scan of the article in the original post.

Thank you so much! Being a big W-VHS fan have saved my own copy of it now; just in case!