Thread: Super VHS video camera adventures?

To those who remember the VHS video tape days........

S-VHS stands for Super VHS a tape format from a long time ago.
Super VHS according to Wikipedia goes back to 1987, in theory gives 420 lines of resolution vs VHS having 240 lines.

Many years ago I brought a S-VHSc video camera and used it in the NZ outdoors. I have quite a few tapes that I have been looking at.

I have also been playing around with VLC media player and have been doing frame grabs from my SVHS tapes, so I will put a few frame grabs up here for your enjoyment.

Super VHS video camera adventures?.... How things have changed between then and now



I will put a few more of these up in due course, I hope that they display alright.

For sure.
I digitized some old trout fishing vids I had off of my sony mini dv camera. Cost me about $4.5k I think back in '99 or 2000. Took me about 3 years to pay that off on interest free hire purchase.
Inflation adjusted that's about $7k today.

You can buy a lot of the latest gopros with that money that would slay the video quality from back then.

The goat photo as above, as to be expected, quality wise on a large 4K tv looks a bit poor, however on a smart phone small screen it looks ok.

The bigger the picture goes the worse it looks?



A photo of a SVHS-c tape and a mini DVC tapes for comparisons

To the SVHS technically inclined have you got any up-scaling AI tips?

More Super VHS frame grabs.

Walking through the flax bushes with my thrusty SVHS camera in the past (about 1992). I was fortunately enough to video this sambar stag with some of his lady friend/s.



Displaying SVHS content on a 4K TV?



I changed the photo to a black and white image and it looks a bit better than the colour version on a 4K TV....

Rip in the ear. Some knowledgeable sambar hunters say sambar deer fight like any other deer through the mating season. Perhaps this is how his ear got ripped?

Originally Posted by video hunter

The goat photo as above, as to be expected, quality wise on a large 4K tv looks a bit poor, however on a smart phone small screen it looks ok.

The bigger the picture goes the worse it looks?

Attachment 217217

A photo of a SVHS-c tape and a mini DVC tapes for comparisons

To the SVHS technically inclined have you got any up-scaling AI tips?

as you said 240 lines of resolution. no matter what the size of the screen its 240 lines deep so the bigger the screen the thicker the line. also its interlaced scan so scan 1 is 1st line 3rd 5th etc, then rescal is 2,4,6 etc.

there is some decent upscaling software out there but not my sort of thing, give me audio systems anyday.

https://neilchasefilm.com/ai-video-upscaling/

just make sure it will take analog input and provide digital output. of course you may have to get a usb adaptor to take s-video to usb input. composite video dongles are common but svhs separates the luminance from the chrominance signal.

Perhaps this is not to bad for a PhotoShop novice who doesn't know anything about it.... AI is a wonderful tool....

Resurrection of SVHS / 35mm format converted to digital art?

I recently put the above SVHS stag video frame grab into a paint program and had a play around with it, it seemed to come out OK. So I dived into my box of 35mm slides and negatives and found a image of a Sambar stag of 1977 vintage. I then had a software play around with him as well. So I have put both of them up together.



Photos were taken probably within a 100 yards of each other, so perhaps the 35mm stag is a great great great grandfather of the SVHS stag.

Great filming you were a pioneer!