[Soundbox]

Considering the time between 1988 and 1998 when apart from Laserdisc VHS was pretty much all there was, why were there no commercial S-VHS releases? Looking at the quality of some of the digital duped VHS releases (better than what you can record with your own gear) the same applied to S-VHS would have made for some outstanding quality (for the day) that would have complimented the widescreen TV's well.

I have tried taping modern day HD to S-VHS and the results look excellent. It irritates me that it was not MUCH more popular back in the day. Why was that do you think? We could have been watching films with more detail and more quality for years but it never happened.

[Deacon1972]

Could it have been down to cost, I remember paying a premium for s-vhs tapes, that cost on top of a pre recorded movie may have been considered too much at that time.

I do remember D-VHS, these would have been much closer to today's HD quality, these were expensive, as we're the players.

[Soundbox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deacon1972

Could it have been down to cost, I remember paying a premium for s-vhs tapes, that cost on top of a pre recorded movie may have been considered too much at that time.

I do remember D-VHS, these would have been much closer to today's HD quality, these were expensive, as we're the players.

Yes, D-VHS as well. I find it strange that people are all over HD now with bigger and bigger TV's and paying extra for the Sky HD but better quality has been available for a long time but nobody bothered or cared enough to push for it

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundbox

Considering the time between 1988 and 1998 when apart from Laserdisc VHS was pretty much all there was, why were there no commercial S-VHS releases? Looking at the quality of some of the digital duped VHS releases (better than what you can record with your own gear) the same applied to S-VHS would have made for some outstanding quality (for the day) that would have complimented the widescreen TV's well.

I have tried taping modern day HD to S-VHS and the results look excellent. It irritates me that it was not MUCH more popular back in the day. Why was that do you think? We could have been watching films with more detail and more quality for years but it never happened.

Simply because S-VHS was a huge flop, so there was no market to make S-VHS films available for - people were generally pretty happy with normal VHS.

As for 'wide screen', the USA never went wide screen prior to HD (presumably NTSC wasn't capable of it - too few lines?) - so it was never a concern for the mainly American film producers.

[njp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundbox

Yes, D-VHS as well. I find it strange that people are all over HD now with bigger and bigger TV's and paying extra for the Sky HD but better quality has been available for a long time but nobody bothered or cared enough to push for it

Pre-recorded S-VHS was never going to happen. Think of the huge installed base of normal VHS machines, and the duplication cost of tapes. There was no backwards compatibility, so shops would have needed to stock both formats - and cope with the inevitable customer confusion when they got it wrong.

[davor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundbox

Yes, D-VHS as well. I find it strange that people are all over HD now with bigger and bigger TV's and paying extra for the Sky HD but better quality has been available for a long time but nobody bothered or cared enough to push for it

Back in the day, the OP is talking about the late 90's (98/99), HD was only in development and it wasn't as ubiquitous as it is today. The other reason why nobody bothered about HD back then was the price. Today, technology is advancing faster than in the 90's, and thus new technology is getting cheaper, so people can afford to have decent HD TV's, receivers, blu-ray players etc. Today we also have fast Internet access so many people stream HD content which costs less than buying a DVD or Blu-Ray.

[unique]

there were a few films released on svhs but the format flopped sales wise so it wasn't worth releasing much on it

[diablo]

I seem to remember that S-VHS was quite popular in Japan and Hong Kong, so they probably had content to watch.

The format was just too expensive when it was introduced here. I had a Mitsubishi M1000 which had an RRP of £1000, though I got mine for less. By the time they came down to £250ish it was too late really, 1999-2000.

[Orbitalzone]

And it was only in the last few years of VHS/S-VHS decks that the price was very low.....so was really a niche market and by the time it was cheap, VHS was at the end fo the road and DVD taken over more or less.