V-Cord and old or extinct video formats
If anyone out there in internets land finds a working Sanyo V-Cord player, I would be interested, if it's not too expensive. Here is what a V-Cord II looks like, with a V-Cord tape next to it on the right:
[source]
They also came in brown in the United States.
V-Cord I & II were video formats before Beta and VHS. In fact, the V-Cord technology was merged into Beta when it came out as V-Cord was so much beyond what was out there at the time. You could record up to 2 hours on each V-Cord tape, and in color on V-Cord IIs. That's a big deal in the late 60s to early 70s!
At the cultural center, we have an enormous collection of audiovisual material. They are in all sorts of formats. A colleague and I want to preserve and also digitize these materials over the next year for a research project, as a lot of this is historically important material and needs to be saved before it falls apart.
Here's a list of the formats I've identified so far:
Audio
reel-to-reel audiotapes from mid 60s to late 70s
cassette tapes
Video
1/2" helical scan
1" helical scan
3/4" U-Matic
Sanyo V-Cord I
Betamax
VHS
At my university position, I can convert U-Matic, reel-to-reel audio, cassette tapes, and VHS. But the rest will be a search. There is a business in-town that can do Betamax and likely the helical scan (and probably can work for free or a very reduced price), but they do not list V-Cord as a format. It was not around long, and was not very popular. So I'm going to talk to the business and also check around other departments at the university to see if they have any of these deprecated formats. Because you never know who may be keeping some old video players in their closet. I love learning about these things, as I've always been interested in audiovisual preservation and this is very much like detective work: trying to find out what these things are and now how to get them in a newer format. It's very satisfying.
Great sites on identifying old video formats include:
LabGuy's World
Texas Commission on the Arts Video Preservation Guide
VideoPreservation Website
This entry was originally posted at http://florence-craye.dreamwidth.org/563346.html, with
comments.
[source]
They also came in brown in the United States.
V-Cord I & II were video formats before Beta and VHS. In fact, the V-Cord technology was merged into Beta when it came out as V-Cord was so much beyond what was out there at the time. You could record up to 2 hours on each V-Cord tape, and in color on V-Cord IIs. That's a big deal in the late 60s to early 70s!
At the cultural center, we have an enormous collection of audiovisual material. They are in all sorts of formats. A colleague and I want to preserve and also digitize these materials over the next year for a research project, as a lot of this is historically important material and needs to be saved before it falls apart.
Here's a list of the formats I've identified so far:
Audio
reel-to-reel audiotapes from mid 60s to late 70s
cassette tapes
Video
1/2" helical scan
1" helical scan
3/4" U-Matic
Sanyo V-Cord I
Betamax
VHS
At my university position, I can convert U-Matic, reel-to-reel audio, cassette tapes, and VHS. But the rest will be a search. There is a business in-town that can do Betamax and likely the helical scan (and probably can work for free or a very reduced price), but they do not list V-Cord as a format. It was not around long, and was not very popular. So I'm going to talk to the business and also check around other departments at the university to see if they have any of these deprecated formats. Because you never know who may be keeping some old video players in their closet. I love learning about these things, as I've always been interested in audiovisual preservation and this is very much like detective work: trying to find out what these things are and now how to get them in a newer format. It's very satisfying.
Great sites on identifying old video formats include:
LabGuy's World
Texas Commission on the Arts Video Preservation Guide
VideoPreservation Website
This entry was originally posted at http://florence-craye.dreamwidth.org/563346.html, with
comments.