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Hi there, over the years we have had a lot of opportunities to converse at length with many of the smallest and largest video tape duplicators on earth and the one common denominator to all those conversations has been "Geeze why did this industry even get started?... no two home VCR's will playback the same tape the same way". I have some thoughts on that subject and the bottom line is it's our own fault. Japan designed the VHS mechanism to record and playback television broadcasts as a time shifter. The home VCR was never intended to play back a tape from Blockbuster. There was no Blockbuster back then. American entrepreneurialism came up with the rental market, the sell through market, "how to tapes" and all the rest of the product including wedding videos and tapes of "Aunt Grace's eye surgery" and we want it all to play back in our Home VCR. The unit we have never had serviced or even cleaned the heads on properly. What's the problem? None really, the VHS duplicator will do that by recording a nice full RF envelope and everything will be fine. So came the advent of the professional duplication machine and the dub house. So lets rewind to about the earliest part of the 80's and remember our little buddy "ET", along comes a movie that's so popular that when the industry decides to release it on VHS, millions upon millions of copies are demanded and then comes Batman, Star Wars and every other movie that as Americans we just HAD to own and believe me I still have mine. Yes' it takes 140 million hours to record 70 million 2 hour copies of "Snow White" and it was done. It took over 100,000 machines running 24-7 but it was done. The studios, the duplicators and manufacturers all worked together with one common goal. The VHS product that plays back in a customers home MUST look as good as possible. The home VCR is not reliable. I left Panasonic Broadcast Company in early 1990 as Market Development Manager for the VHS duplication division and during the 10 years I was there, I was constantly amazed by the efforts some of the top entertainment industry duplicators have gone to in order to accomplish this task. One amazing memory was of one duplication company so organized that they were able to maintain over 100,000 VCR's running 24-7. Just the concept of tracking all the units age, maintenance records, and running condition required a dedicated MIS department. The VCR maintenance/service department was 50 people strong for each of the 2 shifts they worked. I still don't know how they kept track of what tape was what AFTER it was recorded. I do know this, they cared. Today's VHS duplication machine is built like a "Checker Cab". Its designed to stand up to the rigors of the industry but much like any vehicle its all in the maintenance. Here at Video Systems were quite proud of our ability to refurbish these machines and I would like to detail some of our procedure's and behind the scenes knowledge. Sooooo you wanna buy some old VCR's "there just off line"... We've sure heard that a lot over the last 14 years. We are truly very selective in the VCR's we purchase for refurbishing. We only will buy large lots of retired duplicators from select duplication factories because we know all to well that if the units are not maintained well to start with then all the refurbishing in the world will not correctly revitalize a worn out machine. Secondly we know the weak points on the various machines we buy and how to correct that problem before resale. For instance one certain duplicating deck we buy in mass is known to have a weak elevator, we fix the problem with our own custom built gear whether it's broken or not. That's the way we can give the kind of warranty we do on machines that we refurbish knowing just what kind of constant use they'll be getting. Time is an excellent teacher and hindsight makes it very easy to take machines with commonly identified problems and rectify the situation once and for all. We know all duplication machines have weak spots and we know as soon as we have purchased certain Panasonic, JVC or Sony units what their weak spots are and what to have ready for refurbishing parts. We rebuild certain AC power supplies even though there good. We know that if we don't do it now sure enough there'll be a problem just down the road and the buyer is going to blame us. It just happens that way. Every unit that comes through this building from one manufacturer gets a replacement capstan. The shaft wears, its just a soft spot, the machine has proven itself to be one of the toughest built units in the industry but we know that if the linear audio is going to wobble its a worn shaft that's going to cause the problem. We have developed certain expertise's in not only which or who's machines to buy but how to fix them and with 3'500 to 4'000 VHS units a year under our belts we put out a reliable product with years of future life to it. What's the point????? VHS is the largest playback format in the history of this planet and while the entertainment industry just loves selling "Gone with the Wind" once again, this time on a DVD platform there are still VHS dub labs spitting out one million plus, T-120's a DAY of current VHS titles. I can't say that the DVD numbers are rigged but the simple amount of playback units in real home entertainment is no where near the VHS playback penetration out there. Video Systems Trading Company has been dedicated to the video industry for nearly 14 years and has acquired the background knowledge as well as industry overview with which to ride this wave all the way to shore. The ride has always been to produce a machine that will allow the best possible recording of a VHS product; The shore? that's still quite a ways off. The simplest advice we can give to today's VHS duplicator is the same as its always been. "If an editor or producer stayed up till four AM five nights straight to get the final production right then you owe it to them to get the VHS Dub duplicated as well as possible". Chances are this award winning program is going to be played back on a consumer VCR that weighs less than my kids lunch and cost less than a good steak dinner and we know what the end user is going to say if it doesn't. "There's nothing wrong with my home VCR, I just taped last nights hockey game and it played back fine." except the Red Wings lost again. So whether your buying a small VHS duplication system to produce your own product or running a large dub lab and producing mass volume for the distribution arena using the right equipment is the key. If your in the process of acquiring VHS duplication machines give us a call. We just might have some answers. For a more technical explanation of VHS recording technology please see our 'Links Page" or click below. |
