Post by Matthew on Jul 20, 2006 14:16:21 GMT
Amateurs obtaining and slicing down 2nd hand videotapes to fit their domestic 1/4 inch reel-to-reel video machines for reuse, have been mentioned a couple of times and I was wondering if the original Quad recordings may be recoverable if not bulk-ereased...
If they they left a space, unre-recorded, at the end of the cut-down tapes, would it be possible to recover the remains of the original Quad recording (if it hadn't been wiped first)?
I'm thinking along the lines of someone technically skilled modifying a Quad VTR, making the tape(s) "playable" by fitting modified hubs and 1/4inch tape guides, (movable, so if the "slice" of tape has the Quad control track or soundtrack(s) on, it can be positioned so they can be read and used) then "dumping" the recovered video signal, live, into a computer, then, with suitable software interpolate the missing near-three-quarters of the picture. I'm assuming, that the track layout of Quad, means that playing only a quarter of the width of the tape, gives you picture information "cyclically scattered" from around the whole of the image, so using information from a sequence of frames, the gaps can be filled in, (unless of course you can find the other 3 cut-down "slices" and play them as well and).
Do the track arrangements of Quad give rise to a better possibility, that of replaying the Quad recording of the entire length of a cut-down tape, even if it's been completely re-used as 1/4 inch video (or audio for that matter), as the tracks are recorded at different angles, I'm thinking of the way PAL VHS "buries" Hi-Fi audio.
If none of this is do-able, I assume (if you had the correct "slice"), the Quad audio could be recovered from the tail ends by being played on a 1/4 inch multi-track audio deck and selecting the track best positioned to play it?
Might anyone have actually have cut down 2inch videotape to use as reel-to-reel audio tape, or was 1/4 inch audio tape cheap enough for it not to have been worth the hassle?
If they might, how could you tell a 2inch tape cut down to 1/4inch for audio use, from a genuine 1/4inch audio tape?
If they they left a space, unre-recorded, at the end of the cut-down tapes, would it be possible to recover the remains of the original Quad recording (if it hadn't been wiped first)?
I'm thinking along the lines of someone technically skilled modifying a Quad VTR, making the tape(s) "playable" by fitting modified hubs and 1/4inch tape guides, (movable, so if the "slice" of tape has the Quad control track or soundtrack(s) on, it can be positioned so they can be read and used) then "dumping" the recovered video signal, live, into a computer, then, with suitable software interpolate the missing near-three-quarters of the picture. I'm assuming, that the track layout of Quad, means that playing only a quarter of the width of the tape, gives you picture information "cyclically scattered" from around the whole of the image, so using information from a sequence of frames, the gaps can be filled in, (unless of course you can find the other 3 cut-down "slices" and play them as well and).
Do the track arrangements of Quad give rise to a better possibility, that of replaying the Quad recording of the entire length of a cut-down tape, even if it's been completely re-used as 1/4 inch video (or audio for that matter), as the tracks are recorded at different angles, I'm thinking of the way PAL VHS "buries" Hi-Fi audio.
If none of this is do-able, I assume (if you had the correct "slice"), the Quad audio could be recovered from the tail ends by being played on a 1/4 inch multi-track audio deck and selecting the track best positioned to play it?
Might anyone have actually have cut down 2inch videotape to use as reel-to-reel audio tape, or was 1/4 inch audio tape cheap enough for it not to have been worth the hassle?
If they might, how could you tell a 2inch tape cut down to 1/4inch for audio use, from a genuine 1/4inch audio tape?