rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (08/24/84)
[!] It seems to be the general concensus on the net that the mass market enthusiast magazines (e.g., Stereo Review, High Fidelity, Video, etc) always tend to hype and glorify their products, seldom saying anything bad with them.I'm not sure I fully go along with this, but it does seem more true lately. In any event I am beginning to feel uneasy about VHS Hi-Fi. The magazines describe the equipment as great, but they do not rave. They admit it is not available. They hint that the software is not available because of troubles in duplication. Video this month even passed on the untested statement that Hitachi machines had trouble playing prerecorded tapes. All these things we are assured, will be fixed instantly. Yet this goes on month after month. Beta Hi-Fi has been successful with no problems I have heard of, for over a year and a half. Could it be that this time it was too hard to get around the Sony patents? Sure would be awful if VHS had to adapt the Sony system. Dick Grantges hound!rfg Hoping Sony wins in spite of itself
wsm@sfmag.UUCP (08/27/84)
I would like to offer these observations on having bought and used a VHS HIFI recorder for almost a month now. Here in the NY/NJ area there are already around a half dozen VHS HIFI machines available for sale. The first to appear was the RCA VKT-550, which showed up MONTHS ago. So much for the "They can't make them/nobody's selling them" argument. As for the lack of available pre-recorded material, GIVE THEM A BREAK! As I recall, it took several months for any titles to be released in BETA HIFI, so give the duplicators a little time to get up to speed. Just last weekend I rented the Herbie Hancock "Rockit Band" tape (which IS recorded in VHS HIFI) and it sounded tremendous! (Not that I liked the music, but I liked the range/fidelity/etc.) By the way, the recorder I have is the Panasonic 1730, a top-of-the-line tabletop VCR with all the features SONY said VHS couldn't do, like reverse play, forward/reverse slow motion, although the triple speed playback is without sound (but a Beta machine I heard 2X with sound sounded like the audio was run through a gargling filter). As to which is better, they're probably close enough that you won't be choosing on that basis, but which format machine you'd rather have. Happy trails! Walt Morris AT&T Technologies btlunix!wsm