“What the VHS backups would look like if you watched them”
Shows what VHS data backups look like.
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What the VHS backups would look like if you watched them: Amiga Video Backup System: link Danmere Backer: this video
LGR Oddware - Danmere Backer VHS Hard Drive Backup System
1M views · Aug 11, 2017 · 16:02 · 0 HN recommenders · 8 mentions · discussed 2018–2023
LGR reviews the Danmere Backer16, a 1996 backup system that stored a PC's data on ordinary VHS tapes through a VCR. He shows the hardware and software on Windows 3.1 and 95.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN links it whenever data-on-video-tape or YouTube-as-storage schemes come up, as the real precedent for storing digital data on VHS.
“LGR made a video for one of them, also showing the interface (as in: hardware and GUI) for the backup”HN comment, 2022
What Hacker News said 8
“Reminds me of Backer32, a piece of hardware that stored data on VHS tapes as black and white squares.”
Hardware storing data on VHS as black and white squares.
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Reminds me of Backer32, a piece of hardware that stored data on VHS tapes as black and white squares. this video
“Back in the day there were systems to back up to VHS tapes and those were way more lossy than YouTube”
VHS backup systems tolerated lossy media using redundancy.
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You just need enough redundancy/error correction. Back in the day there were systems to back up to VHS tapes and those were way more lossy than YouTube this video
“NTSC video signals offer a lot of bandwidth but very very few promises about the quality”
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this video NTSC video signals offer a lot of bandwidth but very very few promises about the quality of the reproduction of the stored waveform
“also some standards worked with normal tapes”
Standard tapes could hold data, about 1.5 gigabytes.
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Not sure about audio tapes, but video tapes could hold a lot of data... there was even a D-VHS standard: link - 50 gigs also some standards worked with normal tapes: this video (1.5gig)
“LGR made a video for one of them, also showing the interface (as in: hardware and GUI) for the backup”
Review of a VHS backup system, showing hardware and GUI.
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Yes! There were many such systems, LGR made a video for one of them, also showing the interface (as in: hardware and GUI) for the backup: this video
“There was also a hokey VHS tape backup card for the PC around the same time that used standard VHS tapes”
A PC VHS tape backup card.
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There was also a hokey VHS tape backup card for the PC around the same time that used standard VHS tapes: this video
“LGR has a video on the PC version from Danmere”
LGR video on the PC version of VHS backup from Danmere.
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Literally the modern equivalent of the old video-based backup systems. I remember they existed for both the PC and the Amiga. You would load a blank VHS tape into a VCR, connect the output of the computer to that VCR's input, and then tell the program which data you'd like to backup to the tape. It would generate this flashing "mess" of black and white pixels that you'd record to the tape. To restore, you'd connect the VCR output to a little box that came with the product, it would convert the black and white data in the video signal to a data stream that the program would use to restore your data. A portion of the signal would be used for timing, metadata and error correction, so the program could tell you if the data was sufficiently damaged upon restore. LGR has a video on the PC version from Danmere: this video Here's a video example of the Amiga industry's take on the idea: link Sony even did this in 1980 to record CD-quality PCM audio onto VHS tape. link