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Universal Tape Player?

TheNuzziNuzz
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Go to solution Solved by KenjiUmino,
11 minutes ago, TheNuzziNuzz said:

I'm looking for a single professional, modern device that can play older tapes of all kinds. Cassettes, VHS, MiniDV

i doubt that there is one single device in existence that can do all of that so you would have to look for multiple devices.

 

cassettes: look for a quality tape deck from the 90's.

 

it should have dolby and be compatible with ferro  (type I) as well as chrome tapes (type II) and maybe metal tapes (type IV) as well if you have any - it should either have a manual selector or be able to autodetect the type of tape. 

 

stay away from all the "tape to usb" crap that is offered all over amazon and ebay.

99.5% of these devices are trash and some may even chew up your tapes.

 

VHS: same as above - a quality deck from a known brand.

 

i have a phillips VR 710 and the playback quality is amazing (if the material was recorded in perfect quality to begin with) 

 

look for decks that have "hifi stereo" or you will get crappy mono sound at best.

 

MiniDV: any miniDV camcorder.

 

MiniDV is a 100% digital format so the playback equippment does not matter as much as with analog media.

 

just make sure the camcorder or playback deck has firewire because then you can connect it to a computer and capture the digital stream directly from the tape without any quality loss.

Posted

This is the best thread I could find, sorry if its wrong.

 

I'm looking for a single professional, modern device that can play older tapes of all kinds. Cassettes, VHS, MiniDV, all the above. I want to extract the maximum quality from these old tapes as possible. I would like the hardware myself and I am not interested in anything other than owning the device myself. Ive searched a little but I haven't had much luck. I know its verry odd to wan't to spend money on such an old technology, but I have my reasons. I just need the best, no budget, just the best.

 

I am willing to go for multiple smaller devices. Just tapes though, no CD/DVD.

 

Thanks for your help!

Computers r fun

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11 minutes ago, TheNuzziNuzz said:

I'm looking for a single professional, modern device that can play older tapes of all kinds. Cassettes, VHS, MiniDV

i doubt that there is one single device in existence that can do all of that so you would have to look for multiple devices.

 

cassettes: look for a quality tape deck from the 90's.

 

it should have dolby and be compatible with ferro  (type I) as well as chrome tapes (type II) and maybe metal tapes (type IV) as well if you have any - it should either have a manual selector or be able to autodetect the type of tape. 

 

stay away from all the "tape to usb" crap that is offered all over amazon and ebay.

99.5% of these devices are trash and some may even chew up your tapes.

 

VHS: same as above - a quality deck from a known brand.

 

i have a phillips VR 710 and the playback quality is amazing (if the material was recorded in perfect quality to begin with) 

 

look for decks that have "hifi stereo" or you will get crappy mono sound at best.

 

MiniDV: any miniDV camcorder.

 

MiniDV is a 100% digital format so the playback equippment does not matter as much as with analog media.

 

just make sure the camcorder or playback deck has firewire because then you can connect it to a computer and capture the digital stream directly from the tape without any quality loss.

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