Blatant open-reel-ism!

[Lodgesound]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaskWmXaDvc

[Wakefield Turntables]

My iPad is playing silly buggers and not loading this up :(

[Beechwoods]

That is just too much loveliness... classic tune, classic gear. I assume that open reel has a linear / fixed head (rather than helical scan). Open reel video is even more mysterious than audio... all consumer video formats hide the exciting bit inside the machine :)

[PaulStewart]

I assume that open reel has a linear / fixed head (rather than helical scan).

Err no it's a helical scan and IIRC and I'm pretty sure I do it had Dynamic Track Following DTF later used by Philips on their domestic V2000 cassette system, which they launched as a replacement for their original N1500 system, as a rival to VHS and Betamax. It died a death 'cos at JVC we did a brilliant marketing job, both Beta and V2000 were technically superior to VHS.

DTF had the 2nd head on the drum mounted of a piezo sliver which could dynamically alter it's tracking automatically for a clearer image, unlike non-DTF systems that needed the tracking adjusting manually

Cheers all

Paul S

[Audio Al]

:scratch: Is it proper R2R :scratch:

Its got a TV built in :scratch::sofa:
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[Lodgesound]

Nick.....you are 100 % right - the machine has a fixed stereo linear head that reads off the Dolby A or SR encoded soundtrack on the upper edge of the tape.

The big silver drum is running at 3000 RPM (50 rps) or PAL television field rate as it reads off one field per scan.

You are also quite correct Paul - the replay head on the drum is mounted on a piece of piezo crystal to enable dynamic tracking during both replay and slow-motion / still frame in order that perfectly stable pictures are maintained.

Sony called this DT or Dynamic Tracking but it was actually invented by Ampex in 1978 and called Automatic Scan Tracking or AST for short. Philips did indeed license this technology for the V2000 format in 1981.

There are 3 heads on the scanning drum - erase, record and replay (DT).

It is indeed an open reel machine Al - an open reel VTR. The cost of one of these in 1985 was the best part of £80 000 including the digital timebase corrector which it required in order to work and produce stable pictures. The cost of tape to feed it was nearly £1.50 a minute which was half the tape cost of the 2 inch Quadruplex format that preceeded it.

This format, called "C" or sometimes "One Inch" due to the gauge of the tape used was the industry standard from 1980 until 1991 when digital VTR's that were practical to use came into being.