CompuServe Messages

Jeff, I had the repair manual for my original machine, it had a technical description of the machine. I don't know how much has changed in the last 10 years…but at that time anyway, VCRs had a 1H delay line and switch. I forget what it used to determine if an incomming frame from the tape was "good" or "bad"…but if it was bad, the system set the swtich to re-loop that frame in the 1H delay line. In other words…that frame was repeated. Not only that, but it was sent back thru the delay line. In other words…in theory, it was possible to keep that single frame in that loop and keep sending it out…of course there was some amplification done so that the input to the loop was always at a reasonable level. (as I sit here and type…I get the feeling that the standard for whether a frame was good or bad was the number of dropouts…not the signal quality or level) If this type of circuit is still in use…it could easily be used for a still. The biggest problem with stills is that normaly head A is oriented on the tape 180 degrees from head B…that way, you don't need a gap between successive tracks on the tape…the phase difference in the signal is sufficient to prevent head A from reading head B's track (again..in theory). A 5th head could be set so it's oriented the same as head A so that for stills, head A and head 5 are used…this would improve still quality. Don