13 May 2011, 14:17 | #1 |
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VCR backup: did anyone of you really used it?
Hello,
these days I'm indexing some old VG magazines and I smiled at the advertisements about VCR-based solutions to perform a backup on your Amiga. Did any of you really used such a kind of backup back in the day? Was it realiable? |
13 May 2011, 16:40 | #2 |
The 1 who ribbits
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I remeber a mate of mine buying it, but as to him using it regularly I think he gave up in the end and brought a bigger HDD
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13 May 2011, 16:56 | #3 |
Old-Amiga-Git
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Somerset , in the UK
Posts: 175
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I used to make a few long ago... just a few bits and an OP amp.
Still got a couple lying about.. But Slow!!!!!!. but did work OK used it to backup the BBS. Yer's my own version , Chris |
13 May 2011, 17:24 | #4 |
The 1 who ribbits
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Kewl
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13 May 2011, 18:15 | #5 |
Professional slacker!
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Lol thats brilliant!
How many MB's could you get on a four hour tape? E240 lol, takes me back |
13 May 2011, 18:50 | #6 |
Old-Amiga-Git
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Somerset , in the UK
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13 May 2011, 20:33 | #7 |
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[ Show youtube player ]
and Scotch (3M) still honor the Lifetime Guarantee! (according to a poster on there) |
14 May 2011, 05:13 | #8 |
Amiga Member
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Yes, I used to use it too and only used high quality TDK video cassettes
I still have the hardware etc, not sure if it's my original one however... eg probably got angry with it one day and smashed it LOL |
21 May 2011, 01:10 | #9 |
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Chara' Data sold an interface that worked with any VCR, never used it myself but they sold a few.
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27 May 2011, 20:44 | #10 |
retro maniac
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Tarnobrzeg/Poland
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This system was very popular in Poland. Quite good if you have good tapes and good video recorder. About 1,5 min takes to record one disk (plus pause, sync signal) so on 180 min you have 90 disks.
Anyway it's legacy now. There is not point to used these days. |
27 May 2011, 20:45 | #11 |
Global Moderator
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I used the Video Backup System
Was very good until the tapes were chewed in the vcr!! |
28 May 2011, 01:42 | #12 |
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29 May 2011, 15:00 | #13 |
Amiga NetRunner
Join Date: Apr 2005
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What was the capacity of these tapes in megabytes?. Just curious, as in the time these were available, i wondered how many data i could store in that tapes. Sadly i didn't have one back in the day.
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29 May 2011, 15:06 | #14 |
Old-Amiga-Git
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Somerset , in the UK
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I always made sure I didn't record at the start of any tape as the first few feet always got wrinkled by the transport mechanism..
@ ThEcRoW Capacity obivously depended on the number of hours on the video tape ? .. But approx 1min per mb ( ish). Chris |
29 May 2011, 21:30 | #15 |
The show must go on.
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The original page is still online
"There are special backup modes for Amigas with an 68020 or higher CPU (A1200, A2500, A3000, A4000). The first one gives a speed improvement of a factor 2 compared to V1.5, without data compression. The typical thoughput in this case is 85MB per hour, for a total of 340MB per 4-hour video tape! The 68020-compressed mode adds data compression to this, and is up to 3 times as fast as V1.5 (depending on the compression ratio achieved). With 130MB per hour, 520MB will fit on a 4-hour tape! On an 68000 Amiga, the throughput is about 40MB per hour" |
29 May 2011, 21:36 | #16 |
Alien Breeder
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We used it during a period of time around 1995-96. Closely before the CDRom writing became common on Amiga too.
"We" means Amigans in Hungary :P Last edited by TCD; 29 May 2011 at 22:19. Reason: Back to back posts merged. Use the edit function. |
29 May 2011, 22:12 | #17 |
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My mate had a similar system for the PC a long time ago. It did work but as already mentioned VCR's are great tape chewers so reliability was never something you could expect and then dirty heads or poor quality tapes meant it was more of a Fad thing than anything useful.
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30 May 2011, 18:57 | #18 |
Zone Friend
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What did it look like if you tried playing back a VHS with backups on it on a TV ?
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30 May 2011, 19:41 | #19 |
retro maniac
Join Date: May 2002
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You have to play backups always to search to beginning (sync)
Black and white stripes |
30 June 2011, 19:04 | #20 |
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My friend and I both had these. He had a proper one, but made a homemade one for me. They worked pretty darn good for a cheap tape backup solution.
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