Audio- Most VHS VCRs only play the normal (linear) track. Some VCRs and most commercial duplicate tapes have HiFi audio. These tracks are often in stereo. We can use them but they often have interchangeability problems. Home camcorders rarely record HiFi audio.

Better Grades of Tape- These don't really help VHS much. They don't wear out heads as quickly and are less likely to cause a head clog, but picture quality is determined by the way the video is encoded as it's recorded on the tape. Most of the problems you see are limitations of the format.

SVHS- There are VHS VCRs that do a better job of recording and playback. They are SVHS models that use different tape and more importantly, a better recording format. SVHS tapes cannot play on most VHS VCRs. If your source material is on SVHS your project will look much better, although Betacam SP, and the DV formats such as DVCPRO are far superior.

SVHS VCRs are usually more expensive than their VHS counterparts- $300 to $2000. Because their circuitry is better, they do a better job playing and recording regular VHS than VHS VCRs themselves. SVHS VCRs use a better video signal connection that keeps brightness and color portions of the video signal physically separate. This reduces smearing of color during copying. All KVP dubbing decks are SVHS and use the Svideo signal system. That makes our copies superior to most.

Lack of Time Code- Time code provides an hour, minute, second, and frame number for each frame of video on a tape. This enables edit systems to control VCRs to do frame accurate, repeatable edits. All professional tape formats have time code, but it's rarely found in consumer VHS equipment or tapes. This forces three choices on those who use VHS source material:

1. Dub all VHS material to DVCPRO and make a window dub on VHS to make time code visible. This is the best approach if you have a few hours or less of source material. The cost is significant if you want to keep the DVCPRO dub when the project is complete. This is the best quality choice. And can be used for economical linear editing of long form projects. As long as the DVCPRO tape is kept, the project can easily be modified later, regardless of the edit suite used.

2. Crash capture the video into the nonlinear editor of our "B" suite. The hourly rate is low, but you have very limited effects. Taking the time to find uncoded VHS footage can consume time and money. When the project is done it cannot be modified. Subsequent edits must be done with the edit master or simply done over.

3. Crash capture the video into the nonlinear editor of our "A" suite. The hourly rate is higher, but you have unlimited effects. Taking the time to find uncoded VHS footage can consume time and money. When the project is done it can be backed up to data tape, which is easily restored. This permits easy modification of the project at a later time.