S-VHS

S-VHS (スーパー・ヴィエイチエス), the common initialism for Super VHS, is an improved version of the VHS standard for consumer-level video recording. Victor Company of Japan introduced S-VHS in Japan in April 1987 with their JVC-branded HR-S7000 VCR, and in certain overseas markets soon afterward.Like VHS, the S-VHS format uses a color under modulation scheme. S-VHS improves luminance (luma) resolution by increasing luminance bandwidth. Increased bandwidth is possible because of increased luminance carrier from 3.4 megahertz (MHz) to 5.4 MHz. Increased luminance bandwidth produces a 60% improvement in (luminance) picture detail, or a horizontal resolution of 420 vertical lines per picture height – versus VHS's 240 lines. The often quoted horizontal resolution of 'over 400' means S-VHS captures greater picture detail than even NTSC analog cable and broadcast TV, which is limited to about 330 television lines (TVL). In practice, when time shifting TV programs on S-VHS equipment, the improvement over VHS is quite noticeable. Yet, the trained eye can easily spot the difference between live television and a S-VHS recording of it. This is because S-VHS does not improve other key aspects of the video signal, particularly the chrominance (chroma) signal. In VHS, the chroma carrier is both severely bandlimited and rather noisy, a limitation that S-VHS does not address. Poor color resolution was a deficiency shared by S-VHS's contemporaries, such as Hi8 and ED-Beta – all of which were limited to 0.4 megahertz or 30 TVL resolution.Despite its designation as the logical successor to VHS, S-VHS did not come close to replacing VHS. In the home market, S-VHS failed to gain significant market share. For various reasons, consumers were not interested in paying more for an improved picture. Likewise, S-VHS rentals and movie sales did very poorly. A few pre-recorded movies were released to S-VHS, but poor market acceptance prompted studios to transition their high-end product from S-VHS to Laserdisc, and then onto DVD.Shortly after the announcement of S-VHS, Sony responded with an announcement of Extended Definition Betamax (ED-Beta). S-VHS was JVC's next generation video format designed to dominate the competing SuperBetamax format (which already offered better-than-VHS quality). Not to be outdone, Sony developed ED-Beta as their next generation competitor to S-VHS.Getting the most benefit from S-VHS required a direct video connection to the monitor, ideally via an S-Video connection. However, older television sets lacked S-Video or even any AV inputs. Nevertheless, viewing an S-VHS recording through a VCR's built-in RF modulator yields a discernible quality improvement over VHS.In 1991, Alesis introduced ADAT, an eight-track digital audio recording system that used S-VHS cassettes. An ADAT machine recorded eight tracks of uncompressed audio material in 16-bit (later 20-bit) resolution. The recording time was one-third of the cassette's nominal playing time, e.g., a 120 min S-VHS cassette held 40 minutes of eight-track audio.