Seventeen (17) NOS 1985 MAXELL EPITAXIAL HGX GOLD HI-FI VHS Videocasse

[Shaorin]

hey there people, been a while!

i just stumbled a couple weeks ago on a very rare find indeed.

17-count 'em-Seventeen of MAXELL's early top-of-the-line 1985-edition

EPITAXIAL "HGX GOLD HI-FI" VHS format Videocassettes!!

they are fantastic!! BEAUTIFUL cosmetics and build quality!!

they are among the best Videocassettes i've ever owned!

i have opened six samples, and i'll be leaving the remaining 11 sealed.

i'll be recording onto the six samples some of my favorite

high-resolution programming on DVD that isn't MACROVISIONed,

mostly Anime (Japanese Animation) such as the 1984

theatrical movie "MACROSS; Do You Remember Love?"

my recorder is the almighty classic 1988 JVC HR-S8000U;

Edited May 6, 2011 by Shaorin

[taksraven]

Bloody hell.

[Ghost Train]

I find some of this technology very nostalgic as the first decade of my life was in the 80's and my anime collection was analog until 2003'ish or so. I remember I had this really bad tape that was skewered and jamming the VHS player, so I had to roll it out with the white wheel thingies and flatten it out .

[wm cheng]

Ahhh... that brings back memories!

Shaorin, you must the around the same age as I (too old!). I have a box of that stuff too, loved the gold labels - I remember I taped DYRL onto that and I "letraset"ed the label information onto it and even added a clear coat to protect the letraset from rubbing off!! Man I had time when I was in high-school. ;-)

What you need for the Macrovision is a Sima Color Corrector - its an analogue video enhancement device that's side-effect (after the recombination of the color channels) is that it strips off all Macrovision protection schemes. I had the "super" JVC VHS too - but it was slightly later model with the jog shuttle dail - I think its still packed away in my basement somewhere. Man, they sure don't make components like they used to.

I still have a bunch of these amazing Sony Super Beta tapes - can't remember... HX-Pro ESX Gold or HiFi something, that had these great cases. All the crap we used to spend money on eh?! I'd always double my anime onto the best VHS tape and SuperBeta tape possible!

[Keith]

Yeah, I'm cool with my blurays, but thanks.

[Jasonc]

I took that same VHS tape of Macross DYRL (the VHS full version, licensed) and just put it onto a DVD using a VHS/DVD combo box, then put the video file onto my computer, and did some color correction, to get a very good version of the poor english version. I'm doing this to all the VHS anime tapes I have that never made it to DVD.

[David Hingtgen]

I only had like one Maxell Gold tape. I had to "waste" it on something trivial though as it was the only tape I had at the moment and had to use it.

Rant: Any VCR can playback in LP (4hr) mode, but few can record in it. Always annoyed me---my final(current) VCR has superior EP recording to any other, but it cannot record LP. At least 2hr 40min SP tapes became common eventually.

[Shaorin]

Ahhh... that brings back memories!

Shaorin, you must the around the same age as I (too old!). I have a box of that stuff too, loved the gold labels - I remember I taped DYRL onto that and I "letraset"ed the label information onto it and even added a clear coat to protect the letraset from rubbing off!! Man I had time when I was in high-school. ;-)

What you need for the Macrovision is a Sima Color Corrector - its an analogue video enhancement device that's side-effect (after the recombination of the color channels) is that it strips off all Macrovision protection schemes. I had the "super" JVC VHS too - but it was slightly later model with the jog shuttle dail - I think its still packed away in my basement somewhere. Man, they sure don't make components like they used to.

I still have a bunch of these amazing Sony Super Beta tapes - can't remember... HX-Pro ESX Gold or HiFi something, that had these great cases. All the crap we used to spend money on eh?! I'd always double my anime onto the best VHS tape and SuperBeta tape possible!

that's awesome! i just turned 29 this last JAN. FYI...

[one_klump]

Yeah, wow, I'll pass. The Goodwill stores around here are jam packed with VHS stuff.

[Legioss]

I might not have the exact ones you're referring to, but in 1993, Maxell HGX-Golds were all I was willing to record in until the stores stopped selling them. They still work fine. After that I switched to Maxell High Grade or TDK DSP.

[Noriko Takaya]

Have to get my reply in before the inevitable shut down of this topic.

[Shaorin]

and why should it be shut down?

[Rbstr]

Cool stuff ya got there.

But why?

I mean, I get the usage of some old technology. Records are in some ways better than CDs, tube amps produce different sound than digital stuff...

Older cars have style, driving and engineering quirks you don't get these days. And the bad ones are, at least, cheaper.

But...video cassettes are not better or even just different....they're worse. In, like, every way.

[mikeszekely]

Yeah, I'm cool with my blurays, but thanks.

I'm with Keith. I loved the '80s as much as the next guy who spent his formative years in them, but there's a reason we don't use those things anymore.

[Noriko Takaya]

and why should it be shut down?

Umm, because this is the Anime and Science Fiction. I'm surprised it's still open. There is a science and technology thread. However, just ignore me. I'm old and grumpy.