Wiki Guides
     |
Wiki /
S-VHS S-VHS, also known as Super VHS, was first introduced by Japan in 1987 as an improved version of the VHS cassette tape. Known to have a higher video resolution and thus greater video detail, S-VHS tapes were used by analog fansubbing groups to create high-quality master copies of a finished fansub from which many regular VHS copies could be made for fans. As VHS tapes were susceptible to demagnetization and decay, the master was most often recorded onto S-VHS tape in an attempt to maximize quality, though some fansubbers were forced to use inferior but less expensive VHS due to lack of equipment or financial constraints. S-VHS master tapes were considered highly valuable archive copies of an analog fansub. Often, a group will translate and produce a master copy of a fansub on S-VHS, create a second copy from the master in VHS, then send the second copy to a distributor. Therefore, fansubs owned by most college anime clubs were at best, 3rd-generation copies. In reality, most fansubs in circulation were fourth or fifth generation copies and were not made on professional equipment. It is possible for an analog fansubber to send an S-VHS copy or actually send the original S-VHS master to the distributor. However, given the cost of S-VHS tapes and the need for professional video equipment, S-VHS copies were not surrendered readily, so such transactions were extremely rare. Although S-VHS as a technology was unpopular and was quickly superceded by DV and MiniDV for amateur video production, many fansubbers throughout the 1990s continued to use S-VHS for producing master copies, especially for LaserDisc? raw sources, as they shared the same horizontal resolution of 400 lines per frame, as opposed to the 240 lines used by VHS and analog (NTSC) television. |