I used to do this pretty seriously several years back, so here's some tips I can pass along to you.
Ideally you should be playing direct from a DV source (either your computer or a DV camera or DV deck). If this is not a possibility, then consider mastering to S-VHS. However this is going through an unnecessary generation and your tapes mastered on DV, copied to S-VHS and then duped to VHS will not look as good as a tape mastered on DV and copied straight to VHS.
You can get away with just about one "daisy chaining" wiring. That is outputting from the playback VCR into the first recording VCR, then taking that unit's outputs and inputting them into the second recording VCR. Generally if you try and daisy chain more than 2 units together you will have some fairly serious video degredation going on, not to mention unacceptable audio compression due to the built in AGC circuits. The preferred method would be to get yourself a digital time base corrector and a distribution amp. That way you can line up a dozen machines, each with it's separate feed from the distribution amp and have equal quality copies.
If you are going to choose to play back straight from a DV source, DO get a separate tape and record the computer's output as a secondary "master", then make your VHS dupes from that. You don't want to put a lot of wear on a tape that is only going to be used temporarily for duping.
If you are going to master from DV to S-VHS and then dupe to VHS, make sure that the S-VHS deck that is to be the playback unit is the one that records the tape. You will have maximum compatibility (and quality) by following that rule. The same thing applies if you choose to master to VHS and then dupe that VHS tape to other VHS tapes.
Finally, get all S-VHS machines, not VHS machines. They allow you to use S-video inputs, which separate the chrominance from the luminance and your copies will be better just by that alone. A S-VHS machine can play and record either format, and it makes better VHS tapes than a regular VHS machine can.
Try and find decks that have manual audio recording level controls. The AGC circuit can really destroy a carefully crafted audio mix. Also, most decks with automatic gain control circuits tend to record one channel noticeably louder than the other, resulting in unbalanced sound and incorrect Pro Logic steering (assuming you mixed for this).
Definitely get a "4 head" machine, BUT (and it's a big but) make absolutely sure that you are getting "4 video heads" and not in all actuality a 2 video head + 2 HiFi audio head machine, or you are in essence using the narrower set of heads designed for EP/SLP recording when you make the dupes in SP mode. A deck with only 2 video heads will result in a copy with more noise in the image and the tapes will not play well on decks that truly have 4 video heads. You will probably have to get the manual and look at the spec sheet to make sure your machines actually have 4 video heads. I don't think there is such a thing as a S-VHS machine that does not have HiFi audio, and you should not even consider using a VHS machine that doesn't have it. However, just for clarification, your machine should actually have 6 heads on the drum (4 for video, 2 for HiFi audio). The spec sheet will show this.
And of course, ALWAYS record on "SP" speed, no exceptions.
|