Digital Processing Improves the Image Quality of Small-Format Videotape Recorders
Stephen Kreinik · SMPTE Journal · 1992
In an effort to bring the quality of S-VHS™ and Hi8™ videotape recordings to a level acceptable to many broadcasters and other “high-end” video users, manufacturers have used clever circuit design to augment improvements in videotape and head technology. More remains to be done, however, to extract the maximum quality from the signal. The technology of programmable gate arrays has opened up a vast new area for design engineers, allowing experimentation with new video processing algorithms, in real time, through the use of an inexpensive computer. Small companies lacking the resources of a large laboratory can now develop complex circuit designs in a very short time. Together these developments have resulted in a series of digital video processing devices that extract maximum performance from S-VHS and Hi8 recorders.