Talk:VHS

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the VHS article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article.

Add new text under old text. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help. Start a new topic Assume good faith Be polite and avoid personal attacks Be welcoming to newcomers Seek dispute resolution if needed Article policies Neutral point of view No original research Verifiability

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives (index): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6Auto-archiving period: 6 months

view · edit Frequently asked questions Why does this article insist that VHS stands for "Video Home System"? I've found several sources claiming the acronym stands for "Vertical Helical Scan". While there are possibly several meanings for the acronym, JVC, the company that invented VHS, as well as the two chief engineers who worked on the project, have mentioned (see references in the main article) that "Video Home System" is the original interpretation. Literally etched in stone, a plaque commemorating the invention of VHS at JVC can be found mentioning "Video Home System" as the meaning at the entrance hall of of the VHS Commemorative Hall in the JVC Yokosuka Plant, 58-4, Shinmei-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-8550, Japan. The hall is open to the public by appointment. The actual text is as follows: “ At the Yokohama Plant of Victor Company of Japan, Limited, a team of engineers headed by Shizuo Takano and Yuma Shiraishi developed VHS (Video Home System) format. They looked ahead to the need for home video tape recorders and embodied their idea in unique inventions. The first model JVC HR-3300 was announced on 9 September 1976. Their basic design with subsequent improvement gained wide customer acceptance. VHS became the world standard for home video tape recorders. ” Further evidence shows that JVC defined the VHS acronym as early as 1971, when the company published an internal document titled VHS Development Matrix; the VHS acronym was chosen even before key components and methods of the technology were chosen. Now that Google hosts the entire collection on Popular Science magazine - a prestigious technical source on-line, five different issues ranging between 1977 and 1984 reference VHS as "Video Home System" (same kind of search for "Vertical Helical Scan" came up with zero matches.) Despite the documented evidence mentioned earlier, it appears that in later years, European pundits attempted to push "Vertical Helical Scan" as its meaning. Some say that this is how VHS records video. However, VHS' actual operation contradicts this belief, as VHS uses a slant azimuth recording method - a helical scan method that produces a diagonal video track, and not a vertical track which is impossible to do when the tape is moving past the tape head at a constant speed. Other pundits say that "Vertical Helical Scan" was the original meaning, and JVC changed the meaning later on. Again, the slant azimuth recording, M-loading, and many other aspects of VHS was already chosen during development of the Matrix. Despite these findings, many secondary sources stemming from European influence subscribe to the "vertical" meaning, even though no documented proof in the form of magazines or other academic material from the 1970s or 1980s have been presented. All sources citing this meaning can only be found on-line, all are dated post-2000, and none cite resources dating back to the 1970s/1980s. Bottom line, when weighing the resources, the manufacturer, the chief engineers, as well as an overwhelming consensus of sources from both the East and West, "Video Home System" is what this article will use.

This  level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Television High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Television, a collaborative effort to develop and improve Wikipedia articles about television programs. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join the discussion. To improve this article, please refer to the style guidelines for the type of work.TelevisionWikipedia:WikiProject TelevisionTemplate:WikiProject Televisiontelevision High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Technology This article is within the scope of WikiProject Technology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TechnologyWikipedia:WikiProject TechnologyTemplate:WikiProject TechnologyTechnology Film: American This article is within the scope of WikiProject Film. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please refer to the documentation. To improve this article, please refer to the guidelines.FilmWikipedia:WikiProject FilmTemplate:WikiProject Filmfilm This article is supported by the American cinema task force.

The content of VHS tape rewinder was merged into VHS. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists. For the discussion at that location, see its talk page.

Archives

Index Archive 1 Archive 2 Archive 3 Archive 4 Archive 5 Archive 6

This page has archives. Topics inactive for 180 days are automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III if there are more than 3.

A section should be added to mention the use of vhs as data backup/storage solutions such as arvid and the backer by danmere mentioned in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUS0Zv2APjU Fanccr (talk) 01:30, 6 May 2025 (UTC)Reply

When CDs were first designed and commercialized, there was no convenient storage for 600MB or so of digital data. So, along with CD, came systems to store data on NTSC videotape, I suspect including VHS. CD data is written in 1/7 s blocks, though it isn't so obvious how that fits with NTSC video. Gah4 (talk) 04:48, 22 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Quantegy-VHS-cassettes.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 22:06, 18 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

VHS tapes are subject to physical degradation over time, including magnetic tape wear, mold, and loss of playback equipment. To preserve content, many users convert VHS recordings into digital formats such as MP4 or AVI. This process typically involves connecting a VHS player to a computer via a video capture device, which records the analog signal as a digital file. Once digitized, files can be stored on local hard drives or uploaded to cloud services such as Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, or Dropbox. Cloud storage provides redundancy and accessibility, helping ensure that recordings remain available even if local copies are lost or damaged. Digitization and cloud archiving are commonly recommended for preserving home movies, educational recordings, and other VHS content for long-term access. ~2025-35233-61 (talk) 23:26, 20 November 2025 (UTC)Reply