Quote:
Originally Posted by arjoll
The only dropouts I noticed were in just one video - for example at about 0:31,
1:22, 1:47, 2:19 here. |
Yes they are complete dropouts of the HiFi track or at least a muting of it, and a default to the linear track. I've heard many YT uploads like that. Sometimes the flip/flop/flip/flop changeover happens many times. That can be more annoying than the quality difference between the two audio systems.
If the HiFi track cant be made to track better, the way to make the dropout as unnoticeable as possible is to optimise the linear track so that when it is inevitably exposed (which may only be for a second or so at a time) it sounds as close as possible to the Hifi track. That usually means azimuth alignment of the A/C head to the individual tape, and if necessary EQ and level adjust. When the programme is loud, often the increased hiss from the linear track is undetectable.
And even the switch from stereo to mono can be undetectable if for a short period. Even though the tape was recorded in Hi Fi Stereo, the source may still be mono. Sometimes choosing either left or right stereo tracks on a mono programme reduces the number and severity of switching clicks.
The fidelity of the linear track recording is not as bad as people often experience on playback. Azimuth misalignment between machines is potentially even worse than with audio cassettes. And when there is a lot of audible hiss, it's easy to assume it's tape hiss when it may be preamp hiss due to the fact that the tape to head alignment is so poor, or azimuth so badly off that the VCR's preamp hiss is completely exposed and has no competition.
Also I suspect that when the HiFi systems became more established in consumer VCR's, the designers werent as careful with the linear audio playback system as they assumed that all new recordings would be made and played back in HiFi. So on later model VCR's unshielded ribbon cable was more used from the audio head to the preamp, with the risk of noise in playback that isnt on the tape. I also suspect magnetic shielding of the A/C head sometimes became lower in quality.
Generally many analog recordings sound a lot worse than they actually are because not played back at their best. In pro audio production for reissue of older recordings there is sometimes a specialist job called Audio Transfer Engineer. The fellow may well do nothing else except replay and transfer various vintage recordings at their very best for the public's listening enjoyment, retrieving every wanted piece of information from it, and adding nothing unwanted in the process.
Sometimes people listening to a poor transfer of an old audio recording say, "Oh well it's an old recording. What more could you expect?" What more indeed!