Recording VHS stereo

[Paul Raines]

I've got a Sony video and Toshiba Dolby pro logic widescreen TV connected with a scart lead.

When I play pre recorded tapes on my video the playback is in stereo and I get the full effect from the rear speakers, but when I record of the TV it’s only in Nicam even though there is a stereo icon on the video display when it's recording. It seems to lose the ability to playback stereo recordings, I've tried all the settings on the video, but all to no avail, so any ideas as to what’s going wrong.

[Phill]

Nicam is the way in which stereo recordings can be encoded for transmission on analogue TV. It usually goes hand in hand with stereo.

What's the actual symptom you're experiencing? Is there some stereo icon on your VCR that come on when playing back pre-recorded but not your own recordings? Can you tell its' in mono by listening to it? Have you tried setting your TV to mono and listening for the difference?

Phill

[Cable Monkey]

Paul appears to tell us he is not getting pro-logic on home recorded tapes. What is the program source. Is it via the tv tuner or a set top box of some description?

[Paul Raines]

I'm only getting mono when I record at home. I've tried different settings on the TV, but all I get is mono and it's recorded with a TV tuner.

[Phill]

How old is the video? It used to be possible to buy vcrs that were stereo but not nicam. If you don't have a nicam tuner, you won't get stereo from recorded analogue transmissions.

It's not a modulated signal from another source like a digibox or something is it? Digibox's don't have nicam encoders so that's mean you'd get mono results.

Hav you tried using the stereo output from the TV and recording that, maybe there's a fault with the Nicam sercuitry on you VCR.

Not very likely but they're the only things I can think of.

[AET]

Just go over that again please Phill

Digibox's don't have nicam encoders so that's mean you'd get mono results.

I get this when I record from Sky. I get pro-logic when I watch Sky noramlly(cos the sound goes thru my Kenwwod amp I assume). If I play a pre-recorded tape I get pro-logic. If I record from Sky though, no nicam at all.

Since the signal from the recorded tape still goes thru the amp, shouldn't I still get nicam separation?

Soz Paul, no attempt to hijack intended.

[Phill]

Originally posted by AET
Just go over that again please Phill



I get this when I record from Sky. I get pro-logic when I watch Sky noramlly(cos the sound goes thru my Kenwwod amp I assume). If I play a pre-recorded tape I get pro-logic. If I record from Sky though, no nicam at all.

Since the signal from the recorded tape still goes thru the amp, shouldn't I still get nicam separation?

Soz Paul, no attempt to hijack intended.

Here's how it works. The signal from the scart socket and from the phono outputs from your digibox is in stereo. The signal that is modulated into the RF, ie you can see it by tuning your TV or VCR to it is in mono.

The reason is that Sky is not broadcast in Nicam, it is broadcast using 2 channel Mpeg stereo. The digibox decodes the signal for output to the scart and phono sockets but it doesn't have a Nicam encoder in it which would be needed to send stereo information down the RF lead in a format that your VCR or TV could understand.

I assume that what you're doing is connecting the sky box to the VCR and then onto the TV using RF (ariel) patch leads. This will be mono.

To solve it, you must connect your digibox to your VCR using a scart lead. if you don't have a scart socket on your VCR, you can buy scart to 6xphono leads in any good home cinema shop, or dixons if you can't find one. If you don't have any phono sockets or a scart socket on your VCR then there's nothing you can do about it I'm afraid, apart from buy a new VCR.

Don't worry if you only have one scart socket on your VCR, The second cart socket on the sky box can also act as a pass-through.


Hope that helps,
Phill

[AET]

That's for taking the time out there m8.

Ahh hmm. This might stump u then.

Video (Akai VS-G2DPL - has in built nicam decoder but is about 5 yrs old) is connected to digibox via scart (!), which then daisy chains onwards from the digibox to the TV via scart (plugs into ext 1/AV1) . 2 phonos out of the digibox plug into the AV Amp (Kenwood KRF-V6050) for pro-logic from Sky.

By your reckoning this should work no?

I've tried to connect phonos direct from the video to the amp, but to no avail. Interestingly, when I watch thru the video channel, I get pro-logic on terrestrial, but not on Sky, so it's definitely a Sky thing. I get pro-logic from pre-recorded tapes.

Do I need to disconnect the RF cable or something?

Thanks again.

[Phill]

Originally posted by AET
That's for taking the time out there m8.

Ahh hmm. This might stump u then.

Video (Akai VS-G2DPL - has in built nicam decoder but is about 5 yrs old) is connected to digibox via scart (!), which then daisy chains onwards from the digibox to the TV via scart (plugs into ext 1/AV1) . 2 phonos out of the digibox plug into the AV Amp (Kenwood KRF-V6050) for pro-logic from Sky.

By your reckoning this should work no?

I've tried to connect phonos direct from the video to the amp, but to no avail. Interestingly, when I watch thru the video channel, I get pro-logic on terrestrial, but not on Sky, so it's definitely a Sky thing. I get pro-logic from pre-recorded tapes.

Do I need to disconnect the RF cable or something?

Thanks again.

When you record from Sky, are you changing the channel on your VCR or are you changing over to AV input on the VCR. I suspect that you're recording the modulated RF signal from the digibox and not the input from the scart socket.

A good test would be to disconnect all RF leads and connect up via scart only. If you try and record something off sky, I suspect you'll get nothing at all at first. Then mess about until you get a recording and see if it's stereo then.

You shouldn't have to disconnect the RF cable but you don't really need it either. Apart from when you want to record one channel while watching another but that's a different discussion.

Hope that helps,
Phill