Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think!mintaka!mit-eddie!bu.edu!bu-cs!lectroid!cloud9!jjmhome!cpoint!frog!john
From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Digital recording on a VCR
Message-ID: <11315@frog.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jan 90 23:34:00 GMT
References: <21254@siemens.siemens.com> <13400@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <1990Jan18.164648.15896@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: Misanthropes-R-Us
Lines: 19

In article <1990Jan18.164648.15896@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
> VCRs are not like audio recorders; they know that their input is a video
> signal and tinker accordingly.  (For example, as I recall, they record sound
> and picture separately on the tape, meaning they know how to take a video
> signal apart.)  You're going to have to make your digital data look like
> video, at least to the extent of having sync pulses, I'd guess.

As I understand it, this is roughly how it *is* done: you make a TV picture
where the image is something that you can tear apart digitally (shades of the
old CRT computer memories !-)  For a while, WGBX TV Boston was running an
experimental encoding system where they would transmit digital audio in the
picture frames, with the audio from WGBH FM for reference in the audio channel.
You could actually SEE the bits.  Very entertaining watching (for a few seconds
anyway).
-- 
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (508) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, john@frog.UUCP, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw@eddie.mit.edu

Happiness is Planet Earth in your rear-view mirror.	- Sam Hurt