REVIEW
HEAD
THE LONG MARCH
INTRO
VHS picture quality is now about as
good as it can get, or is it? Akai are still chipping away at the edges of the
performance envelope with their latest range of Super Intelligent HQ equipped
VCRs
COPY
We haven’t heard much from Akai over the past year or
two, they’ve more or less pulled out of camcorders, and their most recent VCRs
have had few, if any video movie making facilities. Now they’re back; no new
camcorders, we’re sorry to say, but four out of the five new VCRs in their 94/95 range show a lot of promise as edit
decks, starting with the VS-G415, which we’re looking at here.
The key features on all of these machines is Super
Intelligent-HQ, a development of their I-HQ system which was one of the first
successful ‘smart’ picture enhancement systems, that optimised recording and
replay circuitry according to the nature of the recording and/or type of tape.
S-IHQ goes several stages further and now includes a range of picture
enhancements, including colour processing circuits and high-performance heads.
This adds up to significant improvement in picture quality and, according to
Akai, LP picture quality that is comparable with SP performance. Bold claims
which we we’ve been putting to the test.
On its own S-IHQ probably wouldn’t have got more than
a passing nod from us, after all this is a camcorder magazine, however, the 415
has several other useful movie-making features, including a front AV terminal,
a second set of AV input phonos on the back, as well as the traditional SCART
connector. It also has a good selection of trick-play options plus record
search; that’s very unusual on a machine in this price bracket. It’s very
useful for editing, helping to line up edit points whilst the machine is in the record-pause mode. This is a mono
machine but it does have four heads, and quite fancy ones at that, which are
geared towards improving LP performance. When it’s not being used for editing
the 415 is not found wanting as a timeshifter, with its Videoplus+ timer and
PDC (programme delivery control) system. We’re still not convinced PDC is worth
paying any extra for, at the moment anyway as it only works on C4 programmes,
but at only £329 it doesn’t seem to have added noticeably to the price of the
415.
As for the rest of the machine, well, it’s quite a
smooth-looking design, lots of flowing curves and a trendy mid-mount deck. The
415 uses a menu-driven on-screen for all of the initialisation and set-up
routines, these are operated from a simple four-button cursor control on the
remote handset. It’s a simple, easy to follow system, which is as it should be;
Akai pioneered the concept of on-screen displays and remote programming back in
1982, it took the rest of the industry a good five years to catch up.
PERFORMANCE
We’ll come to the S-IHQ tests in a moment, but first
our standard test routines showed the 415 to have a resolution of just under
250-lines, which is outstanding for a budget machine. Noise levels were average
to good and general picture quality excellent. Flipping the S-IHQ on and off
made little or no difference to SP recordings made on other machines. We came
up with a couple of extra tests to put S-IHQ through its paces, the first
involved making LP recordings on high grade tape. The results were most
encouraging; resolution was above 230 lines and noise levels were well below
average. It definitely lives up to Akai’s claims and LP recordings made on this
machine, using S-IHQ and high grade tape, do indeed look as good, if not better
than SP recordings made on some budget VCRs!
The really tough test, though is copying or editing
from a camcorder, and once again the 415 did brilliantly. Second generation
recordings made on high grade tape looked bright and clean, and there was
little or no colour displacement, making the picture look noticeably crisper.
There was still an increase in noise levels, but it was less than usual, so
whilst the picture has less detail than the original, the amount of
degredgation was significantly reduced.
Trick frame performance is good and audio quality,
from the mono linear soundtrack, quite reasonable. We’re sorry to see 415’s
intended for other markets have a microphone socket on the front AV terminal as
well, suggesting that they might also have audio dub as well, we suspect Akai
would have made a few extra friends if they’d left it on the UK version...
THE VERDICT
The 415 lives up to pretty well all of Akai’s claims
and it delivers the best LP performance we’ve seen on any machine this side of
£500, and even then we’d have to think hard about one that is better. However,
what impresses us most is the copy quality, and second generation recordings
look significantly better than normal, good enough in fact for us to reccomend
this as a mono edit deck.
SIDEBAR --
S- IHQ -- THE INSIDE STORY
So how does S-IHQ work? It’s a combination of
improvements, starting with something called CACC or current auto chroma
control, which adjusts the colour signal recording level according to the level
of the incoming signal, which has the effect of reducing noise on signals with
low saturation levels. Next there’s Direct VCO chroma, another colour
processing circuit that filters out harmonics, caused by signal interaction;
then there’s Linear PB-EQ, which adjusts the tape playback equalisation gain in
256 steps, (most other machines only have three or four steps). The Pro GX
heads are wider, with deeper gaps, for improved tracking and more sharply
focused magnetic flux. Lastly there’s
new chrominance processing circuitry which Akai say solves the problem
of vertical displacement, a fairly common problem on budget and mid-range
machines where coloured parts of the picture appear to be shifted slightly from
their proper position. This fault shows up even more clearly on second
generation recordings, so anything that makes edits or copies look better gets
our vote.
The S-IHQ system really comes into its own when
making LP recording using high-grade tape. Pressing the S-IHQ and record button
together starts the tape tuning process, it takes around fifteen seconds during
which time the VCR makes a short test recording, and analyses the results so ti
can adjust its recording circuitry to suit the type of tape being used. For
best results Akai suggest using high performance Super VHS tape.
VCR SPECS
Make/model Akai VS-G415
Tape
format VHS
Guide
price £330
TAPE
DECK
Max
playing time 8hours (E-240
tape LP mode)
Timer
8-events/365-days
Remote
control full function
VIDEO
System
PAL SP/LP, HQ
Replay speeds still, x7,
x5, x3, x1/10 both directions
Main
facilities
Slow motion yes
Multi-speed yes
Insert edit: no
Jog/shuttle no
On-screen display yes
Videoplus yes
Index search yes
Intro Scan yes
Instant timer yes
LCD remote yes
PDC timer yes
Repeat play yes
Record search yes
NTSC replay no
Quasi S-VHS replay no
Auto play yes
Auto head cleaner no
Additional
facilities
Fast
servo mechanism, digital tracking, blank search, display dimmer, rental play
(blank skip, rewind, eject and power off)
AUDIO
Stereo Hi-Fi no
Audio dub no
Man level control no
Level display no
NICAM sound no
Line output yes
H/phone level control no
GENERAL
Sockets
Front AV terminal yes
Edit terminal no
Microphone no
Headphones no
SCART single
Syncro edit no
Dimensions
(mm) 425 x 90 x 276
Weight
(kg) 4.0
PERFORMANCE
Resolution 250 lines
Colour fidelity very good
Trick play stability good
Colour bleed none
Audio performance average
Edit functions average
VC RATINGS
Value for money 9
Ease of use 9
Performance 10
Features 9
---end---
R.Maybury
1994 2208
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