I've recently heard about a phenomenon that is sweeping the world called overclocking. It basically allows you to make a stock item perform better by increasing it's speed and power. I'd like to try my hand at it by overclocking a VCR. I don't expect to be able to overclock it enough to get DVD quality but I'm thinking it is possible to get somewhere around Laserdisc quality picture and sound. From my understanding overclocking is basically making something run faster than it normally would from the factory. So my idea is to increase the speed of the motors inside the VCR so it will play the tape faster and therefore produce a higher quality image.
I've researched this and all the science is there. Apparently in the olden days when people used reel to reel players some tapes were recorded at a speed of 3-3⁄4 MPH but then came tapes that ran at 7-1⁄2 mph and were of higher quality! I expect the same thing can be applied to VHS since they are both tape! I think the reason that manufacturers never made players that ran at a higher speed was due to a form of planned obsolescence. By playing tapes at a lower speed and therefore a lower quality image they were able to make other products to trick people into buying. They didn't want people to find out they could simply play their VHS tapes at a higher speed(aka bitrate) to get a better picture. No! They convinced people that the only way to do that was by purchasing a Laserdisc player and buying all their movies again. They were able to do it again with DVD although admittedly running VHS at a high enough speed to get DVD quality would put much stress on the tape and cause breakage. So I don't have too much of a problem with DVD but Laserdisc was not needed as a VHS could be overclocked to spin just as fast as an LD.
If anyone has attempted this before or has any information that would be helpful please feel free to share. If I am able to overclock a VCR and prove this theory I have some other ideas as well. I've also heard that 8-tracks were actually capable of holding 12 tracks but they purposely locked out the remaining 4 tracks in order to sell 2 tape sets. One project at a time though!
Anyone here ever overclocked before? Sounds interesting
Moderators: szchinagoshop, Johnny 5
Forum rules
- Calavera
- Fighting Mongooses
- Posts: 1708
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 2:41 am
- Dr. Zoidberg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 23094
- Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 2:33 am
Re: Anyone here ever overclocked before? Sounds interesting
I overclocked my clock once. Put it at 4pm when it was 1pm.
- Skynet
- Site Admin
- Posts: 2070
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:54 am
Re: Anyone here ever overclocked before? Sounds interesting
I've never been that brave. Once a year I'll overclock my clock by an hour, but then I get scared I might overheat it so after about 6 months I revert to stockDr. Zoidberg wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2020 7:50 pm I overclocked my clock once. Put it at 4pm when it was 1pm.
- Dr. Zoidberg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 23094
- Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 2:33 am
Re: Anyone here ever overclocked before? Sounds interesting
Try underclocking. From 1pm to 10am.
- Skynet
- Site Admin
- Posts: 2070
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:54 am
Re: Anyone here ever overclocked before? Sounds interesting
Does that mean I can sleep in longer before I have to go to work tomorrow?
- Dr. Zoidberg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 23094
- Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 2:33 am
Re: Anyone here ever overclocked before? Sounds interesting
No, it means you have to do 3 extra hours of work.
- melancholy
- Global Mod
- Posts: 2095
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 1:32 am
- Location: Indiana
Re: Anyone here ever overclocked before? Sounds interesting
See Cal? Our Australian friends are so overclocked, they are an entire day ahead of us.
- Calavera
- Fighting Mongooses
- Posts: 1708
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 2:41 am
Re: Anyone here ever overclocked before? Sounds interesting
Amazing! So all we need to do is have them check the winning powerball numbers a day before it is drawn here and we can be millionaires! Why hasn't anyone ever thought of this before!melancholy wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 12:05 am See Cal? Our Australian friends are so overclocked, they are an entire day ahead of us.