While it might not be accurate to say VHS is dead, it’s certainly not a lively format. It continues on in undeath thanks to dedicated collectors and hobbyists, some of whom may be tempted to lynch Reddit user [CommonKingfisher] for embedding a video player inside a VHS tape.
The hack started with a promotional video card via Ali Express, which is a cheap enough way to get a tiny LCD player MP4 playing micro. As you can see, there was plenty of room in the tape for the guts of this. The tape path is obviously blocked, so the tape is not playable in this format. [CommonKingfisher] claims the hack is “reversible” but since he cut a window for the LCD out of the casing of the cassette, that’s going to be pretty hard to undo. On the other hand, the ultrasonic cutter he used did make a very clean cut, and that would help with reversibility.
The fact that the thing is activated by a magnetic sensor makes us worry for the data on that tape, too, whether or not the speaker is a peizo. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter; in no universe was this tape the last surviving copy of “The Matrix”, and it’s a lot more likely this self-playing “tape” gets watched than the VHS was going to be. You can watch it yourself in the demo video embedded below.
VHS nostalgia around here usually involves replicating the tape experience, rather than repurposing the tape. We’re grateful to [George Graves] for the tip. Tips of all sorts are welcome on our friendly neighborhood tips line.
So… which item do we buy? Four searches, no joy…
I guess it must be this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007924980515.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.55aeZcwHZcwHfX&algo_pvid=2e878617-5a92-4c3c-9d1c-fc5d7f0f3f93&algo_exp_id=2e878617-5a92-4c3c-9d1c-fc5d7f0f3f93-0&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22509%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%7D&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21EUR%2192.58%2126.19%21%21%21760.72%21215.19%21%40210384cc17532557176406111efd38%2112000042870526334%21sea%21NL%210%21ABX&curPageLogUid=ABkqi7LVUQ5b&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A
The whole tape is about 7″, it’s the smaller 4.3″ one.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqtxvsj
Yo dawg, I hear you like videos.
I can’t see either motivation, or hack value in this project. The tape is unplayable in this state, we’re not sure that the tape is not erased by tge magnet, and the process is reversible, but not really, because the plastic was cut. One could just temporarily remove the tape completely to be stored safely, put some media-player (raspberry-based, ready-made portable one, or just a small phone like Moto Defy) in front of the existing window and it would be already an improvement in reversability.
this is such a cool idea!
Yeah, it just works so well as a finished project. It would look great sitting on a shelf or desk.
Genius, that the medium can play hisself. Just recursive!
That’s so meta!
I wonder which Allwinner or Rockchip CPU powers this. There´s probably cheap SD card inside, a serial port accessible, unprotected u-boot, and even maybe root account bare naked. A good hacking candidate i would say… a bit of Yocto- or Buildroot-fu and Bob´s your uncle.
Only thing missing is a motor to simulate the tape moving in the case. That would be surreal!
Or two more screens with video of turning tape/reels.
Now the reverse: A VHS cassette with a short infinite tape that is being erased and written to inside it’s own shell while being played in a normal VHS player.
And then watching Netflix with that tape time-delay (streaming the video data into the infinite tape “adapter” cassette).
I’m sure with today’s technology there must be a way to write VHS tape without that big rotating read/write head…. ;-)
That’s a dynamic speaker, not a Piezo-disk (or ‘peizo’ as its mis-spelled in the article).
Should have used Johnny Mnemonic: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517VF133FNL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
Any movie with Henry Rollins must be good.