ArVid


ArVid is a data backup solution using a VHS tape as a storage medium. It was very popular in Russia and the rest of the former USSR in the mid-1990s.
It was produced in Zelenograd, Russia by PO KSI.

Features

A VHS recorder unit should be connected to an ArVid ISA board by a composite video cable. Unit operation is controlled by a remote control emulator using an LED.
Device may operate in two modes: low data rate at 200 KB/s and high data rate at 325 KB/s. The original, lower recording speed was retained as a user option because not all VHS recorders of the time offered sufficient recording quality to reliably support this higher speed.
An E-180 video tape is able to hold 2 GB of uncompressed data at the lower rate, more than sufficient for most PC hard drives of the time. This can be shown by calculating 200 KB/s × 60 s/min × 60 min/h × 3 h = 2.06 GB, which also leaves a few minutes spare for header and synchronisation space.
Note that it is unclear here whether "200 kbyte" means or ; the above calculation assumes the latter, but the former still produces a capacity of 2.01 GB, providing 2.00 GB of capacity in a little under 2 hours and 59 minutes. Similarly, this means that an E240 4-hour tape, using the higher data rate, would be capable of storing between 4.35 and 4.46 GB, approximately equivalent to a standard single-layer recordable DVD.

Models