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ArVid (Archiver on Video) (Russian: АрВид, Архиватор на Видео) is a data backup solution using a VHS tape as a storage medium. It was very popular in Russia and former USSR in mid-1990s.
Contents
It was produced in Zelenograd, Russia by PO KSI.
Features
Disadvantages
Operation
A VHS recorder unit should be connected to an ArVid ISA board via 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 kbyte/s and high data rate at 325 kbyte/s (equivalent to roughly 1.33x and 2.17x CDR recording speed). 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 x 60 x 60 x 3 = 2.06 GB (2.06 x 2^30 bytes), which also leaves a few minutes spare for header and synchronisation space.
Note that it is unclear here whether "200 kbyte" means 200,000 (200 x 10^3) or 204,800 (200 x 2^10); the above calculation assumes the latter, but the former still produces a capacity of 2.01 GB (2.01 x 2^30 bytes), providing 2.00 GB of capacity in a little under 2 hours and 59 minutes. Similarly, this means an E240 4-hour tape, using the higher data rate, would be capable of storing between 4.35 and 4.46 GB (2^30 bytes), approximately equivalent to a standard single-layer DVDR.