Talk:Peep search

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This does need placing under Video categories, if anyone knows how to....

Peep search on VHS[edit]

I have a Sony SLV-798 VHS machine at home, and peep search works pretty much the same way as it does on Beta machines. The difference is that VHS machines typically use the loading motor to switch modes and load the pinch roller, requiring a second or so for each mode switch (few if any VHS machines completely unload the tape now, unless turned off or left idle for a long time).

The Beta machines can do this faster because they use a solenoid to load the pinch roller, and also don't have to shift the transmission into "play" or "reverse search" mode from "fast seek" mode (typically two or three stops on the shift lever); Betas with skip scan either used a fully mechanical transmission shifted directly from the front panel controls, or a direct-drive system where both reels, the headwheel and the capstan had their own motor (and thus didn't need any gears or belts). -lee 15:29, 7 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This article needs some sourcing or a major re-edit. Every VHS VCR that I've owned in the last 15 years has had peep scan. --69.123.132.41 (talk) 23:01, 4 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The article does mention that some VHS machines emulate the feature. But since they are generally not fully laced during winding functions, they cannot instantly do so, and instead move the deck from an unlaced or part-laced position to the laced picture search function when the function is called for. This takes time, and is not at all the same as true Peep Search. This emulation is not generally fitted to many VHS decks, but does appear on many Sony models and a few later Panasonic machines. Philips may also have emulated it on a few models. Colin99 (talk) 21:46, 2 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This distinction should be included on the page or something. The general feature description: "the unit can show you what is on the tape during rewind and fast forward operations" has been true of almost every VHS player I've ever used. --Frantik (talk) 19:41, 4 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Same here...it's a standard among every VHS player I have ever seen so the article is either total bull or so outdated it was written before the internet was created. I'm pretty sure it has other names too, peep search isn't what it was known as back when I used VHS, I think it was known as cue, dub or something. And I wonder if "instantaneous" back then when betamax was popular is faster or slower than the milliseconds it takes more modern VHS VCRs to "emulate" this feature 87.194.86.204 (talk) 20:57, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think there is some confusion between “ordinary” picture search, which is activated during playback mode, and the “peep search” this article talks about, which is activated during full (non-visual) rewind and fast-forward. Virtually every VHS deck has the former, but not every one has the latter. On the VHS decks I've seen emulating Peep Search, the response time is much slower than “true” Peep Search. Judging from the comments here, I'd suggest the article probably could be rewritten more clearly. I'd take a stab at it myself but don't have time at the moment.

However, the article is rather out of date concerning the fact that VHS decks unload the tape during fast wind. This was generally true of early decks, but late-model ones quite commonly left the tape fully loaded in all transport modes, even fast wind. As Lee Cremeans pointed out above, the more sluggish Peep Search mode had more to do with the transmission design than the need to unload and reload the tape.

Travis Evans (talk) 03:57, 27 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]