LGR Oddware - Danmere Backer VHS Hard Drive Backup System

Literally the modern equivalent of the old video-based backup systems. I remember they existed for both the PC and the Amiga. You would load a blank VHS tape into a VCR, connect the output of the computer to that VCR's input, and then tell the program which data you'd like to backup to the tape. It would generate this flashing "mess" of black and white pixels that you'd record to the tape. To restore, you'd connect the VCR output to a little box that came with the product, it would convert the black and white data in the video signal to a data stream that the program would use to restore your data. A portion of the signal would be used for timing, metadata and error correction, so the program could tell you if the data was sufficiently damaged upon restore. LGR has a video on the PC version from Danmere: ▶ this video Here's a video example of the Amiga industry's take on the idea: link Sony even did this in 1980 to record CD-quality PCM audio onto VHS tape. link

There was also a hokey VHS tape backup card for the PC around the same time that used standard VHS tapes: ▶ this video

Yes! There were many such systems, LGR made a video for one of them, also showing the interface (as in: hardware and GUI) for the backup: ▶ this video

Not sure about audio tapes, but video tapes could hold a lot of data... there was even a D-VHS standard: link - 50 gigs also some standards worked with normal tapes: ▶ this video (1.5gig)

▶ this video NTSC video signals offer a lot of bandwidth but very very few promises about the quality of the reproduction of the stored waveform

You just need enough redundancy/error correction. Back in the day there were systems to back up to VHS tapes and those were way more lossy than YouTube ▶ this video

Reminds me of Backer32, a piece of hardware that stored data on VHS tapes as black and white squares. ▶ this video

What the VHS backups would look like if you watched them: Amiga Video Backup System: link Danmere Backer: ▶ this video