@harrysintonen@infosec.exchange
Post #4085374
2026-07-25 10:13 UTC
Back when the "internet" involved expensive phone calls and modems, someone figured out that a video backup system (VBS) could be used to distribute hundreds of megabytes of "backups" between friends by shipping a VHS cassette in a padded envelope.
You just needed a VCR (everyone had one), and a small harness that could sample the video signal from the VCR for the software to decode.
Interestingly, the Video Backup System website is still up: http://www.hugolyppens.com/VBS.html
I'm sure someone used this thing for actual backup purposes as well...
Replies (5)
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@flyingpenguin@infosec.exchange 2026-07-25 15:47
@harrysintonen@infosec.exchange to be fair this is better described as tape backup, which was the industry norm.
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@jernej__s@infosec.exchange 2026-07-25 16:45
@harrysintonen@infosec.exchange I remember reading reviews of several products for PC that did this.
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@stevelord@toot.haxors.club 2026-07-25 10:15
@harrysintonen@infosec.exchange I remember this bitd, I seem to remember a uk tv studio using this in the 90s.
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@s_bergmann@chaos.social 2026-07-25 10:29
@harrysintonen@infosec.exchange I got my hands on one of those in the 1990s and all I can say is that the backup operation „worked“ but the restore operation did not.
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@emil@helo.fuse.pl 2026-07-25 10:40
@harrysintonen@infosec.exchange I never managed to recover from a VHS backup. Maybe my tapes were shit.