This video shows signal degradation on a VHS recording over generational copies. While the narrative on screen describes what happens to the video almost exclusively, the audio issues are almost just as significant. You could tell from the first copy that the quality of the audio has been greatly reduced and after the sixth generation, you start hearing white noise creeping in to the recording.

On the first copy, the bass is completely gone, there is no more depth to the audio, by the fourth, it sounds like someone placed a cover on the speakers. White noise becomes audible on the seventh generation. The 12th generation has louder white noise than the song. On the 17th generation, both video and audio are no longer stable and while by the 20th generation you won’t be able to tell what’s going on on screen, the audio is still somewhat there albeit very faint.

None of this is new of course and the video is from 2008 but it’s still fascinating to see.