Video tape recorder

A video tape recorder (VTR) is a tape recorder designed to record and play back video and audio material from magnetic tape. The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. They were used in television studios, serving as a replacement for motion picture film stock and making recording for television applications cheaper and quicker. Beginning in 1963, videotape machines made instant replay during televised sporting events possible. Improved formats, in which the tape was contained inside a videocassette, were introduced around 1969; the machines which play them are called videocassette recorders.

An agreement by Japanese manufacturers on a common standard recording format, which allowed cassettes recorded on one manufacturer's machine to play on another's, made a consumer market possible; and the first consumer videocassette recorder, which used the U-matic format, was introduced by Sony in 1971.

History

In 1953, Kenichi Sawazaki developed a prototype helical scan video tape recorder. Another solution was transverse-scan technology, developed by Ampex around 1954, in which the recording heads are mounted on a spinning drum and record tracks in the transverse direction, across the tape. By recording on the full width of the tape rather than just a narrow track down the center, this technique achieved a much higher density of data per linear centimeter of tape, allowing a lower tape speed of 15 inches per second to be used. The Ampex VRX-1000 became the world's first commercially successful videotape recorder in 1956. It uses the 2″ quadruplex format, using two-inch (5.1 cm) tape. Because of its US$50,000 price, the Ampex VRX-1000 could be afforded only by the television networks and the largest individual stations.

Ampex's quadruplex magnetic tape video recording system has certain limitations, such as the lack of clean pause, or still-frame, capability, because when tape motion is stopped, only a single segment of the picture recording is present at the playback heads (only 16 lines of the picture in each segment), so it can only reproduce recognizable pictures when the tape is playing at normal speed.) But in spite of its drawbacks it remained the broadcasting studio standard until about 1980. The helical scan system overcame this limitation.

In 1959, Toshiba released the first commercial helical-scan video tape recorder. In the same year, JVC demonstrated its first helical scan VTR named KV-1. In 1963, Philips introduced its EL3400 1" helical scan recorder (aimed at the business and domestic user), and Sony marketed the 2" PV-100, its first open-reel VTR intended for business, medical, airline, and educational use.

The Telcan, produced by the Nottingham Electronic Valve Company and demonstrated on June 24, 1963, was the first home video recorder. It could be bought as a unit or in kit form for £60. However, there were several drawbacks: it was expensive, not easy to put together, and can record for only 20 minutes at a time in black-and-white.

The Sony model CV-2000, first marketed in 1965, is their first VTR intended for home use and is based on half-inch tape. Ampex and RCA followed in 1965 with their own open-reel monochrome VTRs priced under US $1,000 for the home consumer market. Prerecorded videos for home replay became available in 1967.

The EIAJ format is a standard half-inch format used by various manufacturers. EIAJ-1 is an open-reel format. EIAJ-2 uses a cartridge that contains a supply reel, but not the take-up reel. Since the take-up reel is part of the recorder, the tape has to be fully rewound before removing the cartridge, which is a relatively slow procedure.

The development of the videocassette followed other replacements of open-reel systems with a cassette or cartridge in consumer items: the Stereo-Pak 4-track audio cartridge in 1962, the compact audio cassette and Instamatic film cartridge in 1963, the 8-track cartridge in 1965, and the Super 8 home motion picture film cartridge in 1966. Before the invention of the video tape recorder, live video was recorded onto motion picture film stock in a process known as telerecording or kinescoping. Although the first quadruplex VTRs record with good quality, the recordings cannot be slowed or freeze-framed, so kinescoping processes continued to be used for about a decade after the development of the first VTRs.

VCR

Main article: Videocassette recorder

Many of the deficiencies of the open-reel systems were overcome with the invention of the videocassette recorder (VCR), where the videotape is enclosed in a user-friendly videocassette shell. This subsequently became the most familiar type of VTR known to consumers. In this system, the tape is preattached onto two reels enclosed within the cassette, and tape loading and unloading is automated. There is no need for the user to ever touch the tape, and the media can be protected from dust, dirt, and tape misalignments that can foul the recording mechanism. Typically, the only time the user ever touches the tape in a videocassette is when a failure results from a tape getting stuck in the mechanism.

Home VCRs first became available in the early 1970s, with Sony releasing its VO-1600 model in 1971 and with Philips releasing the Model 1500 in England a year later. The first system to be notably successful with consumers was Sony's Betamax (or Beta) in 1975. It was soon followed by the competing VHS (Video Home System) format from JVC in 1977 and later by other formats such as Video 2000 from Philips, V-Cord from Sanyo, and Great Time Machine from Quasar.

The Beta/VHS format war soon began, while the other competitors quickly disappeared. Betamax sales eventually began to dwindle, and after several years VHS emerged as the winner of the format war. In 1988, Sony began to market its own VHS machines, and despite claims that it was still backing Beta, it was clear that the format was no longer viable in most parts of the world. In parts of South America and in Japan, Betamax continued to be popular and was still in production up to the end of 2002.

Later developments saw analog magnetic tapes largely replaced by digital video tape formats. Following this, much of the VTR market, in particular videocassettes and VCRs popular at the consumer level, were also replaced by non-tape media, such as DVD and later Blu-ray optical discs.

Formats and products

Video tape recorder technologies include:

Analog open-reel

• 1" Type A (Ampex)
• 1" Type B (Bosch's Fernseh - BTS Philips)
• 1" Type C (Sony, Ampex, NEC and Hitachi)
• 2" quadruplex (Ampex, RCA and Bosch's Fernseh)
• Ampex 2 inch helical VTR
• IVC 2 inch Helical scan (International Video Corporation's IVC 9000 Format)
• VERA (BBC)

File:SONY BVW 65.jpg

Sony Betacam-SP VTP BVW-65 VTR

Professional cassette and cartridge based systems

• Betacam (Sony)
• Betacam SP (Sony)
• M-II (Panasonic)
• U-matic (3/4")

Standard definition digital videotape formats

• D1 (Sony and Broadcast Television Systems Inc.)
• D2 (Sony and Ampex)
• D3 (Panasonic)
• D5 (Panasonic)
• D9 (Digital-S) (JVC)
• Betacam IMX (Sony)
• DCT (Ampex)
• Digital Betacam (Sony)
• DVCAM (Sony)
• DVCPRO (Panasonic)

File:Panasonic AJ HD3700H.jpg

1995 Panasonic D5 Digital VTR, model AJ-HD3700H. The front control panel is hinged below the cassette slot, so that it may be tilted outward to a more comfortable viewing angle for the operator.

High definition digital video tape formats

• D5 HD (Panasonic)
• D6 HDTV VTR (BTS - Philips - Thomson SA - Grass Valley (company))
• DVCPROHD (Panasonic)
• D-VHS (JVC and Panasonic)
• HD
• HDCAM (Sony)
• HDCAM-SR (Sony)

Consumer format

• Betamax
• Cartrivision
• Digital8 (Sony)
• DV (miniDV is the cassette size)
• EIAJ Half inch open reel and cassette
• Hi8
• MicroMV
• S-VHS (JVC)
• Video8
• Video 2000 (Philips)
• VHS
• VHS-C (JVC)
• VX (videocassette format)
• Video Cassette Recording (VCR) (Phillips)

External links

• Museum of Extinct Video Recorders and Accessories