Audio Magnetic tape was invented for recording sound by
Fritz Pfleumer in 1928 in Germany. Because of escalating political tensions and the outbreak of World War II, these developments in Germany were largely kept secret. Although the Allies knew from their monitoring of Nazi radio broadcasts that the Germans had some new form of recording technology, its nature was not discovered until the Allies acquired German recording equipment as they invaded Europe at the end of the war. It was only after the war that Americans, particularly
Jack Mullin,
John Herbert Orr, and
Richard H. Ranger, were able to bring this technology out of Germany and develop it into commercially viable formats.
Bing Crosby, an early adopter of the technology, made a large investment in the tape hardware manufacturer
Ampex. A wide variety of audiotape recorders and formats have been developed since. Some magnetic tape-based formats include: •
Reel-to-reel •
Fidelipac •
Stereo-Pak (Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4-track cartridge) •
Perforated (sprocketed) film audio magnetic tape (sepmag, perfotape, sound follower tape, magnetic film) •
8-track tape •
Compact Cassette •
Elcaset •
RCA tape cartridge •
Mini-Cassette •
Microcassette •
Picocassette •
NT (cassette) •
ProDigi •
Digital Audio Stationary Head •
Digital Audio Tape •
Digital Compact Cassette Video helical scan head drum. Helical and transverse scans made it possible to increase the data bandwidth to the necessary point for recording video on tapes, and not just audio. Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually
sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an
analog or
digital signal. Videotape is used in both
video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly,
videocassette recorders (VCRs) and
camcorders. Videotapes have also been used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an
electrocardiogram. Some magnetic tape-based formats include: •
Quadruplex videotape •
Ampex 2-inch helical VTR •
Type A videotape •
IVC videotape format •
Type B videotape •
Type C videotape •
EIAJ-1 •
U-matic •
Video Cassette Recording •
Cartrivision •
VHS •
VHS-C •
S-VHS •
Digital S •
W-VHS •
D-VHS •
Video 2000 •
V-Cord •
VX (videocassette format) •
Betamax •
Compact Video Cassette •
Betacam •
Betacam SP •
Digital Betacam •
Betacam SX •
MPEG IMX •
HDCAM •
HDCAM SR •
M (videocassette format) •
MII (videocassette format) •
UniHi •
D-1 (Sony) •
DCT (videocassette format) •
D-2 (video) •
D-3 (video) •
D5 HD •
D6 HDTV VTR •
Video8 •
Hi8 •
Digital8 •
DV •
MiniDV •
DVCAM •
DVCPRO •
DVCPRO50 •
DVCPRO Progressive •
DVCPRO HD •
HDV •
MicroMV Computer data == See also ==