Early machines and formats s use a cassette to contain the
videotape. Early models of consumer video tape recorders (
VTRs), and most professional broadcast analog videotape machines (e.g.
1-inch Type C) use reel to reel tape spools.|left The history of the videocassette recorder follows the history of videotape recording in general.
Ampex introduced the
quadruplex videotape professional broadcast standard format with its Ampex VRX-1000 in 1956. It became the world's first commercially successful videotape recorder using two-inch (5.1 cm) wide tape. Due to its high price of (), the Ampex VRX-1000 could be afforded only by the television networks and the largest individual stations. In 1959,
Toshiba introduced a new method of recording known as
helical scan, releasing the first commercial helical scan video tape recorder that year. It was first implemented in
reel-to-reel videotape recorders (VTRs), and later used with cassette tapes. In 1963,
Philips introduced its EL3400 1-inch helical scan recorder, aimed at the business and domestic user, and
Sony marketed the 2" PV-100, its first reel-to-reel VTR, intended for business, medical, airline, and educational use.
First home video recorders The Telcan (Television in a Can), produced by the UK Nottingham Electronic Valve Company in 1963, was the first home video recorder. It was developed by Michael Turner and Norman Rutherford. It could be purchased as a unit or in kit form for £1,337 (). There were several drawbacks as it was expensive, not easy to assemble, and could record only 20 minutes at a time. It recorded in black-and-white, the only format available in the UK at the time as color broadcasts were not available until
BBC Two began broadcasting in color in 1967. An original Telcan Domestic Video Recorder can be seen at the
Nottingham Industrial Museum. The half-inch tape Sony model
CV-2000, first marketed in 1965, was its first VTR intended for home use. It was the first fully
transistorized VCR. The development of the videocassette followed the replacement by cassette of other open reel systems in consumer items: the
Stereo-Pak four-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 movie cartridge in 1966. In 1972, videocassettes of movies became available for home use through
Cartrivision. The format never became widely popular because recorders were expensive (retailing for $1,350 ()) and players were not available as standalone units. Cassettes intended for home use were encased in black plastic, and could be rewound by a home recorder, whereas rental cassettes could not be rewound, and had to be returned to the retailer in order to be rewound.
Sony U-matic Sony demonstrated a videocassette
prototype in October 1969, then set it aside to work out an industry standard by March 1970 with seven fellow manufacturers. The result, the Sony
U-matic system, introduced in Tokyo in September 1971, was the world's first commercial videocassette format. Its cartridges, resembling larger versions of the later
VHS cassettes, used 3/4-inch (1.9 cm)-wide tape and had a maximum playing time of 60 minutes, later extended to 80 minutes. Sony also introduced two machines (the VP-1100 videocassette player and the VO-1700, also called the VO-1600 video-cassette recorder) to use the new tapes. U-matic, with its ease of use, quickly made other consumer videotape systems obsolete in Japan and North America, where U-matic VCRs were widely used by television newsrooms (Sony BVU-150 and Trinitron DXC 1810 video camera), schools, and businesses. But the high cost – for a combination TV/VCR – kept it out of most homes.
Philips "VCR" format In 1970,
Philips developed a home video cassette format specially made for a TV station in 1970 and available on the consumer market in 1972. Philips named this format "
Video Cassette Recording" (although it is also referred to as "N1500", after the first recorder's model number).
Mass-market success The industry boomed in the 1980s as more and more customers bought VCRs. By 1982, 10% of households in the United Kingdom owned a VCR. The figure reached 30% in 1985 and by the end of the decade well over half of British homes owned a VCR.
VHS vs. Betamax Two major standards,
Sony's
Betamax (also known as Betacord or just Beta) and
JVC's
VHS (Video Home System), competed for sales in what became known as the
format war. Betamax was first to market in November 1975, and was argued by many to be technically more sophisticated in recording quality.
Legal challenges In the early 1980s US film companies fought to suppress the VCR in the consumer market, citing concerns about copyright violations. In Congressional hearings,
Motion Picture Association of America head
Jack Valenti decried the "savagery and the ravages of this machine" and likened its effect on the film industry and the American public to the
Boston strangler: VCR c. 1998 In the case
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., the
Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the device was allowable for private use. Subsequently, the film companies found that making and selling video recordings of their productions had become a major income source. == Flying erase head ==