Videocassette recorder

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Note: VCR redirects here. This article is about videocassette recorders in general. For information on the Philips VCR ('N1500') video format, see Video Cassette Recording.

The videocassette recorder (or VCR, more commonly known in the British Isles as the video recorder), is a type of video tape recorder that uses removable videotape cassette containing magnetic tape to record audio and video from a television broadcast so it can be played back later. Many VCRs have their own tuner (for direct TV reception) and a programmable timer (for unattended recording of a certain channel at a particular time).

Later model VCRs can record and play tapes both in Standard Play (SP) format and in Long Play (LP) format. LP format increases the available recording time, at the loss of some video and sound quality. Some can even record and play in the Extra Long Play (EP, ELP, or SLP) format, which slows down the tape speed to about one third of SP; however, this causes even greater loss of sound and video quality. Extra long play was mainly aimed at the American market, where the general public seemed less concerned with playback quality.

1 History
2 Piracy protection
3 New media
4 See also
5 External links

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History

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Early machines and formats

The history of the videocassette recorder follows the history of videotape recording in general. Ampex introduced the first commercially successful videotape recorder in 1956. It was referred to as the 2" Quadruplex format, using two-inch (5.1 cm) tape. Due to its US$50,000 price, 2" Quadruplex could be afforded only by the television networks and the largest individual stations. Sony marketed in 1963 the first reel-to-reel VTR intended for business, medical, airline, and educational use. The Sony model CV-2000 in 1964 was the world's first VTR intended for home use. Ampex and RCA followed in 1965 with their own reel-to-reel monochrome VTRs priced under US$1,000 for the home consumer market.

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Sony U-matic

The development of the videocassette followed the replacement by cassette of other open reel systems in consumer items: the compact audio cassette and Instamatic film cartridge in 1963, and the Super 8 home movie cartridge in 1966. 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) tape and had a maximum playing time of 90 minutes. Sony also introduced two machines (the VP-1100 videocassette player and the VO-1700 videocassette 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 stations, schools, and businesses.

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Philips "VCR" format

In 1970 the Dutch electronics company Philips developed a home videocassette format. Confusingly, Philips named this format "VCR" (although it is also referred to as "N1500", after the first recorder's model number). It used square cassettes and half-inch (1.3 cm) tape, giving a recording time of one hour. The first model, available in the United Kingdom in 1972, was equipped with a crude timer that used rotary dials. At nearly £600, it was expensive and the format never caught on for home use. However, a later (and incompatible) long-play version ("VCR-LP"), which used the same tapes, sold quite well to schools and colleges.

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Avco Cartrivision

The Avco Cartrivision system, a combination television set and VCR from Cartridge Television Inc. that sold for US$1,600, was the first videocassette recorder to have pre-recorded tapes of popular movies available for rent. Like Philips' VCR format, the square Cartrivision cassette had the two reels of half-inch tape mounted on top of each other, but could record up to 114 minutes. It did so using a crude form of video compression that recorded only every third video field and played it back three times. Cassettes of major movies such as Bridge on the River Kwai and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner were ordered via catalog at a retailer, delivered by parcel mail, and then returned to the retailer after viewing. Other cassettes on sports, travel, art, and how-to topics were available for purchase. An optional monochrome camera could be bought to make home videos. Cartrivision was first sold in June 1972, mainly through Sears and Montgomery Ward department stores in the United States. It was abandoned thirteen months later after poor sales.

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The late 1970s: Mass-market success

It was not until the late 1970s, when European and Japanese companies developed more technically advanced machines with more accurate electronic timers and greater tape duration, that the VCR started to become a mass market consumer product. By 1980 there were three competing technical standards, with different, physically incompatible tape cassettes.

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VHS vs. Betamax: The format war

The two major standards were Sony's Betamax (also known as Betacord or just Beta), and JVC's VHS, which battled for sales in what has become known as the original and definitive format war.

Betamax was first to market in November 1975, and was argued by many to be technically more sophisticated. However, the rival VHS format (introduced in September 1976) boasted longer recording times, and was easier to get hold of, particularly in the rental market. VHS began to pull ahead, and as more VHS recorders came into use, and more VHS films became available, network effects eventually squeezed Betamax out of the consumer market.

(A related system called Betacam still remains in use for high quality professional recording equipment, though that itself is now being replaced by digital tape formats.)

Various reasons are given for the failure of the Beta consumer format:

Some accounts claim that VHS won because it initially allowed for twice the recording time — the original Beta format was limited to one hour, but this was soon replaced by the two-hour Beta II version. Beta I was obsolete by the time Betamax reached Europe, in 1978

Others attribute the success of VHS to the greater availability of pornography on that medium, reflecting the long standing tradition of pornography being the driving force for the takeup of new media (the Internet being another obvious example).

JVC and Sony used different marketing models for their technology: JVC licensed their VHS technology to consumer electronics companies like Zenith and RCA, which then produced low-cost VCRs, enriching JVC through royalties paid under its license. Fewer companies were licensed to produce Beta machines.

The VHS camp had access to high-street TV rental chains (in the UK) like DER and MultiBroadcast. With a VCR costing about a month's wages, two competing standards, and a reputation for expensive repair bills, rental was considered the more attractive option at the time.

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Philips Video 2000: No prize for third place

A third format, Video 2000, or V2000 (also marketed as "Video Compact Cassette") was introduced by Philips in 1978, and was sold only in Europe. It featured piezoelectric head positioning to dynamically adjust the tape tracking. V2000 cassettes had two sides, and like the audio cassette had to be flipped over halfway through their recording time. The half-inch tape used contained two parallel quarter-inch tracks, one for each side. It had a recording time of 4 hours per side. V2000 hit the market after its two rivals, and its limited features and a reputation for unreliability ensured only limited sales before it was cancelled in 1985.

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The court battle

In the early 1980s, the film companies in the USA fought to suppress the device in the consumer market, citing concerns about copyright violations. 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, thereby guarenteeing market acceptance. In the years following, the film companies found that videorecordings of their products had become a major income source. However, television networks found the widespread use of this device was threatening their advertising business model because viewers then have the ability to either fast forward through television commercials, or pause recording when they are broadcast.

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The beginning of the end?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, DVD gradually overtook the VCR as the most popular format for playback of prerecorded video. DVD Video Recorders and Digital video recorders such as TiVo have recently begun to drop in price in developed countries, which some consider to be the writing on the wall for VCRs in those markets.

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Piracy protection

Macrovision is a system that reduces the quality of recordings made from commercial video tapes, DVDs and pay-per-view broadcasts by adding random peaks of luminance to the video signal during vertical blanking. These confuse the automatic level adjustment of the recording VCR which causes the brightness of the picture to constantly change, rendering the recording unwatchable.

When creating a copy-protected videocassette, the Macrovision-distorted signal is stored on the tape itself by special recording equipment. By contrast, on DVDs there is just a marker asking the player to produce such a distortion during playback. All standard DVD players include this protection and obey the marker, though unofficially many models can be modified or adjusted to disable it.

Also, the Macrovision protection system may fail to work on older VCR's, usually due to the lack of an AGC system. VCR's dubbed for "professional" usage typically have have an adjustable AGC system or even specific "Macrovision removing" circuits and can thus copy protected tapes with or without preserving the protection. Such VCRs are usually overpriced and sold exclusively to certified professionals (video editors, TV stations etc.) via controlled distribution channels in order to prevent their being used for producing illegal copies.

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New media

The S-VHS format was introduced in an attempt to breathe new life into the aging VCR technology, but it did not gain sufficient momentum in the consumer market due to its higher initial cost for both machines and video tape, by the time JVC lowered prices on S-VHS machines and video tape, the arrival of the new digital video formats spelled the end of analogue tape development.

For home video recording, both Personal Video Recorders (such as TiVo, Mythtv and ReplayTV) and DVD recorders are becoming popular, although neither has yet supplanted the VCR. In fact, Tivo cooperates well with VCRs which can be used to archive PVR recordings. However, the introduction of recordable DVDs with sufficient recording capacity on to the regular market with their advantage of random access could spell the doom of the VCR once the price comes down significantly.

The main drawback with recordable DVD is not the technology itself, but of the disc formats. At present, no less than three different types of DVD recordable disc exist. These are DVD + (plus), DVD - (dash) (both in record once and rewritable versions) and DVD-RAM (which is always rewritable). All three are backed by different consumer electronics manufacturers, and none shows any sign (as of 2004) of gaining "critical mass" in the marketplace. Consumers wary of another format war (similar to the Betamax versus VHS debacle of the early 1980s), has meant that sales of consumer DVD recorders have been comparatively sluggish, although many recorders are now able to record onto both DVD+ and DVD- media.

Another important drawback of DVD recording is that one DVD is limited to two hours of recording if the quality is not to be significantly reduced, while VHS tapes are readily available up to 210 minutes (standard play) in NTSC areas and even 300 minutes in PAL areas. The advent of the recordable two-layer DVD in late 2004, if it gets widely adopted, will reduce this disadvantage.

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