Other Cassettes

more...

Home
Accessories/ Storage
CDs
Cassettes
Avant-Garde/ Experimental
Blues
Brass Bands/ Military Bands
Children's
Christmas/ Seasonal
Classical
Comedy
Compilations
Country
Dance
Easy Listening
Folk
Indie/ Britpop
Irish Folk/ Traditional
Jazz
Karaoke
Metal
Other Cassettes
Pop
Pop & Beat: 1960s
R&B/ Soul
Rap/ Hip Hop
Reggae/ Ska
Religious/ New Age
Rock
Soundtracks/ Themes
Spoken Word
World Music
Music Memorabilia
Other Music Formats
Records

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 cassettes 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).

History

Early machines and formats

The history of the videocassette recorder follows the history of videotape recording in general. Ampex introduced the Ampex VRX-1000, the first commercially successful videotape recorder, in 1956. It used the 2" Quadruplex format, using two-inch (5.1 cm) tape. Due to its US$50,000 price, the Ampex VRX-1000 could be afforded only by the television networks and the largest individual stations. In 1963, Sony marketed the PV-100, the first reel-to-reel VTR intended for business, medical, airline, and educational use. The Sony model CV-2000, first marketed in 1965, 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.

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.

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). The format was also supported by Grundig and LOEWE. It used square cassettes and half-inch (1.3 cm) tape, mounted on co-axial reels, 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 barely caught on for home use. This was followed by digital timer version in 1975 — the N1502. In 1977 a new (and incompatible) long-play version ("VCR-LP") or N1700, which could use the same tapes, sold quite well to schools and colleges.

Read more at Wikipedia.org