A video tape recorder (VTR), is a tape recorder that can record video material.
When video recording was first invented, video was recorded onto individual tape reels, as were audio recordings. Loading a videotape reel required threading of the tape through rollers and across recording and playback heads onto a takeup reel. Reel-to-reel recorders have inherent problems of tape damage from hand-threading, tape media contamination due to threading with bare hands, and an exposed tape path contaminated by dust.
The video cassette recorder (VCR), where the videotape is enclosed in a user-friendly videocassette shell, is the most familiar type of VTR known to consumers. The tape is pre-attached 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 could foul the recording mechanism. Typically the only time the user ever touches the tape in a videocassette is when a failure results in tape getting stuck in the mechanism.
Prior to the invention of the video tape recorder, live video was recorded onto motion picture film, in a process known as telerecording. And although the first Quadruplex VTRs recorded with good quality, the recordings could not be slowed or freeze framed, so telerecording processes were still used for about a decade after the development of the first VTRs.
Analog reel-to-reel
Professional cassette / cartridge based systems
Standard definition Digital video tape formats
High definition Digital video tape formats
Consumer formats
Home VCRs first became available in the early 1970s, such as a Philips VCR model, released in 1972. The first system to be successful with consumers was Sony's Betamax in 1975. This was quickly followed by the competing VHS (Video Home System) format from JVC, and later by Video 2000 from Philips. Subsequently, the Betamax-VHS format war began in earnest. Other competitors, such as Sanyo's V-Cord and Quasar's "Great Time Machine" quickly disappeared.
Betamax sales soon dwindled away in the US and Europe and VHS emerged as the winner of the format war. In 1988, Sony began to market their own VHS machines, and despite claims that they were still backing Beta, it was clear that the format was dead, at least in Europe and the United States. In parts of South America and in Japan Betamax continued to be popular and was still in production up to the end of 2002.
Category:Video storage Category:Early videotape recordings Category:1951 introductions Category:Film and video technology Category:Recorders
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