Videotape format war

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

From that Wiki article "The first consumer-grade VCR to be released was the Philips N1500 VCR format in 1972, followed in 1975 by Sony's Betamax. " It skips with no mention of the "Cartrivision" system Sears sold in '72.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartrivision

Personally, I regard U-matic as the first consumer VCR format. From what I read that is what Sony originally intended, but it flopped quickly as that and they started pitching it to professionals and TV stations after that.

There first model the 1971 model VO-1600 (which I have an example of) had TV tuners and full AV in/out puts. Aside from not having an internal timer (which many first gen VCRs lacked) it is just like any other VCR I've seen.


IMHO VHS EP recording quality depends a lot on the deck. Some newer HiFi decks can record fairly decently on good tapes, and EP SVHS-ET tapes can preform almost as well as SP SVHS on a good blank...OTOH some early decks look TERRIBLE on EP even playing back a good tape.