Posted by QuickReadAbout.com Staff in Video recorders are almost obsolete now. They’ve been replaced by a new generation of digital recording devises that will record on discs (CDs and DVDs). But there was a time when video recorders were the stuff of science fiction and represented the hope of the future of television.
Ampex introduced the Ampex VRX-1000 in 1956. There had been other attempts, but this was the first commercially successful videotape recorder. The Ampex VRX-1000 featured the 2″ Quadruplex format, using two-inch tape. However, because of its $50,000 price tag, only the television networks and the largest individual stations could even begin to afford the Ampex VRX-1000.
But innovations abounded, and by the late 1970s video recorders had decreased in size and in price to the point where the average individual could afford to own one. But there were two competing technologies, so there was no standard as yet. There was “Beta” and then there was “VHS.” The two technologies were not compatible, and the video recorder format war ensued.
As we all know now, VHS was the clear winner. Betamax was actually introduced first by Sony in 1975. The problem was that there was a one-hour maximum recording time and an external timer. In 1976 the VHS format was introduced. It was good for recording two to four hours of programming and no external timer was required.
The argument was that Beta produced better quality, but the public apparently couldn’t tell any difference, and VHS won the contest hands down.
There was a third format that competed in the video format wars but it was defeated early on. This technology was called Video 2000 or V2000. The early prototypes had a great many problems. V2000 got a bad reputation before it got out of the gate and the idea was scrapped, although there are those who still believe that the system was far superior to both Beta and VHS.