Videocassette recorder

VCRs can also play back prerecorded tapes, which were widely available for purchase and rental starting in the 80s and 90s, most popularly in the VHS videocassette format.

[8] The Telcan (Television in a Can), produced by the UK Nottingham Electronic Valve Company in 1963, was the first home video recorder.

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.

[18] In 1970, Philips developed a home video cassette format specially made for a TV station in 1970 and available on the consumer market in 1972.

[20] Two major standards, Sony's Betamax (also known as Betacord or just Beta) and JVC's VHS (Video Home System), competed for sales in what became known as the format war.

[22] In the early 1980s US film companies fought to suppress the VCR in the consumer market, citing concerns about copyright violations.

In Congressional hearings, Motion Picture Association of America head Jack Valenti decried the "savagery and the ravages of this machine" and likened its effect on the film industry and the American public to the Boston strangler: I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.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.

Subsequently the film companies found that making and selling video recordings of their productions had become a major income source.

If the machine (or tape) is moved from a hot to a colder environment, there could be condensation of moisture on the internal parts, such as the rotating video head drum.

[25] Around the late '90s and early 2000s, DVDs became the first universally successful optical medium for playback of pre-recorded video, as it gradually overtook VHS to become the most popular consumer format.

JVC did ship one model of D-VHS deck with a built-in ATSC tuner, the HM-DT100U, but it remains extremely rare, and therefore expensive.

Hi-Fi audio is thus dependent on a much more exact alignment of the head switching point than is required for non-HiFi VHS machines.

Most of these use smaller format videocassettes, such as 8 mm, VHS-C, or MiniDV, although some early models supported full-size VHS and Betamax.

In the 21st century, digital recording became the norm while videocassette tapes dwindled away gradually; tapeless camcorders use other storage media such as DVDs, or internal flash memory, hard drive, and SD card.

A typical late-model Philips Magnavox , VHS format VCR
A close-up process of how the magnetic tape in a VHS cassette is being pulled from the cassette shell to the head drum of the VCR
Not all video tape recorders use a cassette to contain the videotape . Early models of consumer video tape recorders ( VTRs ), and most professional broadcast analog videotape machines (e.g. 1-inch Type C ) use reel to reel tape spools.
Top-loading cassette mechanisms (such as the one on this VHS model) were common on early domestic VCRs.
Philips N1500 video recorder from the early 1970s
A Sony Betamax C7 VCR, c. 1980
A 1982 booth at CES promoting the right to make home recordings.
A Panasonic DV/MiniDV VCR c. 1998
A typical VCR toward the end of their popularity. After decades of refinement in design and production, models similar to this Philips VHS format VCR were available for less than US$ 50.
Panasonic DMP-BD70V, a VHS and Blu-Ray combo machine.