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 September 1, 2005 My Local Video OracleI frequent a couple of video rental outlets in my small city, and I’ve learned that, whatever the techno-pundits might say about trends in the home electronics market, these two stores tend to represent what’s going on in the real world. I recall the time when, overnight, all the Beta tapes disappeared from the stores. Later, I arrived to find that all the laserdiscs -- even the latest titles -- were in a bin, on sale for a song. The first DVDs arrived shortly thereafter. Now it’s the turn of VHS, it seems. One of the outlets is now sporting a big sign that says "Sale! All VHS tapes for $4.50!" The other store hasn’t gone so far as to sell off its stock of tapes, but where there used to be dozens of tapes and a few DVDs, now for a particular title there might be a single cassette sharing shelf space with a wall full of discs. The death of the videocassette was perhaps inevitable. How could it compete with the higher image and sound quality of DVDs, and especially the wealth of extras available on many discs? The fact that you can now buy a DVD player for the price of a couple of discs has also hastened the format’s ascendance. But the videocassette has had an extraordinary run. The first real consumer video product, the Sony Betamax recorder, was introduced exactly 30 years ago, followed a year later by JVC’s VHS format. The latter won the format battle, but that was a matter of detail (except to Beta inventor Sony); the VCR has been king for three decades. Even when Beta emerged, home video wasn’t exactly new. In the mid-1960s, at least one company, Ampex Corporation, produced a machine that was designed primarily for home TV recording. It wasn’t a success at the time, partly because it was very expensive (as was the tape), and because it was a mechanical nightmare. But although it used open-reel videotape, the Ampex device already did many of the things that today’s home videocassette recorders do. The main similarity was the use of a helical scanning system, in which a single rotating head made a long diagonal sweep of the tape, each sweep representing one frame of information. Up to that point, professional videotape recording was accomplished by a rotating wheel that recorded across the tape, using four separate heads. The world was evidently not yet ready to put up with the limitations of the first home video recorders in the 1960s, but they did lead to the development a decade later of the machines that created the home video market. The first step was to reduce the tape width, from Ampex’s inch to half-inch. Simultaneously, the reel of tape was enclosed in a cassette for convenience and protection, following the lead of the audiocassette. The result, in the early 1970s, was a proliferation of systems vying to become the home system. No one was quite sure yet whether a home video system was even desirable, but many companies proceeded on the assumption that if one existed, the buyers would follow. They were right, and Sony was the first to come up with a format that caught the imagination of the public. Betamax used half-inch tape in a cassette, the tape mechanically handled by a system modified from the professional U-Matic format. Then JVC introduced its VHS system, also using half-inch tape but in a slightly larger cassette. Differences in tape winding and linear speed between the two systems made them entirely incompatible, though their performance was virtually identical. The major advantage of the VHS system, at first, was a longer recording time on a single tape compared to Betamax. Sony countered by revamping their system, thereby rendering new Beta tapes incompatible with old Beta machines. But they also added new features, such as picture search, stop action, and the like. JVC followed suit, as well as adding an even slower speed for even more extended recording time. In some ways, the situation became rather like the record-speed wars of the late 1940s, when competing systems, each backed by giant companies, practically wiped out a good idea: the long-playing record. Ultimately, the marketplace did what it’s supposed to do, and the stronger system -- VHS -- prevailed. It then took on a number of challengers, including an upgrade of itself called Super VHS, and survived them all. The only real upgrade to the system was the addition of hi-fi sound. Various disc systems came and went, but the videocassette outlasted them all. Even laserdisc, the favorite of many serious videophiles, was never more than a niche product, although it lasted almost 20 years. Such persistence tends to obscure the fact that the videocassette was developed to offer a minimal level of performance and never got much better than that. It was easy pickin’s for the DVD, with its superb image quality, digital surround sound, added material, and ease of use. I haven’t fired up my own VCR in about a year. But, perversely, I will miss the format. ...Ian G. Masters
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