Thursday, April 2, 2020
The History of the VCR
The history of the video cassette recorder (VCR) was short lived, but its impact was profound. The VCR revolutionized the TV industry by allowing people to record and watch any show whenever they wanted to.
The first video cassette recorder, the VRX-1000, was invented in 1956 by Ampex Corporation. This recorder was extremely expensive, costing around $50,000, and very inefficient. In addition, the recordings required a skilled operator and would only last around a few hundred hours. Yet, despite the unwieldy and cumbersome nature of the VRX-1000, video recording was in high demand in the television industry. Thus many networks made the costly investment to purchase many of these VRX-1000.
Even though the VCR was being used by television companies, it had yet to make it into the home market. Sony jumped on this opportunity and in 1965, created the CV-2000. The CV-2000 only recorded in black and white, but was much smaller and more affordable than the VRX-1000, making it purchasable by the average American.
In 1976, a Japanese company called Japan’s Victory Company (JVC) created the first video home system (VHS). This system utilized the VCR and VHS tapes to allow the recording and playback of shows and videos. The technology was introduced into America around a year later, and competed with Sony’s Betamax, another version of the VHS tape. Although Sony's Betamax had a better sound system and higher resolution, VHS ultimately won the market due to a cheaper price.
Since Japan didn’t put a patent on VHS tapes, companies in the US could create cheaper, more affordable versions of VHS tapes that could end up in American homes. Throughout the 1970s to the 2000s, virtually all homes in America had VHS tapes accompanied by a VCR. Sadly, VHS was eventually dethroned by DVD, a far superior recording technique, in 2002.
Yet, even though VHS only lasted for around 50 years, it had a great effect on the way people watched television. Before VHS, people had to watch a movie or TV show when it was airing. After its creation, people had the freedom to watch what they wanted when they wanted. VHS ushered a new era of media consumption that will forever be remembered.
https://legacybox.com/blogs/analog/when-did-vcr-become-popular
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This post is very informative as it shows the impact the VCR made on America and how it was originally produced. As mentioned, the price of a VCR was very expensive when it was first developed, however, the price dropped very quickly over time. In an article by the Chicago Tribune from 1985, it details how the prices had already dropped to $200-400 from $1,000-1,400 in 1975 when it was produced. Additionally, in the past six months the price had dropped 15%. This industry was booming with 11.5 million VCRs were expected to be sold in 1985, a 50% increase from the year before. During it short-lived period of success, the VCR was extremely popular.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-09-22-8503040687-story.html
I found your article very interesting, I never knew or would've thought that VCRs were first invented in 1956, over 60 years ago. For the most part, it seems that the basic principle of the VCR remained even during the height of its popularity. You mentioned how it remained the most common method for recording and playing back media for nearly 50 years. This only ended in the 2000s, in the advent of accessible DVDs and LaserDisc technology, which offered higher quality in a digital format, superior durability, as well as being cheaper to produce in general.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.differencebetween.net/object/difference-between-vhs-and-dvd/
https://archive.thinkprogress.org/in-memoriam-the-vcr-1956-2016-d768bd7936/