Video formats

Quadruplex videotape is the first practical and commercially successful videotape format, whereas the Ampex VRX-1000 is the first commercially successful videotape recorder.

Television programming, which is being recorded on tape, provides more schedule flexibility, but also attracts famous celebrities untied to live broadcasts.

Kinescope is the process used to film the television screen, but it is cumbersome and expensive; both quadruplex and the Ampex VRX-1000 are solutions to these limitations.

With both quadruplex and the Ampex VRX-1000, television quality improved.

For Type C videotape, it is smaller, easier to operate and provides slightly higher video quality than quadruplex.

Plus, Type C videotape has functions that quadruplex has not, like still and slow-motion playback.

Whereas Type C videotape was successfully used in both the United States and the United Kingdom, Type B was utilized in mainland Europe.

Responding to both the quadruplex format and the Ampex VRX-1000 recorder, JVC developed its own two-head videotape recorder in the late-1950's and, by 1960, a colour version.

JVC also created the DV220, once its standard VTR, in the mid-1960's.

In 1969, JVC joined forces with Matsushita Electric (which formerly held a majority stake in JVC) and Sony to build a video recording standard for the Japanese consumer.

U-matic is the result of these efforts made by JVC, Matsushita Electric and Sony.

For U-matic, it is among the earliest video formats to use a cassette with the videotape being enclosed inside, replacing the bulky reel-to-reel/open-reel systems made earlier.

This innovative design made for U-matic made video recording more portable and easier to handle.

Key successes for this U-matic format came from industrial and educational markets and the electronic news gathering (ENG) process, as well as professional, non-broadcast video production.

Soon after the U-matic release, all of its three developers began working on new consumer-grade video recording formats of their own.

For instance, Sony started working on Betamax, Matsushita on VX, JVC on the CR-6060.

Cartrivision is the first home video format to have prerecorded tapes (specifically feature-length motion pictures) for consumer rental.

Avco, which gained a foothold in the film industry in the late-1960's with Embassy Pictures, also ran its subsidiary Cartridge Television Inc. (CTI), which produced the innovative Cartrivision format.

The film catalog for this Cartrivision format came from its parent company Avco Embassy Pictures, but from major Hollywood studios as well, including 20th Century-Fox, Columbia and others.

June 1972 to July 1973 was the period from which Cartivision was available for consumer rental.

Many factors caused Cartrivision's own demise, including high costs, inconvenient mailing and rental processes, large-sized machines and technical issues.

Despite its failures, Cartrivision paved the way for the VCR revolution.

Philips designed the Video Cassette Recording (VCR) format in 1972.

JVC's own VHS format was released in Japan, one year after Betamax's 1975 release, and in the United States in August 1977.

VHS won the videotape format war over Betamax, becoming the most popular media format for VCRs.