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The videotape format war was a period of competition or "format war" of incompatible models of consumer-level analog video videocassette and video cassette recorders (VCR) in the late 1970s and the 1980s, mainly involving the Betamax and Video Home System (VHS) formats. VHS ultimately emerged as the preeminent format. [1]
Sony had demonstrated a prototype videotape recording system it called "Beta" to the other electronics manufacturers in 1974, and expected that they would back a single format for the good of all. But JVC in particular decided to go with its own format. [2]
Manufacturers also introduced other systems such as needle-based, record-style discs (RCA's Capacitance Electronic Disc, JVC's Video High Density disc) and optical discs (Philips/MCA/Pioneer's LaserDisc). None of these disc formats gained much ground as none was capable of home recording; however, they did hold small niche markets.
Some sources say that VHS won over Betamax due to the greater availability of pornographic movies on the format. [3] [4] In the 1980s, the founder of Vivid Entertainment said "we pushed VHS harder, and in that sense we did have something to do with VHS winning out". Steve Duplessie, the founder of research firm Enterprise Strategy Group, disagreed, saying that VHS won over Betamax due to its more open format. [4]
Sony had met with Matsushita executives in late 1974/early 1975 to discuss the forthcoming home video market. [5]
Soon after, RCA met with executives at the Victor Company of Japan (JVC), at the time a Matsushita subsidiary, who had created their own video format called "VHS" (which stands for "Video Home System" [6] ). But JVC also refused to compromise the picture quality of their format by allowing a four-hour mode. JVC's parent corporation, Matsushita, later met with RCA and agreed to manufacture a four-hour-capable VHS machine for RCA. [7]
When Betamax was introduced in Japan and the United States in 1975, its Beta I speed of 1.57 inches per second (ips) offered a higher horizontal resolution (approximately 250 lines vs 240 lines horizontal NTSC), lower video noise, and less luma/chroma crosstalk than VHS, and was later marketed as providing pictures superior to VHS's playback. However, the introduction of Beta II speed, 0.79 ips (two-hour mode), to compete with VHS's two-hour Standard Play mode (1.31 ips) reduced Betamax's horizontal resolution to 240 lines. [8]
Although Betamax initially owned 100% of the market in 1975 (as VHS did not launch until the following year) the perceived value of longer recording-times eventually tipped the balance in favor of VHS. By 1980, VHS had proven favorable among consumers and was successful in controlling 60% of the North American market. [9] [10] By 1981, sales of Beta machines in the United States had sunk to 25% of the VCR market. As movie studios, video studios, and video rental stores turned away from Betamax, the combination of lower market share and a lack of available titles further strengthened VHS's position. [11] In the United Kingdom Beta held a 25% market share, but by 1986 it was down to 7.5% and continued to decline further. In Japan, Betamax had more success, but VHS was still the market leader. By 1987, VHS accounted for 90% of the VCR market in the United States. [12] [13] In 1988, Videofax magazine declared that Beta had lost the format war after Sony agreed to start adding VHS to the company's VCR lineup. [14]
Both Betamax and VHS were supplanted by higher-quality video available from laser-based technology. The last Sony Betamax unit was produced in 2002, while the last VCR/DVD combo unit was produced in 2016. [15]
What Sony did not take into account was what consumers wanted. While Betamax was believed to be the superior format in the minds of the public and press (due to excellent marketing by Sony), consumers wanted an affordable VCR (which often cost hundreds of dollars less than a Betamax player); [16] Korean electronic manufacturers, such as Samsung and GoldStar (now LG Electronics), responded to Funai, Shintom, and Orion Electric for the availability of video cassette players (VCP) to movie rental stores, by offering first VHS VCR prices down to under $300 by year 1986. Sony believed that having better quality recordings was the key to success, and that consumers would be willing to pay a higher retail price for this, whereas it soon became clear that consumer desire was focused more intently on recording-time, lower retail price, compatibility with other machines for sharing (as VHS was becoming the format in the majority of homes), and brand loyalty to companies who licensed VHS (RCA, Magnavox, Zenith, Quasar, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Hitachi, Sharp, even JVC itself, etc.). [17] In addition, Sony, being the first producer to offer its technology, also thought it would establish Betamax as the leading format. This kind of lock-in and path dependence failed for Sony, but succeeded for JVC. For forty years JVC dominated the home market with its VHS, Super VHS and VHS-C formats, and collected billions in royalty payments. [18]
The video recording market was an unknown when VCRs first came on the market; as such, Sony and JVC were both developing technologies that were unproven. As a result of the desire to enter the marketplace faster, the firms both spent less time on research and development and tried to save money by picking a version of the technology they thought would do best without exploring the full gamut of options. [19]
Following the videotape format war, VHS was dominant until the creation of DVD technology. The major electronics corporations agreed on a single standard for playback of pre-recorded material on DVDs. A minor skirmish arose over DIVX, but it died a quick death. Video 2000, a system developed by Grundig and Philips in 1979 was available for PAL and SECAM and distributed only in Europe, South Africa and Argentina. A later format-war resulted from a failure to agree on a single standard for DVD's high-definition successor (HD DVD) in May 2005. [20] This format war ended in victory for the Blu-ray Disc Association's Blu-ray Disc in February 2008. [21]
VHS is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by the Victor Company of Japan (JVC). It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period in the late 1970s through the early 2000s.
Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassette recorders (VCRs) and camcorders. Videotapes have also been used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram.
JVC is a Japanese brand owned by JVCKenwood. Founded in 1927 as the Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan and later as Victor Company of Japan, Ltd., the company was best known for introducing Japan's first televisions and for developing the Video Home System (VHS) video recorder.
S-VHS (スーパー・ヴィエイチエス), the common initialism for Super VHS, is an improved version of the VHS standard for consumer-level video recording. Victor Company of Japan introduced S-VHS in Japan in April 1987, with their JVC-branded HR-S7000 VCR, and in certain overseas markets soon afterward. By the end of 1987, the first S-VHS VCR models from other competitors included the Hitachi VT-2700A, Mitsubishi HS-423UR, Panasonic PV-S4764, RCA VPT-695HF, and Toshiba SV-950. It has been standardized as IEC 60774-3 and IEC 60774-4.
Betamax is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, followed by the US in November of the same year.
Videodisc is a general term for a laser- or stylus-readable random-access disc that contains both audio and analog video signals recorded in an analog form. Typically, it is a reference to any such media that predates the mainstream popularity of the DVD format. The first mainstream official Videodisc was the Television Electronic Disc (TED) Videodisc, and the newest is the 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc. As of September 2023, the active video disc formats are Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and in other regions because of the price difference from DVD, Video CD (VCD) and SVCD.
A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-swappable battery facing towards the user, hot-swappable recording media, and an internally contained quiet optical zoom lens.
A video tape recorder (VTR) is a tape recorder designed to record and playback video and audio material from magnetic tape. The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. They were used in television studios, serving as a replacement for motion picture film stock and making recording for television applications cheaper and quicker. Beginning in 1963, videotape machines made instant replay during televised sporting events possible. Improved formats, in which the tape was contained inside a videocassette, were introduced around 1969; the machines which play them are called videocassette recorders.
A format war is a competition between similar but mutually incompatible technical standards that compete for the same market, such as for data storage devices and recording formats for electronic media. It is often characterized by political and financial influence on content publishers by the developers of the technologies. Developing companies may be characterized as engaging in a format war if they actively oppose or avoid interoperable open-industry technical standards in favor of their own.
The 8mm video format refers informally to three related videocassette formats. These are the original Video8 format, its improved variant Hi8, as well as a more recent digital recording format Digital8. Their user base consisted mainly of amateur camcorder users, although they also saw important use in the professional television production field.
VHS-C is the compact variant of the VHS videocassette format, introduced by Victor Company of Japan (JVC) in 1982, and used primarily for consumer-grade compact analog recording camcorders. The format is based on the same video tape as is used in VHS, and can be played back in a standard VHS VCR with an adapter. An improved version named S-VHS-C was also developed. S-VHS's main competitor was Video8; however both became obsolete in the marketplace by the digital video formats MiniDV and MiniDVD, which have smaller form factors.
U-matic or 3⁄4-inch Type E Helical Scan or SMPTE E is an analogue recording videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, as opposed to the various reel-to-reel or open-reel formats of the time. The videotape is 3⁄4 in (19 mm) wide, so the format is often known as "three-quarter-inch" or simply "three-quarter", compared to open reel videotape formats in use, such as 1 in (25 mm) type C videotape and 2 in (51 mm) quadruplex videotape.
D-VHS is a digital video recording format developed by JVC, in collaboration with Hitachi, Matsushita, and Philips. The "D" in D-VHS originally stood for "Data", but JVC renamed the format as "Digital VHS". Released in December 1997, it uses the same physical cassette format and recording mechanism as S-VHS, but requires higher-quality and more expensive tapes and is capable of recording and displaying both standard-definition and high-definition content. The content data format is in MPEG transport stream, the same data format used for most digital television applications. It used MPEG-2 encoding and was standarized as IEC 60774-5.
M is the name of a professional analog videocassette format created around 1982 by Matsushita and RCA. Developed as a competitor to Sony's Betacam format, M used the same videocassette as VHS, much the same way that Betacam was designed to take advantage of cheap and readily available Betamax videocassettes,
Home video is recorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. In a different usage, "home video" refers to amateur video recordings, also known as home movies.
A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other AV sources and can play back the recording after rewinding. The use of a VCR to record a television program to play back at a more convenient time is commonly referred to as time shifting. 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. Blank tapes were sold to make recordings.
Longitudinal Video Recording or LVR was a consumer VCR system and videotape standard.
Ancillary markets are non-theatrical markets for feature films, like home video, television, Pay Per View, VOD, Internet streaming, airlines and others.
The JVC HR-3300 VIDSTAR is the world's first VHS-based VCR to be released to the market, introduced by the president of JVC at the Okura Hotel on September 9, 1976. Sales started in Japan under the name Victor HR-3300 on 31 October 1976. Foreign sales followed in 1977 with the HR-3300U in the United States, and HR-3300EK in the United Kingdom.