LabGuy's World: The Time Line of Extinct Video Tape Recorders
        The following time line tries to cover every VIDEO RECORDER OR PLAYER that was developed regardless of whether it was successful or not. The material is gathered from many sources, most of them on the internet. The vast majority of this page is the work of David Fisher, web master of Terramedia, an excellent resource for the historian of audio/visual communications sciences. Be absolutely certain to visit Mr. fisher's excellent site. This page is a compilation of other people's work. Please visit the links when they are shown.
        I'm sure that there are errors, omissions and outright lies. There is also some blurring of the time line because of periods where different systems overlapped each other. I've gathered this data from many sources and sometimes they don't necessarily agree with each other! I do my best to sort it all out, but feel free to donate information and or corrections to this project. I want this page to be the definitive last word on this subject of video recording history. ~LabGuy~
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1927:
John Logie Baird - Creates the first videodisc system fifty years before its commercial inception. The discs, based on existing phonograph technology, rotate at 78 rpm and have the ability to capture and reproduce hazy images when played on a gramophone and connected to a Baird receiver. The bandwidth is 5 khz and the images, though barely recognizable, are reproduced at 12.5 fps at a resolution of 15 points per horizontal line, 30 lines altogether. During the thirties, several copies will be sold by Selfidge's department store in London. However, the mechanical TV system goes into obscurity when the BBC decides to discontinue the product in 1936.
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1948:
John Mullin demonstrates a modified Magnetophone tape recorder to Bing Crosby Enterprises. Alexander M Poniatoff, head of the US firm Ampex, witnesses the demonstration; Ampex is given an order to produce 20 self-designed recorders for Bing Crosby Enterprises.
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1948:
April:  Surprise public exhibition of a 15-minute newsreel using intermediate film large-screen television at the Paramount Theatre, New York. Television pictures—re-photographed on 35mm film from a 10-inch cathode ray tube and fed through a machine which develops, fixes, washes and dries it before entering a conventional projector—reach the 18ft x 24ft screen in 66 seconds. The screen used is larger than the average cinema screen at this time.
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April:  Bing Crosby Enterprises team, led by John Mullin, begins work on broadcast videotape recording.
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AEG of Germany converts a 35mm Mechau continuous motion projector to a camera for continuous recording of television pictures. System uses a rotating mirror drum synchronised with the film so that the reflected images of the television picture follow the film down. In theory this does away with need to have exceptionally high rate of pull-down in the camera and means that no lines are lost in the recording process.
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1949:
August:  First filmed recording of CBS colour television made in Washington DC using US Navy-designed camera.
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Image Orthicon television camera is introduced.
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1950:
"Jack Mullin, then Bing Crosby's recordist and chief engineer, began working at the newly established electronics division of Crosby Enterprises to develop a magnetic TV recorder" - from Tape Recorder History by Jerry Whitaker.
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March:  First filmed recording of RCA colour television.
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August   Sony develops and markets first Japanese audio tape and recorder.
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1951:
Armour Research - In the US, demonstrates a crude VTR - Video Tape Recorder - to Alexander Poniatov and Ampex executives. Ampex immediately begins work on one of its own in Redwood City, California. A parallel effort to develop the required tape goes on at 3M Corporation. 3M's first Scotch 179 reel is 2 in. wide, nearly 800 m long, and weighs 10 kg.
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November: Bing Crosby Enterprises mounts the first successful demonstration of black and white magnetic video recording, an experimental 12-head VTR running at 100 ips. A conventional Ampex audio recorder is used at a greatly enhanced speed. According to chief engineer Mullin, the resulting quality is negligible.
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September Start of ‘hot-kine’ era of US television recording. Transcontinental microwave television transmission system is completed and all three networks, desiring to maintain a uniform programme schedule in the face of three-hour East-West time difference, develop a fast system of recording television using film. Recordings are made on 35mm film which is quickly developed, washed and dried and projected as a negative.
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December: Alexander Poniatoff, head of Ampex, authorises project with budget of $14,500, led by Charles Ginsburg, to investigate videotape recording. As a project is has relatively low priority and is suspended from time to time.
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1952:
BBC's VERA - Which stood for: Vision Electronic Recording Aperatus. Developed by Dr. Peter Axon. VERA ran half inch tape past fixed ferrite heads, which had 0.5 micron permalloy gaps, at 192 IPS. 21 inch diameter reels gave a playing time of 15 minutes. After many years of development, VERA was used, on the air for a short while, in 1958.
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August Ray Dolby (1933- ) joins the Ampex video recording project.
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September Pierre Toulon files US patent for photographic disc reproduction of television signals (granted August 1965).
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October: Mullin-Crosby achieves the first high-resolution recorded moving pictures through means other than photography, with an improved multi-track videotape recorder.  Financed by Bing Crosby Enterprises and developed by magnetic recording guru John Mullin along with Wayne Johnson, was a half inch, fixed head, longitudinal video tape recorder using ten tracks for pictures, one track for sync and one head for audio and was three times cheaper than any comparable process. Tape speed was a whopping 100 IPS  (13.6 MPH!) and has a recording time of 16 minutes on one reel of tape. A color version was demonstrated in 1955 before the whole thing was made obsolete by the Ampex Quad machine.
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October: Ampex achieves an almost recognisable picture with its videotape experiments using an arcuate system with three heads on spinning drum and two-inch tape running at 30 ips. This is soon superseded by transverse scanning system with tracks running width-ways across tape and four rotating heads.
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1953:
December- Vladimir K. Zworykin and RCA Labs demonstrated Dec. 1 a longitudinal videotape recorder in monochrome and colour running very fast at 360 ips over 3 heads with AM sound and a 7,000ft reel of half-inch tape gives only four minutes recording time.
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Team at Toshiba in Japan led by N Sawazaki begins work on helical scan videotape recording.
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JVC begins research into video recording.
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1954:
September Ampex video project is fully re-activated after a period of 13 months when engineers were switched to other tasks.
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October NHK makes its first practical use of kinescope recording for a television production of a Kabuki drama.
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November Alex Maxey of Ampex proposes new video recorder design with single rotating head and four-inch tape passing the head in a tubular pattern. Proposal meets with little enthusiasm as all efforts are concentrated on perfection of quadruplex design.
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NBC developing colour-kine system using three separate tubes or kinescopes optically combined and recorded on 35mm negative film.
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Peak of pre-videotape era: CBS produces 70 hours of live programming a week, all kine-recorded on almost 1m feet of film stock.
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1955:
RCA tests its fixed-head videotape recorder at NBC. Tape speed is reduced from 360 ips to 240 ips to give a longer recording time.
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Bing Crosby Enterprises fixed-head videotape recorder system is now analogue, running at 360 ips and then 240 ips with five tracks on half-inch tape: red, green, blue, sync and FM sound.
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Research into videotape recording starts at Victor Company of Japan (JVC) by team under Kenjiro Takayanagi.
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1956:
RCA develops a prototype home videotape recorder with two fixed heads and quarter-inch tape capable of 15 minutes of recording. Called the  "See-Hear Home Video System". Announced by RCA but was never seen or heard of again.
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March 14 -Ampex demonstrates working rotary head quadruplex (four-head) videotape recorder to 200 CBS TV affiliates at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters convention in Chicago. Event causes a tremendous stir throughout the entire broadcasting world and within four days the small California company has orders for $4m worth of the first VRX1000 machines—later renamed Mark IV—at $50,000 each. Used two inch tape and a four head transverse scanner spinning at 14,400 RPM. This first practical video tape recorder developed by Charles Ginsburg, Ray Dolby.
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By the end of 1956, 13 quadruplex video tape recorders have been installed at ( US ) TV stations.
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3M sells its first commercial reel of videotape (Scotch Brand 179) to CBS.
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Helical scan design for videotape recording is proposed by Alex Maxey of Ampex.
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November 30 - CBS broadcast the first network television show with videotape Nov. 30, Douglas Edwards and the News, recorded in New York for West Coast delayed broadcast. It is recorded on the Ampex machine and played back with three hours’ time difference on the West Coast. Two simultaneous video recordings are backed up by 35mm and 16mm film recordings all played back together to insure against disaster.
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September NBC begins use of lenticular colour-kine process for time-zone-delay recordings. Special lenticular film was developed by Kodak for the purpose.
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Bell Telephone Company in US developing video telephone.
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1957:
The first VTR equipped remote trucks appear.
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Tape is interchanged from one VTR to another for the first time.
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The first quadruplex color VTR is demonstrated by Ampex, and called the VR 1000B. In 1963 a transistor version will be marketed under the name VR 1100.
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Ampex and RCA pooled patents to develop compatible color and B&W VTR.
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January 21 First major use of videotape recording, for the second inauguration of President Dwight D Eisenhower. Ampex VTR machines become available, costing around $45,000.
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NBC uses videotape for first time in broadcasts. To begin with, video recordings can only be played back with the same magnetic recording heads that they are recorded by. Video heads are thus stored with the recordings ready for playback. All early recordings are backed up by film recordings.
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October RCA and Ampex demonstrates prototype colour quadruplex videotape recorders after announcement of joint patent exchange covering video recording in monochrome and colour.
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First TV commercial on videotape is recorded.
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Mechanical Video Tape editing begins. The process involves pouring magnetically sensitive salts on the service side of the tape. Then the editor looks at the tape through a microscope. Once the signal characteristics have been gleaned and the edit point determined, a transverse slice is made with a demagnetized razor.
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1958:
December Sony develops the first Japanese transistorised videotape recorder.
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Ampex develops a videotape splicing block and each network works out its own systems for mechanical splicing and editing of video recordings.
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Fernseh develops its own version of quadruplex videotape recorder.
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JVC initiates VTR development programme.
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Philips displays a rotating magnetic wheel storage device for still television pictures. Wheel turns at 3,000 rpm and the picture is recorded and played back from a single video head.
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SMPTE forms the Videotape Recording Committee to establish standards.
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April 14 BBC demonstrates publicly and then for a limited period uses its own VERA (Vision Electronic Recording Apparatus), using three-track heads and tape at 200 ips.
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July Matsushita, working with Japanese broadcasting organisation NHK, develops a prototype broadcast videotape recorder with eight rotating heads and two-inch tape.
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February NBC network announces that all recordings for US time-zone delay will be done with videotape.
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CBS broadcasts 'The Red Mill', the first full length program edited on videotape.
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'The Betty Freezor Show' is the first TV program to be taped in color. It is broadcast by WBTV of Charlotte, North Carolina only two hours after it is recorded on 1/2 in. (1.25 cm) videotape, with only a slight deterioration of the picture.
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1959:
Toshiba in September demonstrated prototype helical scan model VTR-1, with 2-inch tape running at 15 ips over just one head. After the demonstration, Sony began to develop the helical scan VTR.
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August Grundig shows a simple monochrome video camera at the Berlin Radio Show (Funkausstellung). It costs £190 and is aimed at the amateur market. It plugs into the television receiver aerial socket.
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October 9 JVC applies for a patent on a two-head helical scan videotape recorder.
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December General Electric Company of America announces a new system of video recording called thermoplastic recording. The process uses a high-melting-point film base coated with a transparent conducting layer and a thin layer of low-melting-point thermoplastic. Video information is laid down by an electron beam and the film is then heated to deform the surface in accordance with the information. Playback is by means of diffraction optics.
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December JVC completes KV-1, its first production VTR and the first two-head helical scan recorder.
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Professor Okamura of Tokyo University of Electro-Communications patents the slant azimuth method of video recording later used extensively in all domestic video machines.
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1960:
Ampex shared VTR patents with Sony and Sony shared transistorized circuitry with Ampex.
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April Ampex introduces the Intersync accessory which makes it possible to cut to or from videotape without rolls or discontinuity and to do dissolves and some special effects.
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April Ampex demonstrates first automatic time-base error compensator, Amtec.
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Ampex takes a helical scan videotape (VR-8000?) machine to NAB convention but does not display it as there are no competing machines to force its entry into the market.
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January 9 JVC’s KV-1 helical scan VTR is shown publicly.
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Colour version of JVC’s helical scan VTR, KV-2, completed by autumn.
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1961:
Ampex VR-8000 - The very first commercially available helical scan videotape recorder. Used a one head scanner, with a full alpha wrap and two inch broadcast tape.
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May Ampex demonstrates its Colortec colour recovery system for compensating timing errors in the composite colour signal.
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RCA introduces compact stand-alone transistorised videotape recorder TR-22.
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January Sony introduces the world’s first transistorised videotape recorder, SV-201.
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January JVC (founded as the American-owned Victor Co. of Japan in 1946, but owned by Matsushita since 1953) announces two-head helical scan colour videotape recorder, model 770. Tape speed of 15 inches per second gives recording time of 90 minutes.
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March Stanford Research Institute (SRI) at Menlo Park, California, begins research into a photographic television recording disc in conjunction with 3M. The aim is to produce an inexpensive home video system.
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Sony - Sponsors and demonstrates the world's smallest and lightest videotape recorder (model PV-100), designed for the technological, industrial, educational, medical, sports and arts markets. Usied two inch open reel tape in a 2 head helical scan system. The PV100 was adopted by American Airlines in 1964 for in-flight movies.
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September Kodak announces a new method for direct electron-beam recording on silver halide film. Anticipates recording techniques used for CBS’s EVR system.
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Siemens and Halke of Munich develop a magnetic video disc for recording single frames.
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Advertel of Canada designs world’s first electronic videotape editing machine.
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1962:
There are 951 VTRs in use worldwide.
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June  Machtronics of California introduces high standard portable helical scan videotape recorder MVR-10 using one-inch tape running at 7.5 inches per second (ips). Machine contains a monitor and records for up to 90 mins. Followed by MVR-11, without monitor, weighing 65 lb.
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Toshiba demonstrates a helical VTR.
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October  First images recorded and played back from 3M/SRI optical video disc.
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November  3M files patent for Electron Beam Recording system using laser technology.
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JVC of Japan sells the first helical VTR.
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The first solid state VTRs come from RCA and Sony.
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Ampex demonstrates electronic video tape editing.
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Ampex markets VR-1100 solid state monochrome videotape recorder, priced at under $50,000.
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1963:
Ampex Signature V - The very first home videotape recorder appeared in the Nieman - Marcus Christmas catalog. Eight inch reels of two inch wide tape, using a one head helical scan system, recorded 64 minutes at 5 IPS. The Signature V system sold for 30,000 dollars and weighed 100 pounds! [Model# VR-1500]
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Sony marketed first home VTR for $995, open reel 1/2-inch helical scan deck.
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March Sony introduces in U.K. the world’s first fully transistorised portable videotape recorder, PV-100, for industrial use.
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April Precision Instrument of California introduces a portable two-head helical scan videotape recorder, model PI-3V, weighing 68 lb and using one-inch tape.
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June 24 Telcan fixed-head longitudinal videotape recorder intended for home-taping of television programmes is demonstrated on BBC television news. Developed by Norman Rutherford and Michael Turner of Nottingham Electronic Valve Company (NEVC), the machine uses quarter-inch tape running at 120 ips past fixed heads, carrying two 15-minute tracks. The intended price is £61 19s (£61.90). Both Telcan and NEVC collapsed.
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BBC introduces an electronic line-store standards converter.
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3M introduces new improved videotape Scotch Brand 379.
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US firm Machtronics introduces helical scan videotape recorder.
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Editec electronic video editing is introduced by Ampex. It allows frame-by-frame recording control and tape editing and makes simple animation effects possible.
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Design consultant Colin Mason of Wolverhampton, England announces that he has developed a video record player after seven years' research supported by a Wolverhampton company. The video player is similar in size to a conventional audio disc player, plugs into a conventional television set and will cost about £35. The records will be called 'videograms'.
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1964:
Philips EL-3400 - Their first video tape recorder, introduced in 1964. Designed for industrial / educational markets. Priced within reach of a few high end consumers (early videophiles) at nearly $4000(US). It was a one head, helical scan, one inch machine that contained 21 vacuum tubes and consumed 355 watts of power.
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Ampex joined with Toshiba to market U.S.-designed VTRs in Japan.
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April Ampex announces a high-band colour videotape recorder VR-2000 developed primarily to satisfy the requirements of the BBC’s new 625-line system. It is now possible to make up to four generations of dubs with minimal loss of quality.
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April Winston Research Corporation, division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation, introduces a low-cost fixed-head videotape recorder using quarter-inch tape running at 120 ips.
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May RCA announces a prototype electron beam recorder with better resolution than conventional kine-recording (recording of television pictures by photographing from a television tube onto film).
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June 24 Picturephone video telephone system demonstrated in US.
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June Sony PV-120AL video system is installed by American Airlines for passenger entertainment.
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RCA introduces three solid state compact quadruplex videotape recorders, TR3, TR4 and TR5, which incorporate electronic editing, dropout compensation and automatic colour time-base correction. The cost is approximately half that of previous broadcast machines.
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Rank Cintel develops the UK’s only successful quadruplex videotape recorder but it is abandoned due to possible patent difficulties.
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Philips introduces a one-head helical scan industrial videotape recorder.
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RCA begins research and development on video disc systems.
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1965:
March: Ampex Signature VI - Featured longitudinal recording to record 25 (50?) minutes of video on a reel of tape. The 1/4" tape moved at a whopping 100 inches per second. [Model# VR-303]
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August: Sony Consumer Video System - Seven inch reels of half-inch tape stored a black-and-white picture and mono sound. This system used a "skip field" recording system, every other video field was skipped. [Model# CV-2000]
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Sony introduces the first monochrome half-inch tape Video Rover portapak—used almost immediately by New York video artist Nam June Paik.
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Matsushita introduces a compact half-inch industrial videotape recorder to match the Sony CV series.
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Wesgrove home video recorder is developed in the UK. It employs ¼-inch tape running at 150 ips and giving 30 minutes' recording
time on 11½-inch reels. A do-it-yourself kit goes on sale for £97 10s (£97.50).
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Westinghouse develops the Phonovid process in an attempt to produce a commercial videodisc. While this microgroove disc provides a good quality picture it can only store 200 fixed images on each disc.
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August   MVR video disc machine VDR-210CF built to CBS specifications is used for instant replays on CBS coverage of an American football game. The MVR videodisc recorder is demonstrated in California. 600 frames of action lasting 20 seconds can be recorded on the magnetic disc and replayed immediately. Single frames can also be replayed or erased. [Just take a peak in LabGuy's Weird  Video Equipment page. . .]
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April:  Electronovision makes Harlow, the first electronic motion picture for theatrical release, in England.
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1966:
VR-660: - A portable broadcast television tape recorder priced  at $14,500. The unit weighed under 100 lbs. and was designed for mobile and studio use. Its was completely transistorized and operated at 3.75 IPS and could record up to 5 hours of continuous program material on a single 12-1/2" reel of standard 2" wide broadcasting video tape.
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March   Ampex announces an automatic velocity compensator for eliminating colour errors due to videotape speed variations.
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April   Ampex announces VR-6000 one-head helical scan home video tape recorder using one-inch tape and having built-in tuner for recording one programme while watching another. An optional camera was available.

   The following correcion and update was provided by Bill Carpenter 20170910:

     OK, this was a 1966 entry, the VR-6000 was a cost reduced version of the VR-7000 (pre-A) 1" helical scan format which was introduced 1965, and had started shipment in November of 1965, when I started working for Ampex, in Elk Grove, IL (west of O'Hare Airport). I first worked on the "built-in tuner", then later on the parts reduced machine, with XXXP (triple xp) paper based pc boards instead of the glass epoxy boards used in the 7000 series products.



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April   Westel firm of California announces a portable television camera and back-pack recorder, WRC-150, weighing 7 lb and 23 lb respectively. Recorder holds 30 minutes’ supply of one-inch tape.
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Sony -  Demonstrates the world's first color home videotape recorder.
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March   Sony announces Videomat and Video Color Demonstrator machines using plastic discs for recording and playback of monochrome moving pictures and colour still pictures respectively. These developments are forerunners of the Mavica electronic stills camera system.
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1967:
Sony DV-2400: - The world's first portapack VTR. Half inch tape in helical system using the skip field recording method. Compatible with all members of the CV-2000 family of products. The portapak is almost as easy to operate as an audio tape-recorder and leads to an explosion in 'do-it-yourself' television, revolutionizing the medium.
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CBS pioneers home video with the EVR (electronic video recorder). A video cartridge system that played back images on a TV set from film. Using twin-track 8.75mm film onto which signals are transferred by electron beam recording, one track for luminance, the other for either chrominance (to produce colour images) or luminance (to produce a second monochrome track). The 750 ft film is on a seven-inch diameter spool in a plastic cartridge. It is thus barely electronic, not really video and certainly not intended for home recording. It was play only with rewind, fast forward and freezeframe capabilities. The picture quality is comparable to that of 35 mm films shown on TV. Famed long-playing microgroove record inventor Peter Goldmark of CBS labs came up with the ideas behind EVR. Dr. Goldmark had a lot of experience with the more primative mechanical television systems and this show in the overall design of the players. 20th Century Fox agreed to sell movies in EVR; but the format faced growing competition by 1972 from videocassette formats introduced by RCA, Sony, Ampex and Avco (Cartrivision), all seeking to develop a new consumer market for home VCRs.
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 In March, the Ampex HS-100 color video magnetic disc recorder is used for rapid playback in normal, slow, or stop action, at the "World
Series of Skiing" in Vail, Colorado, marking the beginning of "instant replay" on commercial television.
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April Ampex introduces the first battery-powered portable quadruplex high-band colour tape recorder, VR3000. Weighing 35 lb, it can record for 20 minutes with an eight-inch reel of two-inch tape. The accompanying camera weighs 13 lb.
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Vidtronics division of American Technicolor company announces colour videotape-to-film transfer process.
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Ampex sells its 1,000th high-band colour videotape recorder.
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October: All American Engineering demonstrates a prototype fixed-head videotape recorder using quarter-inch tape running at 60 ips.
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Matsushita announces magnetic sheet concentric video recorder, VSR.
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1968:
Philips EL-3402 - A portable high quality solid state, color capable, 1" VTR. Used a single head scanner with a 360 degree full alpha wrap. Consumed 100 Watts, weighed 22 Kilograms / 48 Lbs.
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October 12: BBC field-store standards converter is used to relay Olympic Games television transmissions from Mexico to Europe.
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Matsushita markets the first videotape recording using the slant azimuth system.
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Ampex HS-100 video disc recorder with slow motion and stop-action facilities is used for first time by ABC during Olympic Games.
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CBS demonstrates its EVR system of video playback to the US press.
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1969:
The major VTR companies of Japan recently agreed on a standard tape format. Called EIAJ, which stands for: Electronics Industries Association of Japan, this format used 1/2" tape running at 7-1/2 IPS, a half helical recording angle of 3 degrees 11 minutes, a 1 mm sound track, 0.8 mm control track and having a resolution better than 240 lines. (Electronics World magazine - Dec, 1969)
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Electronic Industries Association of Japan sets CP-504 unified standards for non-broadcast open-reel videotape recorders.
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EIAJ Type 1 video cartridge specifications are agreed and announced.
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RCA Holotape - An experimental system that embossed 3-D images onto mylar film using a high power laser. The tape was then played back using a second lower powered laser. This system never went into production.  (Electronics World magazine - Dec, 1969)
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Akai - Two systems using 1/4" tape on open reels. One made black-and-white, the other color recordings.
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Philips LDL-1200 - An all transistor, 1 inch tape, 355 degrees omega wrap, bandwidth > 4.0 Mhz, weight: 55 Kilos / 121 pounds. The mechanical part was more or less the same as the 1964 model EL3400.
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Sony introduced first videocassette, the 3/4-inch U-Matic one-hour tape, available in U.S. by 1971. For the first time, Sony allowed other
manufacturers to sell machines that could play the cassette, and thus succeeded in establishing a world standard for the 3/4-inch videocassette.
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(?) Sony announces its first colour videocassette recorder. Known as the Magazine Videocorder, it uses one-inch tape running at 3.25 ips giving 60 minutes’ recording time.
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Sony’s one-inch videotape recorder model EV310, costing £1,200, is introduced this year.
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In April, IBM announces method of contact printing videotape at high speeds. Also; Matsushita announces ‘bifilar’ high-speed contact videotape printer.
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(?) In June, JVC announces plans to market cartridge video recorder using half-inch tape running at 7.5 ips for a maximum playing time of 30 mins. Audio to be on dual stereo tracks. JVC, Matsushita and Sony discuss standardisation of colour format under auspices of Electronic Industries Association of Japan (EIAJ).
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In July, first public demonstration of EVR home video system at the International Audio-Visual Exhibition (Internavex) at Olympia in London.
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Vidicord teleplayer is demonstrated in London. Using Super 8 cine film, stored in a cassette, it plays back in monochrome via the aerial socket of a conventional television receiver. The player costs £370
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In November Matsushita introduces a magazine video recorder with audio-type cassettes containing two reels of EIAJ standard reels of videotape.
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In November Sony announces a new home videocassette machine called Color Videoplayer, using three-quarter-inch tape running at 3.15 ips, giving 90 minutes' playback with two audio tracks. A revamped version of this machine is re-introduced in 1972 as the U-matic system.
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In November Technicolor Corporation of America announces plans for new method of using videotape with 2,000 scan lines for feature film production.
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1970:
Toamco Instavision - A half inch reel to reel system, produced under a working relationship between Ampex and Toshiba. Using half-inch tape compatible with EIAJ standards designed in modular form so that the basic monochrome recorder could be portable with an optional camera. It also had stereo audio tracks in the same place that EIAJ placed the mono audio track. This system never came to market, but was shown at the Summer CES in Chicago. The patnership was disolved by 1972.
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Norelco LDL-1000 - This VTR was specifically designed to use 1/2" chromium dioxide tape giving optimum picture quality at the tape saving speed of 7.9 IPS. The LDL-1000 weighed 26 Lbs.
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The excellent quality of the AEG Telefunken-Decca Teledec is demonstrated in W. Berlin. This videodisc is made of a sheet of PVC 0.04 in. ( 1mm ) thick. A 9 in. ( 22.5 cm ) disc plays for five minutes, a 12 in. (30 cm) runs for 12 minutes.
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N.V. Philips introduced its own videocassette recorder (VCR) format in Europe
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July: AVCO introduced a solid state compact (?) Cartrivision VCR.
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In February JVC launches its first portable videotape recorder, model PKV-830.
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March: First demonstration by CBS of colour EVR (in U.K.?).
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March: Sony introduces a new version of its colour videoplayer and mass printing system.
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In April Ampex announces ‘third generation’ videotape recorder, AVR-1, with time-base correction system and designed to be interfaced with computers for use in automated programming. Also; Ampex displays its ADR-150 high-speed contact videotape printer.
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May: Memorex of California announces a thermal contact method for duplicating videotapes.
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June 24: Teldec television disc (later known as TeD) is demonstrated in Berlin-the result of a joint venture between AEG-Telefunken and Teldec (the latter a joint venture of AEG-Telefunken and Britain's Decca Record Company).
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June: Philips announces and gives the first public demonstration of its Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) system using half-inch tape coaxially mounted in a cassette and running at 5.6 ips.
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October: Du Pont describes a thermo-remanent process for high-speed duplication of chromium dioxide videotapes.
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Ampex's ACR-25 cartridge-based video recording system allows automated recording and playback of television commercials.
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IVC introduces 4101 time-base corrector to stabilise television signals.
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Sony announces a portable half-inch open-reel colour videotape recorder.
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1971:
April 19-23  First International Cartridge TV, Videocassette and Videodisc Conference (VIDCA) organised by American Billboard publications and attended by over 600 commercial representatives is held at Cannes, France.
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October: Sony, Matsushita and JVC announce 3/4-inch tape inside a U-matic format cassette, the size of a box of candy, for colour video recording. Note: This is the only "old" format that is still in use, although superseded by U-Matic SP (Superior Performance).
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RCA MagTape - Used three quarter-inch tape and featured an in-cartridge scanning scheme that actually shoved the video head drum partially into the cassette. The "Selectavision" trade name later cropped up in the company's VHS tape and CED video disc player lines. This system also never went into production.
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Philips of the Netherlands develops a laser disc, its Video LP (VLP). It comes in two sizes: one can record an hour of TV on either side, the other records only 30 minutes on each side but has freeze-frame capability. The surface of the disc is smooth and reflective; a laser takes the place of the phonograph needle. Philips intends for the product to compete with the videocassette but does not market it for several years.
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December 23: CBS announces its withdrawal from the EVR Partnership.
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JVC markets the U-format video system based on Sony’s three-quarter-inch standard.
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Committee of representatives from Ampex, EECO, Advertel and Central Dynamics meet and agree to adopt a standard electronic edge numbering system for computerised video editing (implemented April 1975).
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1972:
Cartrivision - Two reels of 1/2" tape were stacked one on top of the other in a clunky cassette roughly the size of a
hardcover book. This system also used "skip-field" recording, but at least it was in color. The system made it to Sears, and some stores even rented special cassettes that could be watched only once because they were designed not to rewind in home machines. The format failed almost as soon as it appeared, owing to a lack of software, mechanical unreliability and massive consumer indifference. The final death blow came when a warehouse full of prerecorded tapes were discovered to have rotted.
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1973:
Cartrivision fails. Avco goes out of business. Thousands of Cartrivisions decks dumped on the surplus market for decades afterwards!
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May: JVC unveils a U-format videocassette recorder with integral tuner for off-air reception.
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August: Kodak announces VP-1 videoplayer for showing Super 8 film on television receivers.
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1974:
January 8: JVC announces its CR-4400 U-format portable videocassette recorder.
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September 23  Philips and MCA agree on a merger of their respective video disc systems, Philips to produce and sell VLP hardware, MCA to develop and market Disco-Vision software. Formally ratified by the companies’ boards of directors on October 7.
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1975:
Panasonic's Omnivision I - Housed a single reel of tape in a cartridge and wound the tape onto a take-up reel inside the transport.This meant that you could never remove a cassette in the middle of a program. The system was standardized and called EIAJ-2.  The tapes were only available in a 30 minute length. No 30 minute format has ever succeeded.
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Betamax - First popular home VCR. Sony introduced in November in the U.S. the Betamax consumer VCR (console only) for $2295 with one-hour 1/2-inch tape cassettes for $15.95. Sony sought to created a standardized format, as it had done with the U-matic in 1969, by getting 7 other companies to agree to produce machines that would play the Beta cassettes.
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March 17: TeD video disc system is launched commercially in West Germany.
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1976:
The Great Time Machine - Using the VX format invented by Matshusita, recorded 2 hours on 1/2" tape in a cassette that was a mechanical nightmare. Faye Dunaway used a Great Time Machine in the 1978 movie The Eyes of Laura Mars.
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September 9: JVC unveils its VHS (Video Home System) half-inch videocassette recorder format at Hotel Okura, Tokyo.
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October: JVC introduced, to the market place, the VHS format VCR for $885.
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Sony introduced a Betamax VCR deck for $1300 and began aggressive advertising claiming that it "can actually videotape something off
one channel while you're watching another channel" and "build a library of your favorite shows." MCA/Universal and Disney filed lawsuit
finally won by Sony in 1984.
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September: Sony develops laser-read digital audio disc system based on Laservision video disc format giving 30 mins playing time per side at 1,800rpm.
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1977:
Sanyo V-Cord I - This system stored 20 minutes of black-and-white video on half inch tape in a very compact cassette.
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Sanyo V-Cord II - This system added color and introduced a slower speed to extend recording time and was one of the first formats to offer a really good freeze frame and slow motion.
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VHS - Introduced by JVC and Matshusita, put two hours on a tape. Throughout 1977, tape speed wars saw Beta II counter with a three hour tape, VHS followed with a four hour length, Beta III then offered five hours, and VHS mopped up the competition with a six hour recording time. Today, VHS can record up to 8 hours using the T-160 size tapes.
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RCA announced in March it would sell VHS with 4-hour tapes.
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1978:
Philips "VCR" Format - Philips invented the name VCR but could only register the trademark in Europe. The name caught on much better than the machines which stacked one reel of tape above the other.
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Philips Video 2000 - Using 1/2" videotape, this Philips and Grundig machine played 1/4" of the tape in one direction. You would then flip the tape over and play the other half in the other direction. Tapes looked just like the successful Philips audio compact cassette, only bigger.
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Pioneer developed the LaserDisc that was first used by General Motors to train Cadillac salesmen. Pioneer began selling home LaserDisc
players in 1980.
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1979:
Sony introduced Betascan in April that allowed visible picture while fast-forwarding.
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1980:
8mm - Profferred by Sony and 127 other leading consumer electronics manufacturers. Introduced high density recording on audio cassette-sized 8mm tape.
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Sony introduced first consumer video camcorder.
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1982:
Technicolor Compact Video Cassette (CVC) - Japan's Funai joined forces with Technicolor to create the  Video Showcase system. The lightest and most portable recording system of its time using 1/4" cassettes that could record 30 minutes. Another doomed 30 minute format....
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1983:
Sony introduced the Beta HiFi VCR with high-quality FM sound.
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1985:
Sony introduced the 8-mm format in April (?).
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The VHS group, led by JVC, brought out a compact version of VHS, known as VHS-C, but it only recorded for 20 minutes.
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1988:
Super-VHS video format equalled 8-mm in picture quality but not in sound quality.
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        Created before: January 09, 2005 Last updated: September 10, 2017