Many companies developed different systems for recording video on a tape cassette, but the first VTR (short forVideoTapeRecorder) to become popular and make money was theAmpex VRX-1000, which was introduced in 1956 byAmpex Corporation.[1] It cost US$50,000 in 1956 (over $400,000 in 2016 money), and US$300 (over $2,000 in 2016 money) for a 90-minute reel of tape. Because it was so expensive, it was made and sold only for professional recording.
WhileKenjiro Takayanagi, atelevision broadcasting pioneer, was the vice president of JVC, he decided that his company could make money by developing and selling VTRs inJapan, and at a lower price. In 1959, JVC developed a two-head video tape recorder, and by 1960 they had acolor television version for professional broadcasting.[2] In 1964, JVC released the DV220. It would be the company's standard VTR until the mid-1970s.
In 1969, JVC worked withSony Corporation andMatsushita Electric (who ownedPanasonic) to design a video recordingtechnical standard for Japanese consumers.[3] They developed theU-matic tape format in 1971, which was the first format to become a technical standard for VTRs. The U-matic format was successful in business and some video broadcasting. However, few people bought U-matic VTRs to use at home because they were still very expensive, and the tapes could only record short time periods of video.
Soon after, Sony and Matsushita stopped working on the project. They started to work on their own video recording formats. Sony started working onBetamax and Matsushita started working onVX. JVC released the CR-6060 in 1975, which was based on the U-matic format. Sony and Matsushita also produced their own U-matic machines.
In 1971, JVCengineers named Yuma Shiraishi and Shizuo Takano started a team to develop a VTR for people to use at home.[4]By the end of 1971, they created andiagram titled "VHS Development Matrix", which listed goals for JVC's new VTR.[5]
- The machine must work with any ordinary television set.
- The picture on the television must resemble a normal television broadcast.
- The tape must be able to record at least two hours of video.
- The tapes must be able to record and play video on other machines of the same kind.
- The whole system should be able to be expanded. For example, there should be ways to connect avideo camera to the machine, and to record video from another recorder.
- Recorders should be cheap, easy to use and cheap to fix.
- The company must be able to produce large numbers of the machines, usinginterchangeable parts (in other words, different models and styles of machine have the same parts inside).
In 1972, video recording industry in Japan started to lose money. JVC had to find ways to spend less money, so it stopped developing the VHS project. However, Takano and Shiraishi continued to work on the project by themselves, even though the company was not giving them any money to use. By 1973, the two engineers had built aprototype.[5]
