In the mid-1950s, a transverse scanning system of video and recording playback was created. This system of recording was known as quadruplex and represents the origins of the VCR. In the quadruplex system, the sound and picture control tracks run linearly close to the edges of the tape. Fixed heads scan them while the picture control track, “generates signals that serve to adjust the speed of the rotating drum so that each head is aligned directly over the correct part of each recorded video track” (Encarta 1). The tape used was two inches wide, but the quadruplex system was reserved mainly for the broadcasting industry. Another scanning principle was developed for video recorders intended for consumer use. In this less complex system, a helical scan has a much slower head-to-tape speed than the quadruplex system and has a smaller maximum bandwidth. While this system was developed for consumer video recorders, it has a much lower level of resolution than the quadruplex system. Most of the video cassette recorders developed with this system of scanning had a tape width of 0.5 inches. During the1970s and 1980s, VCRs had an improving price/performance ratio which began to make them quite popular with consumers.
Originally, Sony had infiltrated the market but went with the Beta format as opposed to the VHS format. While the Beta format provided better quality of resolution, the VHS format won out with consumers and by the 1980s VCRs were readily sold to consumers for domestic use. Through aggressive marketing and pricing strategies, JVC remains the worldwide leader in VCR market share at the present time. Nonetheless, the VCR is very useful for the broadcasting industry in terms of ease of use, efficiency and cost. Unlike regular film used in broadcasting, video recording captures still or moving images electronically as opposed to photochemically. The techniques by which a VCR records are actually similar to those ...