Video Cassette Recorder
Video Cassette Recorder
Usage conditions apply
- Description (Brief)
- This front-loading Betamax video recorder was manufactured by Sony at the height of the company’s competition with producers of the rival VHS format. Beta recorders initially featured a one hour recording cassette, later lengthened to match VHS. Early Beta machines were slightly larger than early VHS units and designers struggled to put a quality audio signal on the tape without compromising video signal quality. Both formats were available for about ten years but ultimately Sony could not solve the audio-video problem without a major redesign that made newer tapes incompatible with older machines. Sony dropped the Beta format in 1988.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- video recorder
- recording device
- date made
- 1984
- maker
- Sony
- Physical Description
- steel (overall material)
- plastic (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 10.1 cm x 43.2 cm x 38.1 cm; 4 in x 17 in x 15 in
- ID Number
- 2003.0147.04
- accession number
- 2003.0147
- catalog number
- 2003.0147.04
- Credit Line
- from Lynn G. Herbert
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Magnetic Recording
- Communications
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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