videocassette recorder

videocassette recorder, electromechanical device that records, stores, and plays back television programs on a television set by means of a cassette of magnetic tape. A videocassette recorder is commonly used to record television programs broadcast over the air or by cable and to play back commercially recorded cassettes on a television set.

Prototypes of videocassette recorders were developed in the l960s, but the first relatively convenient and low-cost VCR was introduced by the Sony Corporation in 1969. With the subsequent development of the Betamax format by Sony and the VHS format by the Matsushita Corporation in the 1970s, videocassette recorders became sufficiently inexpensive to be purchased by millions of families for use in the home. Both the VHS and Betamax systems use videotape that is 0.5 inch (13 mm) wide, but the two systems are mutually incompatible, and a cassette that is recorded on one system cannot be played back on the other system. A third system using 0.3inch- (8-millimetre-) wide tape was introduced in early 1985.

A videocassette recorder can have from two to as many as seven tape heads that read and inscribe video and audio tracks on the magnetic tape. Most VCRs have fast-forward and reverse controls and a timer that enables television programs to be recorded automatically, and they can record a program on one television channel while a viewer watches a program on another channel of the same television set.

Colour home movies can be made with the use of a camcorder system; this consists of a videocassette recorder that is connected to a relatively light and simple video camera. One camcorder system uses 8-millimetre videotape, and other portable video systems are available for filming outside of the home or studio.