M is the name of a professional analog

videocassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...

format created around 1982 by Matsushita and

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

. Developed as a competitor to Sony's

Betacam Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself. Al ...

format, M used the same videocassette (and the same oxide-formulated

magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnet ...

stock) as VHS, much the same way that Betacam was designed to take advantage of cheap and readily available Betamax videocassettes, Like Betacam, M recorded

component video Component video is an analog video signal that has been split into two or more component channels. In popular use, it refers to a type of component analog video (CAV) information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals. Compo ...

and used a much faster linear tape speed. A cassette that would yield 120 minutes on a VHS VCR at SP speed would only yield 20 minutes on a M VCR. The format was called "M" due to the shape of the threading path of the tape around the

helical scan Helical scan is a method of recording high-frequency signals on magnetic tape. It is used in open-reel video tape recorders, video cassette recorders, digital audio tape recorders, and some computer tape drive A tape drive is a data sto ...

video head drum, which resembles a letter M. (This is also how the

U-matic U-matic is an analogue recording videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, as opp ...

format got its name, for its U-shaped tape path in the VCR.) The M-shaped tape path was retained from VHS. An example M VCR is the Panasonic AU-300. M had a similar 4-head recording system to Betacam, but the chrominance signals were recorded as two FM subcarriers of the main chrominance track FM carrier. M found little success in the professional/industrial

video production Video production is the process of producing video content for video. It is the equivalent of filmmaking, but with video recorded either as analog signals on videotape, digitally in video tape or as computer files stored on optical discs, hard dri ...

market. This might have been due to

's Broadcast Products division, which marketed the M format in the United States under the "Hawkeye" brand name, going out of business in 1984. Thus

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

was one of the few broadcasters to use the format. Weak marketing by Matsushita for M might have been a factor as well. M was also marketed by

Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...

(a division of Matsushita) and

Ampex Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...

under the Recam (REcording CAMera) name. M was succeeded in 1986 by the

MII A Mii ( ) is a customizable avatar used on several Nintendo video game consoles and mobile apps. Miis were first introduced on the Wii console in 2006 and later appeared on the 3DS, Wii U, the Switch, and various apps for smart devices. Miis c ...

format developed by

, using a similar-sized cassette with completely different signal processing and a metal-particle tape formulation.

References

lionlamb.us List of videotape formats past and present, with a mention of the M formatmediacollege.com The M Format

* ttp://wiki.epfl.ch/sony/documents/doc/case%20report%20betamax%20final.pdf Sony Betamax Case Reportbr>DC Video on MThe History of Television, 1942 to 2000, page 194, By Albert Abramson, Christopher H. SterlingEncyclopedia of television, Volume 1, page 251, By Horace NewcombThe History of Television, 1942 to 2000, page 214, By Albert Abramson, Christopher H. Sterling, NBC use
{{Video storage formats Video storage

See also

References