Video 2000 (also known as V2000, with the tape standard Video Compact Cassette, or VCC) is a

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

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 ...

system and

analogue recording Analog recording is a technique used for the recording of analog signals which, among many possibilities, allows analog audio for later playback. Analog audio recording began with mechanical systems such as the phonautograph and phonograph. L ...

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

developed by

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

and

Grundig Grundig (; ) is a German consumer electronics manufacturer owned by the Turkish Arçelik A.Ş., the white goods (major appliance) manufacturer of Turkish conglomerate Koç Holding. The company made domestic appliances and personal-care prod ...

to compete with JVC's VHS and

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

's Betamax video technologies. It was designed for the

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

color television standard, but some models additionally handled

SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''color sequential with memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, some parts of Europe and Africa, and Russia. It was one of th ...

. Distribution of Video 2000 products began in 1979 exclusively in Europe, South Africa and Argentina and ended in 1988. Although some initial models and advertising featured a mirror-image "VCR" badge based on the logo of Philips's earlier

Video Cassette Recording Video Cassette Recording (VCR) is an early domestic analog recording format designed by Philips. It was the first successful consumer-level home videocassette recorder (VCR) system. Later variants included the VCR-LP and Super Video (SVR) form ...

(VCR) system, Video 2000 was an entirely new (and incompatible) format, which incorporated many technical innovations. Despite this, the format was not a major success and was eventually discontinued, having lost out to the rival VHS system in the

videotape format war 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 ...

The Video Compact Cassette

Philips named the videotape standard Video Compact Cassette (VCC) to complement its landmark audio Compact Cassette format introduced in 1963, but the format itself was marketed under the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

Video 2000. Despite the name, VCCs are marginally larger than VHS cassettes—shorter, but thicker and deeper. They have two co-planar

reel A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the ends ...

s containing half-inch (12.5 mm) wide

chromium dioxide Chromium dioxide or chromium(IV) oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula CrO2. It is a black synthetic magnetic solid. It once was widely used in magnetic tape emulsion. With the increasing popularity of CDs and DVDs, the use of chr ...

magnetic tape. The format used only half (6.25 mm) of the half-inch tape on a given "side", and so it is occasionally referred to erroneously as a quarter-inch tape format, despite its physical tape width. The cassette can then be flipped over to use the other half of the tape, thus doubling playing time.

Format and features

Dynamic Track Following (DTF) eliminated the need for a separate control track and enabled the video heads to accurately follow the recorded tracks on the tape during playback. Therefore, by design V2000 machines do not require a video tracking control.

Launch

A key intention of the V2000 format, thanks to DTF, was tape compatibility. A tape from any machine should play perfectly on any other machine. Unfortunately, when the VR2020 reached the shops it was discovered that its audio head was 2.5mm out of position compared to that on Grundig's Video 2×4. This meant that the sound would be out of sync with the picture when played back on the other type of machine. Both manufacturers' production lines hastily moved the audio head 1.25mm to a common position, but compatibility issues remained for recordings made on the first generation of machines.

Machines

Philips Video 2000 VR2324 (cropped filtered)

* Philips VR2026 (PAL/SECAM tuner—recorded SECAM as PAL)Videorecorder VR2026/53 R-Player Philips Radios
Radiomuseum

References

External links

* ttp://v2000.palsite.com/ V2000 PALsite��Information about the V2000 video format
"Europe's Video Recorder Takes on the Japanese"
''New Scientist'' July, 5, 1979, page 25 {{Philips 1988 disestablishments Audiovisual introductions in 1979 Discontinued media formats Philips Products introduced in 1979 Videotape