M is the name of a professional analog videocassette format created around 1982 by Matsushita and RCA. Developed as a competitor to Sony's Betacam 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 magnetic ...

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

Overview

The format was called "M" due to the shape of the threading path of the tape around the helical scan video head drum, which resembles a letter M. (This is also how the U-matic 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-300B, also sold as the Ampex ARC-40, and the M format was also sold by

Ampex Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name ''AMPEX'' is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excell ...

as the ARC format. 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 an M VCR. 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. 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 drives, SSDs, ...

market. This might have been due to RCA'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 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 is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

(a division of Matsushita) under the Recam (REcording CAMera) name, and by RCA as Hawkeye.Panasonic AU-100A Operating Instructions & Service Manual
/ref> M was succeeded in 1986 by the MII format developed by

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

References

Sources

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

Overview

See also

References

Sources