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 use 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 category of techniques used for the recording of analog signals. This enables later playback of the recorded analog audio. Analog audio recording began with mechanical systems such as the phonautograph and phonograph. La ...

standard developed by

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

and Grundig to compete with JVC's

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, and stylized as the Greek letter Beta, β in its logo) is a discontinued consumer analog Videotape, video cassette recording format developed by Sony. It was one of the main competitors in the videotape format war ag ...

video technologies. It was designed for the

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog 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 ''sequential colour memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, Russia and some other countries or territories of Europe and Africa. ...

. 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 (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 The videotape format war was a period of competition or " format war" of incompatible models of consumer-level analog video videocassette and video cassette recorders (VCR) in the late 1970s and the 1980s, mainly involving the Betamax and VHS ...

The Video Compact Cassette

Philips named the videotape standard Video Compact Cassette (VCC) to complement its landmark audio

Compact Cassette The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company ...

format introduced in 1963, but the format itself was marketed under the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

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 a tool used to store elongated and flexible objects (e.g. yarns/ cords, ribbons, cables, hoses, etc.) by wrapping the material around a cylindrical core known as a '' spool''. Many reels also have flanges (known as the ''rims'') arou ...

s containing half-inch (12.5 mm) wide chromium dioxide

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 ...

. 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. Additionally, the cassettes can be recorded onto using an “XL” recording mode (similar to VHS’s LP and Betamax’s βII modes), which doubles the playing time again.

Tape lengths

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. However, when the VR2020 reached the shops it was discovered that its audio head was 2.5 mm out of position compared to that on Grundig's Video 2×4 (Grundig V1600). This meant that the sound would be out of sync with the picture when played back on the other type of machine. Both manufacturers' hastily moved the audio head 1.25 mm to a common position, but compatibility issues remained for recordings made on the first generation of machines.

Machines

* Philips VR2020 * Philips VR2022 * Philips VR2026 (PAL/SECAM tuner—recorded SECAM as PAL) * Philips VR2340 * Philips VR2324 * ITT VR681

References

External links

Video 2000 page at Total Rewind—The Virtual Museum of Vintage VCRs

V2000 PALsite
��Information about the V2000 video format
"Europe's Video Recorder Takes on the Japanese"
''New Scientist'' July, 5, 1979, page 25 {{Philips Audiovisual introductions in 1979 Discontinued media formats Philips Products introduced in 1979 Videocassette formats Videotape Products and services discontinued in 1988 Composite video formats