Topic summary
Videocassette
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Videotape.
Videocassette recorders
The first consumer videocassette recorders (VCRs) used Sony U-matic technology and were launched in 1971. Philips entered the domestic market the following year with the N1500. Sony's Betamax (1975) and JVC's VHS (1976) created a mass-market for VCRs and the two competing systems battled the videotape format war, which VHS ultimately won. In Europe, Philips had developed the Video 2000 format, which did not find favor with the TV rental companies in the UK and lost out to VHS.