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Video 2000 |
Video 2000 (or V2000; also known as Video Compact Cassette, or VCC) was a consumer VCR system and videotape standard developed by Philips and Grundig to compete with JVC's VHS and Sony's Betamax video technologies. Distribution of Video 2000 products began in 1979 and ended in 1988; they were marketed exclusively in Europe and Argentina.
Philips originally named the videotape standard Video Compact Cassette (VCC) to complement their landmark Audio Compact Cassette format introduced in 1963. However Philips chiefly marketed the system under the trademark Video 2000 while Grundig initially used the name 2x4, reflecting the maximum recording capacity of 2 x 4 hours. Video 2000 succeeded Philips's earlier VCR, VCR-LP and Grundig's SVR formats.
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At the time of its launch Video 2000 offered several innovative features unmatched by the competing formats VHS and Betamax:
Thanks to DTF, V2000 was able to play both fields of the image in still frame mode, providing full vertical resolution whereas VHS and Betamax could only reproduce one field, giving only half of the normal vertical resolution. This was actually more an annoyance than an advantage, as non-film material fields are spaced in time and displaying them together (without modern digital correction) causes flicker. A real advantage of DTF on all but the very first V2000 models was the ability to provide picture search without noise bars across the screen, a feature domestic VHS or Betamax machines were only ever able to approach by introducing complex multiple head drums.
Although Philips and Grundig agreed on a common tape format, they came up with machines that were radically different mechanically. The Grundig machines featured a Betamax-style loading ring to rotate the tape around the video heads, while Philips utilised an "M-wrap" similar to that used in VHS machines. Unlike Betamax, however, the Grundig machines unlaced the tape for fast winding (a faster response laced fast wind could be achieved on the Video 2x4 Super by using the APF (Automatic Programme Finder) function).
Not long before the end of production Philips introduced a half-speed mode, the V2000 XL or eXtra Long, doubling capacity and making it possible to store 16 hours (eight hours per side) on one single tape. Grundig followed with their Video 2x8 machine.
Though linear stereo sound was available on some models, both VHS and Betamax were offering hifi stereo sound with near-CD quality by the mid 1980s.
Despite the name, VCCs were marginally larger than VHS cassettes — 5 mm shorter, but a millimeter thicker and 6 mm deeper.12 They had two reels containing half-inch (12.5 mm) wide chrome dioxide magnetic tape. The format utilized only a quarter-inch (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 width.
Whilst VHS and Beta tapes have a break-off tape to protect recordings from erasure (as in audio Compact Cassettes and, once broken, the cavity left by the missing tab must be covered or filled before the tape can be reused), VCCs employed a more elegant solution: a switch on the tape edge was turned to red to protect the recordings, and back to black/brown (depending on the colour of the cassette housing) to re-record. The switch covered/uncovered a hole along the tape edge, which was detected by a sensor in the machine.
The tape edge featured six such holes along each side of the tape, detected by sensors on the cassette's underside. The left-hand cluster included the write-protection hole. The right-hand cluster of three was used (by various permutations of open/closed status) to tell the machine the total tape running time. This was employed in later machines such as Grundig's Video 2x4 Super to provide a real-time tape counter: upon insertion of the tape the machine would move the tape forward and then backward by a small amount and monitor the comparative angular speed of the reels.
This was looked up in a data table for the known total tape length and the hours and minutes used were then displayed. A similar technique was later used on Video8, MiniDV and MicroMV cassettes.
NOTE: when Grundig started marketing VHS their GV280 machine employed barcoded stickers attached to the tape edge, indicating the total tape length to the machine so that it could calculate the time used.
As with so many Philips developments, Video 2000 was ahead of its time. It aimed to correct the failings of the VHS and Betamax formats whilst providing the potential for exciting developments. The prototype Video Baby Cassette was a compact version of the VCC (analogous to VHS-C) that was playable in existing machines using a full-sized cassette adaptor. Published photos clearly show the nomenclature VBC60, suggesting that 30 minutes per side were intended, but Philips retired Video 2000 before the development was ready for market.
Hifi sound was never marketed although rumours persisted shortly before the format's demise of a hifi machine which utilised the data track.
Rumours also circulated in the press of an auto-reverse machine shortly before the format was retired.
Alongside the write-protect hole were two that were never used. One was slated to indicate the tape formulation as higher coercivity tapes were to be introduced for the "Super 2000" hi-band version of the format. The flexibility of this system also allowed for metal tape to be introduced for the digital version "Digital 2000", also in the early stages of development as the format was cancelled. Internal documents suggested the cassette abbreviations VSC and VDC to be used, respectively, for the two developments.
Philips released the first Video 2000 VCR, the VR2020, in the UK in 1979. Philips models were re-badged as Pye and even re-skinned as Bang & Olufsen, whilst Grundig models were re-badged as ITT. Both marques were subsequently re-badged by numerous companies throughout Europe. Manufacturing of Video 2000 ceased in 1988 and Betamax soon after, both having lost the videotape format war to VHS.
V2000's failure may be partially attributable to its late entrance to market (slowed by problems in the development of the DTF system). Also, although it was technologically superior to the competition in several ways, it could not compete with VHS and Betamax's key advantages:
A key intention of the V2000 format, particularly those sporting the DTF feature, was tape compatibility: A tape from any machine should play perfectly on any other machine. Unfortunately, when the first Philips machine - 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 2x4 VCR, which had already been on sale for a year. Subsequent models from both manufacturers moved the audio head 1.25 mm to a common position, but compatibility issues remained for recordings made on the first generation of machines.3 Furthermore, the required close tolerances and fragility of the DTF system resulted in significant inter-machine compatibility issues which were never fully resolved.
By the latter half of the 1980s, Philips had already begun producing their own VHS-compatible VCRs.
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