VCC
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 most European countries, Brazil 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.
At the time of its launch Video 2000 offered several innovative features unmatched by the competing formats VHS and Betamax:
* Only half of the tape is scanned during each side pass. The cassette can then be flipped over to use the other half of the tape, thus doubling playing time.
* The tape was totally enclosed when not in use. Unlike competing formats that had exposed spaces for the tape loading mechanism to be inserted, thus exposing the delicate magnetic tape surface, VCCs had a retractable sheath that covered such space. The sheath was retracted as a tape is inserted into the machine and only then can the tape cover be raised to expose the tape.
* Because of its Dynamic Track Following (DTF) technology (involving an advanced, movable video head tip), V2000 did not require a video tracking control. However, some late models lacked DTF.
* All V2000 VCRs sported an auto-rewind function (later matched by VHS and Betamax)
* Dynamic Noise Suppression to reduce tape hiss
* Provision of a data track alongside the video track
* channel selection and timer programming were undertaken by a 0-9 numeric keypad
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.
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. 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 tab 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.