Video Cassette Recorder
date: label: date made
content: 1984
name: label: maker
content: Sony
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This front-loading Betamax video recorder was manufactured by Sony at the height of the company’s competition with producers of the rival VHS format. Beta recorders initially featured a one hour recording cassette, later lengthened to match VHS. Early Beta machines were slightly larger than early VHS units and designers struggled to put a quality audio signal on the tape without compromising video signal quality. Both formats were available for about ten years but ultimately Sony could not solve the audio-video problem without a major redesign that made newer tapes incompatible with older machines. Sony dropped the Beta format in 1988.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Magnetic Recording
label: See more items in
content: Communications
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Lynn G. Herbert
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2003.0147.04
label: accession number
content: 2003.0147
label: catalog number
content: 2003.0147.04
objectType: label: Object Name
content: video recorder
label: Object Name
content: recording device
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10.1 cm x 43.2 cm x 38.1 cm; 4 in x 17 in x 15 in