VCR
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Electromechanical device that records, stores on a videotape cassette, and plays back on a TV set recorded images and sound. The first commercial VCRs were marketed by Sony Corp. in 1969. VCRs are used to record broadcast TV programs for later viewing and to play commercially recorded cassettes. They have from two to seven tape heads that read and inscribe video and audio tracks on magnetic tape. Home movies can be made with a camcorder system, a VCR connected to a simple video camera.
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Hybrid VCR/DVD players were first introduced around the year 1999, and were sometimes criticized as being of poorer quality than stand-alone units. The product also has a disadvantage in that if one function (DVD or VHS) becomes unusable, the entire unit must be replaced or repaired.
Shortly after the turn of the century, hybrids including DVD recorders (instead of players) also become available. These can be used for transferring VHS material onto recordable blank DVDs.
More recently the AV manufacturers have combined DVD with TV, VCR and Home cinema Systems. These DVD/TV combos are now considered to have equal quality to those of the separate components and tend to be more affordable.
See also
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Monday September 08, 2008 at 16:50:59 PDT (GMT -0700)
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