Video Tape-recorders For Home Use Soon

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30794, 5 July 1965, Page 7

Video Tape-recorders For Home Use Soon

A machine for recording a television programme from a conventional television set and replaying it at will through the same set is about to appear on the market in New Zealand.

Its makers predict much use for it by parents who will leave it to the baby-sitter to record their favourite programme so that they can run it through when they get home.

Called a video tape-record-er, it is described as being in the lower price structure and capable of producing a first-class picture that is only marginally inferior to broadcast quality.

It records both sound and vision, and is said to be no more difficult to operate than an ordinary tape-recorded. It uses an inch-wide tape which travels at 7|in a second,

much like a tape-recorder, except thta it has a rotating video head which scans the tape at a speed of more than 900 inches a second.

The makers say that in countries where television stations broadcast school programmes the video taperecorder is widely used for recording this programme at broadcast time and replaying it to suit the school curriculum. Using closed-circuit television techniques, the schools can also prepare lectures and replay them to classes as often as they need to. Other uses were in recording finishes at race meetings, to be played back immediately for subsequent evaluation, television auditioning and rehearsals, and for playing selected advertising material inhotels end shops.