U-matic
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U-matic is the name of a videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, as opposed to the various open-reel formats of the time. Interestingly, unlike most other cassette-based tape formats, the supply and take-up reels in the cassette worked in opposite directions during playback, fast-forward and rewind: one reel would run clockwise while the other would run counter-clockwise. As part of its development, in March 1970, Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Victor Co. of Japan (JVC), and five non-Japanese companies reached agreement on unified standards.
The videotape was 3/4 inches (1.9 cm) wide, so the format is often known as 'three-quarter-inch' or simply 'three-quarter'. U-matic was named after the shape of the tape path when it was threaded around the helical video head drum, which resembled the letter U.[1] Betamax used this same type of "U-load" as well.
In the early 1980s, Sony introduced the semi backwards-compatible High-band or BVU (Broadcast Video U-matic) format, and the 'original' U-matic format became known as 'Low-band'. This High-band format had an improved colour recording system and lower noise levels. BVU gained immense popularity in ENG (Electronic News Gathering) and location programme-making, spelling the end of 16mm film in everyday production. By the early 1990s, Sony's 1/2" Betacam SP format had all but replaced BVU outside of corporate and 'budget' programme making. Sony made a final improvement to BVU by further improving the recording system and giving it the same 'SP' suffix as Betacam. First generation BVU-SP and Beta-SP recordings were hard to tell apart, but despite this the writing was on the wall for the U-matic family.
U-matic would also see use for the storage of digital audio data (as opposed to analog video) for the Sony PCM-1600 PCM adaptor, which used a special U-matic recorder as a transport. The PCM-1600 was the first system used for mastering audio compact discs in the early 1980s. The later PCM-1610 and 1630 units also used U-matic cassettes as a storage medium. U-matic is no longer used as a mainstream production format, yet it has such a lasting appeal as a cheap, well specified, and hard-wearing format that many television facilities the world-over still have a U-matic recorder. Four decades after it was developed, the format is still used for the menial tasks of the industry, being more highly specialized and suited to the needs of production staff than the domestic VHS, although as time passes it has been replaced at the bottom of the tree of tape based production formats by Betacam and Betacam SP as these in turn are replaced by Digital Betacam and HDCAM.
[edit] Links
Photos and comparison of various Sony U-matic decks
[edit] References and footnotes
- ^ "After exhaustive research, the development team was confident it had devised a mechanism that could be used for cassette tape VCRs, the U-loading system. The name was derived from the U-shaped figure the tape followed when seen from above." Sony History, Freedom of Thought and Creation — the Kihara Method.
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| Magnetic tape |
VERA (1952) - 2 inch Quadruplex videotape (1956) - 1 inch type A videotape (1965) - 1/4 inch Akai (1967) - U-matic (1969) - Cartrivision (1972) - Video Cassette Recording (aka VCR) (1972) - V-Cord (1974) - VX (aka "The Great Time Machine") (1974) - Betamax (1975) - 1 inch type B videotape (1976) - 1 inch type C videotape (1976) - VHS (1976) - VK (1977) - SVR (1979) - Video 2000 (1980) - CVC (1980) - VHS-C (1982) - M (1982) - Betacam (1982) - Video8 (1985) - MII (1986) - D1 (1986) - S-VHS (1987) - D2 (1988) - Hi8 (1989) - D3 (1991) - D5 (1994) - Digital-S (D9) (199?) - S-VHS-C (1987) - W-VHS (1992) - DV (1995) - Betacam HDCAM (1997) - D-VHS (1998) - Digital8 (1999) - HDV (2003) |
| Optical discs |
LaserDisc (1978) - Laserfilm (1984) - CD Video - VCD (1993) - DVD-Video (1996) - MiniDVD - CVD (1998) - SVCD (1998) - FMD (2000) - EVD (2003) - FVD (2005) - UMD (2005) - VMD (2006) - HD DVD (2006) - Blu-ray Disc (BD) (2006) - DMD (2006?) - AVCHD (2006) - Tapestry Media (2007) - Total Hi Def (2007) - HVD (TBA) - PH-DVD (TBA) - SVOD (TBA) - Protein-coated disc (TBA) - Two-Photon 3-D (TBA) |
| Grooved Videodiscs |
Baird Television Record aka Phonovision (1927) - TeD (1974) - Capacitance Electronic Disc aka CED (1981) - VHD (1983) |
