V-Cord was a analog recording videocassette format developed and released by Sanyo in 1974. V-Cord was released in two versions: V-Cord I (or just simply V-Cord), which could record a maximum of 60 minutes on one V-Cord cassette, and the later V-Cord II, released in 1976, which could record a maximum of 120 minutes on a V-Cord II cassette.
The V-Cord II machines were the first consumer VCR to offer more than one recording speed, two in this case.
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The V Cord cassette whether large-hub (60-min V-Cord I with then-standard thickness tape) or small hub (120 min V-Cord II with then-thin magnetic tape, later the same thickness used for VHS-120 and Beta L-750) was rectangular in shape, however unlike its subsequent formats VHS and Betamax which loaded with the tape facing front on the long side of the cassette, the V-Cord cartridge was loaded in sideways with the narrow side serving as the `front' and the tape coming out the 'side'.
The tape was held in place in the machine by a notch halfway down the right side of the tape, similar to what holds an 8-track tape into its player.
The earliest machines recorded only in black and white and had no internal rewind, same as the Cartrivision format of a few years earlier. An external rewinder was initially necessary to return the tape to the beginning after recording or viewing, a practice that would catch on later with both VHS and Beta as the rewinders were often considerably faster than the rewind mechanisms later included within the players themselves.
Conventional VHS and Beta formats recorded in a helical scan format, resulting in angled tracks running from the lower edge of the tape to the upper edge some distance down. Unlike these formats, the V-Cord format was closer to the 2-inch quadruplex videotape format used from the inception of video in the late 50's until 2-inch helical IVC videotape format came into being twenty years later in that its tracks ran nearly perpendicular to tape travel. This is why V-Cord cassette tape cannot be unwound from its shell, placed in a VHS or Beta shell and played to retrieve the television program material.
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