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VHS-C

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VHS-C is the compact VHS format introduced in 1982 mainly used for portable video recorders.

VHS-C (Video Home System - Compact), is used in some camcorders. Since VHS-C tapes are based on the same magnetic tape as full size VHS tapes, they can be played back in standard VHS players using a mechanical adapter, without the need of any kind of signal conversion. The magnetic tape on VHS-C cassettes is wound on one main spool and used a sort of a gear wheel which moves the tape forward. It can also be moved by hand and so is the spool. This development hampered the sales of the Betamax system somewhat, because the Betamax cassette geometry prevented a similar development.

Bottom and top view of VHS-C, compact video cassette
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Bottom and top view of VHS-C, compact video cassette

Example of a VHS-C adapter
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Example of a VHS-C adapter

VHS-C was one of the pioneering formats of the camcorder market, along with Video8. VHS-C was larger than Video8, but was compatible with VHS tapedecks, making the choice between the two non-obvious, and splitting the market. A higher quality version of VHS-C was released, based on S-VHS, known as S-VHS-C, that competed against Hi8, the higher quality version of Video8.

Although Video8 acquired a digital variant, Digital8, it is extremely unlikely that D-VHS will be adapted to a compact format, as the industry has moved on to better formats since first transitioning to digital tapes, during the era of Digital8 et al. Any putative D-VHS-C is almost certainly a hoax. According to a national survey, approximately 90% of the people who rent movies use DVDs, and as technology has advanced, Sony has created a DVD camcorder, almost entirely eliminating the concept of the VHS-C.

Industrial & Home Video Media
Magnetic tape VERA (1952) - 2 inch Quadruplex videotape (1956) - 1 inch type A videotape (1965) - U-matic (1969) - Video Cassette Recording (1972) - Betamax (1975) - 1 inch type B videotape (1976) - 1 inch type C videotape (1976) - VHS (1976) - Video 2000 (1979) - VHS-C (1982) - M (1982) - Video8 (1985) - MII (1986) - D1 (1986) - S-VHS (1987) - D2 (1988) - D5 (1994) - Hi8 (199?) - S-VHS-C (19??) - W-VHS (1994) - DV (1996) - D-VHS (1998) - Digital8 (199?) - HDV (2003)

Optical discs Laserdisc (1978) - VHD (1983) - Laserfilm (1984) - CD Video (198?) - VCD (1993) - DVD (1996) - MiniDVD (?) - CVD (1998) - SVCD (1998) - FMD (2000) - EVD (2003) - UMD (2005) - HD DVD (2006) - Blu-ray Disc (BD) (2006) - AVCHD (2006?) - HVD (2010?)

 


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