The videocassette recorder (or VCR, more commonly known in the UK and Ireland as the video recorder), is a type of video tape recorder that uses removable videotape cassettes containing magnetic tape to record audio and video from a television broadcast so it can be played back later. Most VCRs have their own tuner (for direct TV reception) and a programmable timer (for unattended recording of a certain channel at a particular time). A video tape recorder (VTR), is a tape recorder that can record video material. ... Bottom view of VHS videotape cassette with magnetic tape exposed Videotape is a means of recording images and sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. ... Compact audio cassette Magnetic tape is a non-volatile storage medium consisting of a magnetic coating on a thin plastic strip. ... Methods and media for sound recording are varied and have undergone significant changes between the first time sound was actually recorded for later playback until now. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A tuner is a device to adjust the resonant frequency of an antenna or transmission line to work most efficiently at one frequency or band of frequencies. ... A simple digital timer. ...

A VCR.

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 275 pixelsFull resolution (1576 × 542 pixel, file size: 131 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I took this picture of my VCR. It is linked to Channel 3. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 275 pixelsFull resolution (1576 × 542 pixel, file size: 131 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I took this picture of my VCR. It is linked to Channel 3. ...

History

Early machines and formats

The history of the videocassette recorder follows the history of videotape recording in general. Ampex introduced the Ampex VRX-1000, the first commercially successful videotape recorder, in 1956. It used the 2" Quadruplex format, using two-inch (5.1 cm) tape.^[1] Due to its US $50,000 price, the Ampex VRX-1000 could be afforded only by the television networks and the largest individual stations.^[2] In 1963, Philips introduced their EL3400 1" helical scan recorder (aimed at the business and domestic user) and Sony marketed the PV-100, their first reel-to-reel VTR intended for business, medical, airline, and educational use.^[3] The Sony model CV-2000, first marketed in 1965, was intended for home use.^[4] Ampex and RCA followed in 1965 with their own reel-to-reel monochrome VTRs priced under US $1,000 for the home consumer market. Ampex is based in Redwood City, California. ... 2 Quadruplex (also called 2 Quad, or just quad, for short) was the first practical and commercially successful videotape format. ... United States may refer to: Places: United States of America SS United States, the fastest ocean liner ever built. ... Philips HQ in Amsterdam Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics N.V.), usually known as Philips, (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG) is one of the largest electronics companies in the world, founded and headquartered in the Netherlands. ... Sony Corporation ) is a Japanese multinational corporation and one of the worlds largest media conglomerates with revenue of $66. ... For the audio technology, see Reel-to-reel audio tape recording Reel to Reel is the debut album by Grand Puba. ... A video tape recorder (VTR), is a tape recorder that can record video material. ... RCA, formerly an acronym for the Radio Corporation of America, is now a trademark owned by Thomson SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Thomson. ... A photograph of a sign in grayscale The same photograph in black and white Monochrome comes from the two Greek words mono (μωνο, meaning one), and chroma (χρωμα, meaning surface or the color of the skin). A monochromatic object has a single color. ... United States may refer to: Places: United States of America SS United States, the fastest ocean liner ever built. ...

Sony U-matic

Main article: U-matic

The development of the videocassette followed the replacement by cassette of other open reel systems in consumer items: the compact audio cassette and Instamatic film cartridge in 1963, the 8-track cassette in 1965, and the Super 8 home movie cartridge in 1966. Sony demonstrated a videocassette prototype in October 1969, then set it aside to work out an industry standard by March 1970 with seven fellow manufacturers. The result, the Sony U-matic system, introduced in Tokyo in September 1971, was the world's first commercial videocassette format. Its cartridges, resembling larger versions of the later VHS cassettes, used 3/4-inch (1.9 cm) tape and had a maximum playing time of 60 minutes, later extended to 90 minutes. Sony also introduced two machines (the VP-1100 videocassette player and the VO-1700 videocassette recorder) to use the new tapes. U-matic, with its ease of use, quickly made other consumer videotape systems obsolete in Japan and North America, where U-matic VCRs were widely used by television newsrooms, schools and businesses. But the cost — US $1,395 for a combination TV/VCR, or $6,362 in 2005 dollars — kept it out of most homes.^[5] Sony U-matic VTR BVU-800 A U-matic tape U-matic is the name of a videocassette format developed by Sony in 1969. ... Typical 60-minute Compact Cassette. ... The Kodak Instamatic series of inexpensive, easy to load cameras was introduced in 1963, and featured an easy load film cartridge. ... Stereo 8, commonly known as the 8-track cartridge, or eight track tape in popular vernacular is a magnetic tape sound recording technology, popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. ... Kodachrome 40 KMA464P Super 8 Catridge Super 8 mm film, also called Super 8 is a motion picture film format that was developed in the 1960s and released on the market in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older 8mm home movie format, and the Cine 8... For other uses, see Prototype (disambiguation). ... Sony U-matic VTR BVU-800 A U-matic tape U-matic is the name of a videocassette format developed by Sony in 1969. ... Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed Top view of VHS cassette with front casing removed The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard. ...

Philips "VCR" format

Main article: Video Cassette Recording

An N1500 video recorder, with wooden cabinet.

In 1970 the Dutch electronics company Philips developed a home videocassette format. Confusingly, Philips named this format "VCR" (although it is also referred to as "N1500", after the first recorder's model number). The format was also supported by Grundig and LOEWE. It used square cassettes and half-inch (1.3 cm) tape, mounted on co-axial reels, giving a recording time of one hour. The first model, available in the United Kingdom in 1972, was equipped with a crude timer that used rotary dials. At nearly £600, it was expensive and the format was relatively unsuccessful in the home market. This was followed by digital timer version in 1975 — the N1502. In 1977 a new (and incompatible) long-play version ("VCR-LP") or N1700, which could use the same tapes, sold quite well to schools and colleges. Video Cassette Recording (VCR) was a video format by Philips, the first successful home videocassette recorder system. ... Image File history File links N1500. ... Image File history File links N1500. ... Philips HQ in Amsterdam Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics N.V.), usually known as Philips, (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG) is one of the largest electronics companies in the world, founded and headquartered in the Netherlands. ... Video Cassette Recording (VCR) was a video format by Philips, the first successful home videocassette recorder system. ... Grundig AG was a West German manufacturer of consumer electronics for home entertainment. ... LOEWE is a german TV manufacturer founded 1923 in Berlin. ...

Avco Cartrivision

Main article: Cartrivision

The Avco Cartrivision system, a combination television set and VCR from Cartridge Television Inc. that sold for US $1,350, was the first videocassette recorder to have pre-recorded tapes of popular movies available for rent. Like Philips' VCR format, the square Cartrivision cassette had the two reels of half-inch tape mounted on top of each other, but it could record up to 114 minutes. It did so using a crude form of video compression that recorded only every third video field and played it back three times. Cassettes of major movies such as The Bridge on the River Kwai and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner were ordered via catalog at a retailer, delivered by parcel mail, and then returned to the retailer after viewing. Other cassettes on sports, travel, art, and how-to topics were available for purchase. An optional monochrome camera could be bought to make home videos. Cartrivision was first sold in June 1972, mainly through Sears, Macy's, and Montgomery Ward department stores in the United States. It was abandoned thirteen months later after poor sales. Later, it was found that Cartivision tapes that had been stored in a warehouse had disintegrated. Cartrivision was a videocassette format introduced in 1972, and the first format of its kind available in the USA.[1] It was produced by Cartridge Television, Inc. ... Avco Corporation is a subsidiary of Textron which operates Textron Systems Corporation and Lycoming. ... Cartrivision was a videocassette format introduced in 1972, and the first format of its kind available in the USA.[1] It was produced by Cartridge Television, Inc. ... Video compression refers to making a digital video signal use less data, without noticeably reducing the quality of the picture. ... In video, a field is one of the many still images which comprise a They are similar to frames, but they have half the vertical resolution and are displayed twice as fast. ... The Bridge on the River Kwai is an Academy Award-winning 1957 World War II war film based on the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwaï by French writer Pierre Boulle. ... Guess Whos Coming to Dinner is a 1967 Academy Award-winning comedy-drama film starring Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, and Katharine Houghton. ... A drawing of a self-service store Retailing consists of the sale of goods/merchandise for personal or household consumption either from a fixed location such as a department store or kiosk, or away from a fixed location and related subordinated services (Definition of the WTO (last page). ... A how-to is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish some specific task. ... A photograph of a sign in grayscale The same photograph in black and white Monochrome comes from the two Greek words mono (μωνο, meaning one), and chroma (χρωμα, meaning surface or the color of the skin). A monochromatic object has a single color. ... Sears, Roebuck and Company is an American mid-range chain of international department stores, founded by Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck in the late 19th century. ... This article is about the R. H. Macy & Co. ... Montgomery Ward (later known as Wards) was an American department store chain, founded as the worlds first mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward. ... The interior of a typical Macys department store. ...

The late 1970s: Mass-market success

It was not until the late 1970s, when European and Japanese companies developed more technically advanced machines with more accurate electronic timers and greater tape duration, that the VCR started to become a mass market consumer product. By 1980 there were three competing technical standards, with different, physically incompatible tape cassettes.

VHS vs. Betamax: The format war

Main article: Videotape format war

A Betamax cassette

The two major standards were Sony's Betamax (also known as Betacord or just Beta), and JVC's VHS, which battled for sales in what has become known as the original and definitive format war. The videotape format war was a period of an intense format war of rival incompatible models of video cassette recorders in the 1970s and early 1980s. ... © 2004 by Tomasz Sienicki, tsca#sdf. ... © 2004 by Tomasz Sienicki, tsca#sdf. ... Sony Corporation ) is a Japanese multinational corporation and one of the worlds largest media conglomerates with revenue of $66. ... Sonys Betamax is the 12. ... Victor Company of Japan, Limited ) (TYO: 6792 ), usually referred to as JVC, is an international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927. ... Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed Top view of VHS cassette with front casing removed The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard. ... The videotape format war was a period of an intense format war of rival incompatible models of video cassette recorders in the 1970s and early 1980s. ...

Betamax was first to market in November 1975, and was argued by many to be technically more sophisticated,^[6] although in practice few people could see the difference^{[citation needed]} (television sets of the time were rather poor in quality - limited to barely 3 megahertz bandwidth and 240 horizontal resolution).^{[original research?]} The first machines required an external timer, and could only record one hour. The timer was later incorporated within the machine as a standard feature.

The rival VHS format (introduced in the United States in September 1976 by RCA) boasted a longer two-hour recording time with four hours using a "long play" mode (RCA models). Since 2 hours and 4 hours was near-ideal for recording movies and sports-games respectively, the consumer naturally flocked towards VHS rather than the 1-hour-limited Betamax. Although Sony later introduced Beta-II and Beta-III to allow a maximum time of 5+ hours, by that time VHS was already boasting 6, 8, or even 9 hours per tape. Thus VHS had a perceived "better value" in the eye of the consumer during the late 70s.

Philips V2000 format video cassette recorder

Image File history File links Vr2020. ... Image File history File links Vr2020. ...

Philips Video 2000: No prize for third place

Main article: Video 2000

A third format, Video 2000, or V2000 (also marketed as "Video Compact Cassette") was developed and introduced by Philips in 1978, and was sold only in Europe. Grundig developed and marketed their own models based on the V2000 format. The V2000 models featured piezoelectric head positioning to dynamically adjust the tape tracking. V2000 cassettes had two sides, and like the audio cassette had to be flipped over halfway through their recording time. User switchable record protect levers were used instead of the breakable lugs found on VHS/BetaMax cassettes. The half-inch tape used contained two parallel quarter-inch tracks, one for each side. It had a recording time of 4 hours per side. V2000 hit the market after its two rivals in early 1979. The last models produced by Philips in 1985 were felt by many to be superior machines to anything else on the market at the time but the poor reputation gained through the limited features and poor reliability of early models, and the by now dominant market share of VHS/Betamax, ensured only limited sales before the system was scrapped shortly after. Video 2000 (or V2000; also known as Video Compact Cassette, or VCC) was a consumer VCR system and videotape standard developed by Philips and Grundig to compete with JVCs VHS and Sonys Betamax video technologies. ... Video 2000 (or V2000; also known as Video Compact Cassette, or VCC) was a consumer VCR system and videotape standard developed by Philips and Grundig to compete with JVCs VHS and Sonys Betamax video technologies. ... Philips HQ in Amsterdam Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics N.V.), usually known as Philips, (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG) is one of the largest electronics companies in the world, founded and headquartered in the Netherlands. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... Piezoelectricity is the ability of some materials (notably crystals and certain ceramics) to generate an electric potential[1] in response to applied mechanical stress. ... Typical 60-minute Compact Cassette. ...

The court battle

In the early 1980s, the film companies in the USA fought to suppress the device in the consumer market, citing concerns about copyright violations. In the case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the device was allowable for private use, thereby guaranteeing market acceptance. In the years following, the film companies found that videorecordings of their products had become a major income source. However, television networks found the widespread use of this device was threatening their advertising business model because viewers then have the ability to either fast forward through television commercials, or pause recording when they are broadcast. Holding Manufacturers of home video recording machines could not be liable for contributory copyright infringement for the potential uses by its purchasers, because the devices were sold for legitimate purposes and had substantial non-infringing uses. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the... A television network is a distribution network for television content whereby a central operation provides programming for many television stations. ... Advert redirects here. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

The beginning of the end?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, DVD gradually overtook VHS as the most popular format for playback of prerecorded video. DVD recorders and other digital video recorders such as TiVo have recently begun to drop in price in developed countries, which some consider to be the writing on the wall for VCRs in those markets. DVD rentals in the United States first exceeded those of VHS in June 2003, and in 2005 the president of the Video Software Dealers Association predicted that 2006 would be the last year for major releases on VHS.^[7] Most electronics stores in North America (such as Best Buy and Circuit City) carry only one or two VCRs (often VCR/DVD-recorder hybrids, used for transferring VHS to DVD). Standalone VCRs now generally cost more than low-end DVD players. The declining market combined with a Federal Communications Commission mandate effective March 1, 2007 to include ATSC tuners in VCRs have encouraged most electronics makers, including Funai, JVC, and Panasonic, to end production of standalone units for the US market. DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format. ... DVR with built-in DVD recorder. ... Foxtel IQ, a digital video recorder and a satellite cable set-top box. ... TiVo (pronounced tee-voh, IPA: ) is a popular brand of digital video recorder (DVR) in the United States. ... The writing on the wall (or sometimes handwriting on the wall) is an expression that suggests a portent of doom or misfortune. ... For the defunct chain of catalog showrooms, see Best Products. ... Circuit City (NYSE: CC) is a Fortune 200 company, and the third largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States with over $11 billion USD in sales[1], behind Best Buy and Wal-Mart. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... FCC redirects here. ... Advance Television Systems Committe (ATSC) tuner allows reception of over the air high definition digital television signals in North America and South Korea. ...

Special features

Copy protection

See also: Copy protection

Introduced in 1983, Macrovision is a system that reduces the quality of recordings made from commercial video tapes, DVDs and pay-per-view broadcasts by adding random peaks of luminance to the video signal during vertical blanking. These confuse the automatic level adjustment of the recording VCR which causes the brightness of the picture to constantly change, rendering the recording unwatchable. Copy prevention, also known as copy protection, is any technical measure designed to prevent duplication of information. ... Macrovision is a company that creates electronic copy prevention schemes, established in 1983. ... DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format. ... Pay-per-view is the name given to a system by which television viewers can call and order events to be seen on TV and pay for the private telecast of that event to their homes later. ... The vertical blanking interval (VBI), also known as the vertical interval or VBLANK, is the time difference between the beginning of the first line of one frame or field of a raster display, and the end of the next. ...

When creating a copy-protected videocassette, the Macrovision-distorted signal is stored on the tape itself by special recording equipment. By contrast, on DVDs there is just a marker asking the player to produce such a distortion during playback. All standard DVD players include this protection and obey the marker, though unofficially many models can be modified or adjusted to disable it. DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format. ...

Also, the Macrovision protection system may fail to work on older VCR's, usually due to the lack of an AGC system. Betamax, VHS and S-VHS machines (and DVD recorders) are susceptible to this signal, generally machines of other tape formats are unaffected. VCR's dubbed for "professional" usage typically have an adjustable AGC system, a specific "Macrovision removing" circuit, or Digital Timebase Corrector and can thus copy protected tapes with or without preserving the protection. Such VCRs are usually overpriced and sold exclusively to certified professionals (video editors, TV stations etc.) via controlled distribution channels in order to prevent their being used by the general public (however, said professional VCRs can be purchased reasonably by consumers on the second-hand/used market, depending on the VCR's condition). Automatic gain control (AGC) is an electronic system found in many types of devices. ... We dont have an article called Time Base Corrector Start this article Search for Time Base Corrector in. ...

Flying erase-heads

"Flying erase-heads" is an attribute of some VCRs to precisely edit video, usually performed by the aid of a frame buffer and a special interface to the VCR from a computer. The flying erase-head and the technique of using them was developed during a time when computers did not have the memory or processing power to generate video from individual frames stored on disk. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The framebuffer is a part of RAM in a computer allocated to hold the graphics information for one frame or picture. ... This article is about the machine. ...

Variants

In addition to the standard home VCR, a number of variants have been produced over the years. These include combined "all-in-one" devices such as the televideo (a TV and VCR in one unit) and DVD/VCR units. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Dual-deck VCRs (marketed as "double-decker") have also been sold, albeit with less success.

Camcorders also feature an integrated VCR. Most of these use smaller format videocassettes, such as 8 mm, VHS-C, or MiniDV, although some early models supported full-size VHS and Betamax. Generally, they include neither a timer nor a TV tuner. A Video8 cassette The 8mm video format refers informally to three related videocassette formats for the NTSC and PAL/SECAM television systems. ... VHS-C is the compact VHS format used for portable video recorders. ... A MiniDV Camcorder For other uses, see DV (disambiguation). ...

New media

The S-VHS format was introduced in an attempt to breathe new life into the aging VCR technology, but it did not gain sufficient momentum in the consumer market due to its higher initial cost for both machines and video tape. By the time JVC had lowered prices on S-VHS machines and video tape, the arrival of the new digital video formats spelled the end of analogue tape development. Introduced in Japan in 1987, S-VHS (Super VHS) was an improved version of the VHS standard for consumer video cassette recorders. ... Digital video is a type of video recording system that works by using a digital, rather than analog, of the video signal. ...

For home video recording, both Digital Video Recorders (such as TiVo, Mythtv, Sky+ and ReplayTV) and DVD recorders are becoming popular, although they are only slowly replacing the VCR. In fact, TiVo cooperates well with VCRs which can be used to archive PVR recordings. However, the introduction of recordable DVDs with sufficient recording capacity on to the regular market with their advantage of random access could spell the doom of the VCR now that prices are falling. Foxtel IQ, a digital video recorder and a satellite cable set-top box. ... TiVo (pronounced tee-voh, IPA: ) is a popular brand of digital video recorder (DVR) in the United States. ... MythTV is a Linux application which turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or Home Theater Personal Computer. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... ReplayTV is a brand of digital video recorder (DVR), a term synonymous with personal video recorder (PVR). ... DVR with built-in DVD recorder. ... In computer science, random access is the ability to access a random element of a group in equal time. ...

The main drawback with recordable DVD is not the technology itself, but of the disc formats. At present, no less than three different types of DVD recordable disc exist. These are DVD + (plus), DVD - (minus) (both in record once and rewritable versions) and DVD-RAM (which is always rewritable and invariably bundled with DVD-). All three are backed by different consumer electronics manufacturers, and none shows any sign (as of 2006) of gaining "critical mass" in the marketplace. However, in recent years manufacturers have been releasing units that can playback and record to multiple formats. Despite this, many consumers are confused of the formats, and are wary of another format war (similar to the Betamax versus VHS debacle of the early 1980s). This has meant that sales of consumer DVD recorders have been slow to take off. You can recognize a DVD-RAM immediately because visually there are lots of little rectangles distributed on the surface of the data carrier. ... The videotape format war was a period of an intense format war of rival incompatible models of video cassette recorders in the 1970s and early 1980s. ... The videotape format war was a period of an intense format war of rival incompatible models of video cassette recorders in the 1970s and early 1980s. ...

Another important drawback of DVD recording is that one single layer DVD is limited to around 120 minutes of recording if the quality is not to be significantly reduced, while VHS tapes are readily available up to 210 minutes (standard play) in NTSC areas and even 300 minutes in PAL areas. Dual layer DVDs, which increase the high quality recording mode to almost four hours, are increasingly available, but the cost of this medium is still relatively high compared to standard single-layer discs. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into DVD. (Discuss) Dual Layer recording allows DVD-R and DVD+R discs to store significantly more data, up to 8. ...

A new format war is digital High Definition compatible recordable HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. These two formats record and play back video in HD producing high resolutions. Although the Sony Blu-ray format stores more data per disc and is supported by more movie studios, HD DVD was released before Blu-Ray. It is unclear which format (if any) will ultimately "win", although of the two Blu-ray is more widely available. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray have released first-generation players, as well as several select high-definition discs. Much like the DVD+/-/RAM format war, some manufacturers have started releasing units that can play both formats, and movie studios are even considering releasing movies on dual-format discs. HD-DVD disc HD DVD (for High Density Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical media format which is being developed as one standard for high-definition DVD. HD DVD is similar to the competing Blu-ray Disc, which also uses the same CD sized (120 mm diameter) optical data... Blu-ray discs Blu-ray Disc is a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by a group of leading consumer electronics and PC companies called the Blu_ray Disc Association (BDA), which succeeds the Blu_ray Disc Founders (BDF). ...

References

“TIME” redirects here. ... The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C.. It is also one of the citys oldest papers, having been founded in 1877. ...

See also

• Telerecording
• TV/VCR combo
• Kinescope
• Write protection
• Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios
• Dew warning

Telerecording (known as kinescoping in the USA) is the British name for a process pioneered during the 1940s for the storing of electronically-shot television programmes on film, which was used for the preservation, re-broadcasting and sale of television programmes before the use of commercial broadcast-quality videotape became... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Kinescope (IPA: ) originally referred to the cathode ray tube used in television monitors. ... Write protection, (also known as record protection) is a mechanism that prevents erasure of valuable data by the accidental recording or storing of new data. ... Sony Corp v. ... A dew warning, also known as a dew alarm or dew signal, is an error indication on VCRs and camcorders if the VCR/camcorder develops dew inside the unit from being exposed to extreme temperature and/or humidity changes. ...

External links

• The Videotape Recorder Turns 50
• Total Rewind – the Virtual Museum of Vintage VCRs
• Fixer Corp. VCR Self-Repair Instruction Website for about 60 models
• VHS, 30, dies of loneliness - Variety.com