1965 Sony CV-2000 - First consumer Video Tape Recorder?

Am fascinated by this early home videotape recorder: The Sony CV-2000 (introduced in the US in 1965). Anyone have one of these back in the day or see one in action?

http://www.labguysworld.com/Sony_CV-2000D.htm

 

Actually, there were some previous duds that sputtered out as home video recorders. One of them was the "Telcan" from England (called the "Tellcan't" by Stereo Review in 1963), which was an early, primitive reel recorder.

I would say the CV-series Sony machines were among the first successful attempts for low-cost machines. They did make a model with a built-in B&W TV set, but its high price (over $1500 in 1965 dollars) made it unrealistic as a consumer product. The CV format was very buggy, with all kinds of tracking problems and skew issues; those tapes are very, very difficult to play back, especially on different machines.

A later color version was more successful, but lack of standardization between manufacturers gave it "iffy" success. Akai had some B&W and color 1/4" reel VTRs for the home market around 1969-1970, but those never quite caught on, either.

Cartrivision was the first attempt to make a mass-market home VCR format, and it crashed and burned around 1972. It was mechanically unwieldly, very unreliable, only recorded one field per frame, and was large and expensive to manufacture. The 3/4" U-Matic format, launched in mid-1972, was much more successful, and quickly became the standard for the industrial/semi-pro market for two decades. But the high cost of blank cassettes and short running time (60 minutes with standard tape, 90 minutes with thin, unreliable tape) made it unsuitable for home use.

Sony's Betamax, launched in October of 1975, was really the first successful attempt, and that pretty much changed everything.

 

My dad, Edmund W. Sinnott, owned and started our family video business using this and later Panasonic's version. His vision was to videotape legal depositions and trials. I believe he was the first person to videotape a complete trial (under the name TrialVision) and then videotape the first evidence deposition (under DepoVision) both names he trademarked in '66/'67. He was a lawyer and amateur filmmaker. We used to daisy chain two black and white reel to reel machines as a quality assurance move in case one didn't turn out. IIRC, the tapes lasted 40 minutes. He had wooden cabinets containing the cameras (and two shelves for the VTRs) in order to hide the gear from possible objections of a circus atmosphere, which of course there were.

The precedent that haunted my dad until he died was a court case, Estes V Texas, which had been filmed under large movie lights. Even though the video cameras were better than that, they required some lighting. He was careful to subdue the VTRs. We still have a VTR like you depicted in my mother's basement.

My first deposition for our family was in 1967 using a VTR such as this. It was of an airman about to be sent to Viet Nam who was witness to boarding a World Air 707 that crashed. He was later missing in action, so the tape became valuable.

Hope this isn't more than you want to know, but the photo rekindled my memories.

 

Thanks! Sounds like the Sony CV series caught on more for business/industrial/educational use than for home consumers. Maybe Sony priced it too high.

 

I've read the horizontal resolution was about 200 lines. This is pretty close to VHS and Beta, which were around 240 lines.

Another unit that fascinates me is the Philips EL3400. Supposedly this was commercially released around 1964 and thus predates the Sony. Here's a youtube video of one in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAGeeeW0pvs

 

Here's a 1965 Sony CV-2000 in operation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OQJjRDD6AM

 

Didn't Hugh Hefner have one of these, or was his an Ampex (for some reason I remember it) at his Chicago mansion? I remember seeing it profiled in my older brother's copy. Shows you how weird I was looking at the gear photos.

 

When I worked for Video Review in the 1980s, we actually measured quite a few stock VCRs and found that they actually could only do 160 lines (based on 80 lines per MHz), measured flat. The "240 line" spec was done at about the -15dB point, which is far from flat. I always felt that the resolution specs and S/N specs in consumer VCRs were hyped-up and phony. (TV specs were worse.)

BTW, the S/N ratio for most of these machines was in the low 40s, sometimes not even 40dB. This was horrifically bad. I think the main thing that attracted people to DVD was their S/N ratio of about 55dB, which is a gigantic improvement. The relatively-honest 640x480 resolution was also a lot sharper, but I think the noise was the most striking difference. Note that laserdiscs were also very, very noisy, rarely much better than VHS chroma noise (around 45dB at best).

According to a tour of Hef's audio/video system in a 1970 or 1971 issue of Audio Magazine, he was using Ampex broadcast 2" machines for his in-house entertainment system. He had a couple of full-time guys who would record TV shows off the air, then play them back closed-circuit to one (or more) of the various rooms in the house. Pretty amazing system for that time. All you needed was cash.

 

About twenty years ago I came across a Sony machine at a car boot sale, I knew exactly what it was and I really wanted it, but the seller wanted more than I was willing to pay for an obsolete video machine that may not have worked, although more "junk" is the last thing I need I still regret not buying it. The strange thing is I had a collection of random format video tapes I'd rescued, U-matic, Betacam etc., but I also had some reels for the Sony, so I could have at least tried it.

 

Great pics guys. Thanks! for the information.