U-matic - Broadcast Use

Broadcast Use

For synchronization to broadcast or post-production editing house genlock systems, U-Matic VCRs required a Time Base Corrector (TBC). Some TBCs had a drop-out compensation (DOC) circuit which would hold lines of video in temporary digital memory to compensate for oxide drop-out or wrinkle flaws in the videotape, however the DOC circuits required several cables and expert calibration for use.

U-matic tapes were also used for easy transport of filmed scenes for dailies in the days before VHS, DVD, and portable hard drives. Several movies have surviving copies in this form. The first rough cut of Apocalypse Now, for example (the raw version of what became Apocalypse Now Redux), survived on three U-Matic cassettes.

Audio quality was compromised due the use of longitudinal audio tape heads in combination with slow tape speed. Sony eventually implemented Dolby noise reduction circuitry (using Dolby C) to improve audio fidelity.

U-matic would also see use for the storage of digital audio data. Most digital audio recordings from the 1980s were digitally mastered to U-matic tape. The Sony PCM-1600 PCM adaptor used a U-matic recorder as a transport. The PCM-1600 output standard "pseudo video" in 525/60 format, which appeared to be a video image of vibrating checkerboard patterns that could be recorded on a video recorder. The PCM-1600 was the first system used for mastering audio compact discs in the early 1980s, with the famous Compact Disc 44.1 kHz sampling rate based on a best-fit calculation for the U-matic's video horizontal-sync rate. The later PCM-1610 and 1630 units also used U-matic cassettes as a storage medium.