Development
As part of its development, in March 1970, Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Panasonic), Victor Co. of Japan (JVC), and five non-Japanese companies reached agreement on unified standards.
The videotape was 3⁄4 in (1.9 cm) wide, so the format is often known as 'three-quarter-inch' or simply 'three-quarter', comparing to other open reel videotape formats of the same vintage, such as 1 in (2.5 cm) type C videotape and 2 in (5.1 cm) quadruplex videotape.
The first generation of U-matic VCRs were large devices, approximately 30 in (76 cm) wide, 24 in (61 cm) deep, and 12 in (30 cm) high, requiring special shelving, and had mechanical controls limited to Record, Play, Rewind, Fast-Forward, Stop and Pause. Later models sported improvements such as chassis sized for EIA 19-inch rack mounting, with sliding rack rails for compressed storage in broadcast environments, solenoid control mechanics, jog-shuttle knob, remote controls, Vertical Interval Time Code (VITC), longitudinal time code, internal cuts-only editing controls, "Slo-Mo" slow-motion playback, and Dolby audio noise reduction.
U-matic was named after the shape of the tape path when it was threaded around the helical scan video head drum, which resembled the letter U. Betamax used this same type of "U-load" as well.
The total potential lines of horizontal resolution for standard U-matic is 280 lines per picture height. Vertical resolution is the NTSC standard of 486 visible scan lines, and recording time was limited to one hour.
Read more about this topic: U-matic
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“They [women] can use their abilities to support each other, even as they develop more effective and appropriate ways of dealing with power.... Women do not need to diminish other women ... [they] need the power to advance their own development, but they do not “need” the power to limit the development of others.”
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—Women’s Liberation Workshop, Students for a Democratic Society, Radical political/social activist organization. “Liberation of Women,” in New Left Notes (July 10, 1967)
“Understanding child development takes the emphasis away from the child’s character—looking at the child as good or bad. The emphasis is put on behavior as communication. Discipline is thus seen as problem-solving. The child is helped to learn a more acceptable manner of communication.”
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