| The Sanyo VTC-5000 was perhaps the first "mass market" VCR. It was aggressively marketed at the height of the VHS / Betamax format war, and at one point was significantly cheaper than its VHS rivals. It became the biggest selling VCR of 1982. |
| It was also a very good machine, which contained some interesting technological developments. Perhaps most importantly, the mechanism was a completely new design, which eliminated all solenoids (electromagnetic levers), running all loading functions from a single loading motor. This philosophy was continued throughout the mechanism, and the result was a machine which was not only smaller and less power-hungry than the others around at the time (compare it to a C7 or C5), but also amazingly light - about half the weight of the previous machines. |
Other unusual features were a blue gas-discharge display, and (monochrome) picture search and freeze-frame.
Unusually for Betamax, the tape was returned to the cassette when not playing. |  |
