 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | ||||||
| ||||||
|  | |||||
| FORMAT: V2000 | |||||
DATE: 1980 PRICE: £650 [2005: £1850] 53x37x16cm 17.5 kg | ||||||
|  |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The culmination of all Philips' development during the 1970's was the Video 2000 format, launched (after many delays) in 1980. V2000 was a truly remarkable system, in many ways streets ahead of the Japanese Betamax and VHS formats with which it was competing. | |
| The stylish - and immensely heavy - machines showed a distinct family resemblance to the earlier VCR and VCR-LP decks, but the controls were now entirely electronic, with a microprocessor controlling the tape mechanism in response to the user's actions. In contrast, the Betamax and VHS recorders of the time all used mechanical operating keys, which worked their mechanism directly via levers and linkages. |  |
| Advanced though the 2020's controls were, however, they still lack the logic control we are used to today, and the machine ignores all presses until the previous function has completed. So you can't press Wind (fast forward) or Rewind immediately after stop; you have to wait for the machine to finish clanking and whirring, and the Stop button's light to come on, before you can press the next function. As well as the usual tape transport buttons, there was a GOTO button. Press this, then enter a four-digit counter number, and the machine would fast-forward or rewind to the specified count and start playing. Unfortunately the machine could be fooled; if the counter was showing 9999, and you pressed GOTO 0000, it would not just wind forward slightly until the counter "clocked" itself - it would start rewinding, because 0000 is lower than 9999... Still, a very useful feature, and much more useful than the usual counter memory which could only wind to 0000. The TV tuner was also highly sophisticated, using electronic search-and-store rather than the conventional rotary thumbwheel presets found on rival decks, and the timer led you through the programming process by displaying illuminated prompts - "start", "end", "channel" etc - to tell you what it needed to know next. It could also store up to five programs up to 16 days ahead, and was the first VCR to allow you to set up more than one program. This is only practical in an electronically controlled machine. But the most remarkable feature of V2000 as far as the user was concerned were the cassettes, which could be used on both sides, just like audio cassettes -- which were also a Philips invention. They intended VCC to be the video equivalent of audio tapes. | |
| The magnetic tape used by V2000 was 1/2 inch, the same width as that used in Betamax and VHS, and the cassettes were almost the same size as VHS tapes. However, since the tapes could be turned over, only half the width was used at any one time and V2000 was really a 1/4 inch format. A V2000 cassette Note the spool holes in the "top", for when it's turned over The small holes at the back tell the machine how long the tape is |  |
| The recording format also provided "spare" tracks, intended for later stereo or dual-language recording, and the ability to record extra data along with the sound and images, such as time/date information, computer data, digital sound, and so on. Unfortunately, these features were never exploited - no machine was ever produced which could use them - as V2000 became a casualty of the "format war" of the early eighties. | |
| The VR2020 shown here was the first Philips machine available in the new format, but in fact they were beaten to the post by their associates Grundig, who released their Video 2x4 machine about a month before. Unfortunately, it was quickly discovered that a recording made on one machine would play on the other with the sound 0.2 seconds out of sync, because the audio heads were in different positions relative to the video heads. An update was quickly released, and all machines after the very first ones had their audio heads in an intermediate position. This kind of teething problem was one of the reasons that the format was slow to take off. Another criticism that was made was that, although the machines were technically very advanced, they lacked some basic features that were already appearing in Betamax and VHS machines. For example, although an infra-red remote control was available for the 2020, it was not built in; you had to buy a set of adaptor boxes which plugged into the back - and more seriously, the front - of the deck: | |
 |  |
| The optional remote control, with the sensor which had to be plugged into the front of the machine... | ...and the adaptor boxes which had to be clipped onto the back of the deck and connected via flying leads. The box on the left is the control box for the remote; the one on the right is required for AV connections (audio/video in and out). |
| Other features missing from the VR2020 were still-frame and cue / review (picture search). These features were already appearing in the rival Japanese machines, and made the Philips deck look under-endowed. | |
| Internally, the most remarkable thing about the VR series was the way they laced up. The tape was pulled out of the cassette and around the head drum, by tape guides which were mounted on little trolleys and pulled along curved tracks by cables. The 2020 carriage. The tracks can be seen in the photo each side of the silver head drum. This Heath-Robinson arrangement looks highly prone to problems, and indeed a survey in the 1980's found that V2000 machines were significantly more likely to have needed repairs than Betamax or VHS decks. |  |
| However, the machines are extremely easy to work on, as each separate function is handled by a clearly labelled plug-in circuit board in a metal can; if a function isn't working you just whip out the module and slip in another. This particular 2020 was found in a junk shop, and - very unusually - came with a guarantee. The remote and AV units were found some time later in the same shop - on another 2020 which seemed to have gone completely mad! | |
