Editing Videotape (section)

== Early formats ==
The electronics division of entertainer [[Bing Crosby]]'s production company, Bing Crosby Enterprises (BCE), gave the world's first demonstration of a videotape recording in Los Angeles on November 11, 1951. In development by [[John T. Mullin]] and Wayne R. Johnson since 1950, the device gave what were described as "blurred and indistinct" images using a modified [[Ampex]] 200 tape recorder and standard quarter-inch (0.635&nbsp;cm) [[audiotape]] moving at {{convert|360|inches|m}} per second.<ref>"Tape Recording Used by Filmless 'Camera'{{-"}}, ''The New York Times'', Nov. 12, 1951, p. 21.</ref><ref>Eric D. Daniel, C. Denis Mee, and Mark H. Clark (eds.), ''Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years'', IEEE Press, 1998, p. 141. {{ISBN|0-07-041275-8}}</ref> A year later, an improved version using one-inch (2.54&nbsp;cm) magnetic tape was shown to the press, who reportedly expressed amazement at the quality of the images although they had a "persistent grainy quality that looked like a worn motion picture." Overall the picture quality was still considered inferior to the best [[kinescope]] recordings on film.<ref>"Tape-Recorded TV Nears Perfection", ''The New York Times'', Dec. 31, 1952, p. 10.</ref> Bing Crosby Enterprises hoped to have a commercial version available in 1954 but none came forth.<ref>"New Deal on TV Seen at Parley", ''The New York Times'', May 1, 1953, p. 30.</ref>

The [[BBC]] experimented from 1952 to 1958 with a high-speed linear videotape system called [[Vision Electronic Recording Apparatus]] (VERA), but this was ultimately dropped in favor of [[quadruplex videotape]]. VERA used half-inch metallized (1.27&nbsp;cm) tape on 20-inch reels traveling at {{convert|200|inches/s|m/s}}.

[[RCA]] demonstrated the magnetic tape recording of both black-and-white and [[color television]] programs at its [[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]] laboratories on December 1, 1953.<ref>"Magnetic Tape Used By RCA to Photograph Television Program", ''The Wall Street Journal'', Dec. 2, 1953, p. 1.</ref><ref>"[https://books.google.com/books?id=Nd8DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA157 Color TV on Tape]", ''Popular Mechanics'', April 1954, p. 157.</ref> The high-speed longitudinal tape system, called Simplex, in development since 1951, could record and play back only a few minutes of a [[television program]]. The color system used half-inch (1.27&nbsp;cm) tape on 10½ inch reels to record five tracks, one each for red, blue, green, synchronization, and audio. The black-and-white system used quarter-inch (0.635&nbsp;cm) tape also on 10½ inch reels with two tracks, one for video and one for audio. Both systems ran at {{convert|360|inches/s|m/s}} with {{convert|2500|feet|m}} per reel yielding an 83-second capacity.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Stewart Wolpin |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1994/2/1994_2_52.shtml |title=The Race to Video |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110404045940/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1994/2/1994_2_52.shtml |archive-date=2011-04-04  |magazine=Invention & Technology |date=Autumn 1994}}</ref> RCA-owned [[NBC]] first used it on ''The Jonathan Winters Show'' on October 23, 1956, when a prerecorded song sequence by [[Dorothy Collins]] in color was included in the otherwise [[live television]] program.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vyoDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA238 |title=TV Goes to Tape |magazine=Popular Science |date=February 1960 |page=238}}</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Ed Reitan |url=http://novia.net/~ereitan/rca-nbc_firsts.html |title=RCA-NBC Firsts in Color Television (commented) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219060637/http://novia.net/~ereitan/rca-nbc_firsts.html |archive-date=2008-12-19}}.</ref>

In 1953, Norikazu Sawazaki developed a prototype [[helical scan]] video tape recorder.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=PL0eAQAAMAAJ ''SMPTE Journal: Publication of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers'', Volume 96, Issues 1-6; Volume 96], page 256, [[Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers]]</ref>

BCE demonstrated a color system in February 1955 using a [[Longitudinal Video Recording|longitudinal recording]] on half-inch (1.27&nbsp;cm) tape. [[CBS]], RCA's competitor, was about to order BCE machines when [[Ampex]] introduced the superior [[Quadruplex videotape|Quadruplex system]].<ref>Daniel et al., p. 148.</ref> BCE was acquired by [[3M]] Company in 1956.

In 1959, [[Toshiba]] released the first commercial helical scan video tape recorder.<ref>[http://toshiba-mirai-kagakukan.jp/en/learn/history/ichigoki/1959vtr/index.htm World's First Helical Scan Video Tape Recorder], [[Toshiba]]</ref>