Editing VHS (section)

=== VHS-C / Super VHS-C ===
{{main|VHS-C}}
Another variant is [[VHS-C|VHS-Compact (VHS-C)]], originally developed for portable VCRs in 1982, but ultimately finding success in palm-sized [[camcorder]]s. The longest tape available for NTSC holds 60 minutes in SP mode and 180 minutes in EP mode. Since VHS-C tapes are based on the same magnetic tape as full-size tapes, they can be played back in standard VHS players using a mechanical adapter, without the need of any kind of signal conversion. The magnetic tape on VHS-C cassettes is wound on one main spool and uses a gear wheel to advance the tape.<ref name="Parekh" />

The adapter is mechanical, although early examples were motorized, with a battery. It has an internal hub to engage with the VCR mechanism in the location of a normal full-size tape hub, driving the gearing on the VHS-C cassette. Also, when a VHS-C cassette is inserted into the adapter, a small swing-arm pulls the tape out of the miniature cassette to span the standard tape path distance between the guide rollers of a full-size tape. This allows the tape from the miniature cassette to use the same loading mechanism as that from the standard cassette.

Super VHS-C or [[S-VHS]] Compact was developed by [[JVC]] in 1987. S-VHS provided an improved luminance and chrominance quality, yet S-VHS recorders were compatible with VHS tapes.<ref>{{cite book | last = Damjanovski | first = Vlado
  | title = CCTV
  | publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann
  | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-7506-7800-3 | page= 238
  | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=MQZQIFaOhgoC
  | access-date= January 22, 2017}}</ref>

Sony was unable to shrink its Betamax form any further, so instead developed Video8/Hi8 which was in direct competition with the VHS-C/S-VHS-C format throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Ultimately neither format "won" and both have been superseded by digital high definition equipment.