Information Please Almanac Atlas and Yearbook 1985 [antikvár]

SPECIAL FEATURES A Consumer's Guide to VCR's Source- "Video—Your New Window on the World" published by the Electronic Industries Association/Consumer Electronics Group. The Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) It happens to all of us. There's a program on television that we want to see, but we can't watch it. We're not home, or it's aired too late, or maybe we're even watching another program at the time. Until the advent of the VCR we were out of luck. But the VCR gives us the ability to "timeshift," to record a program at one time and play it back at another. Almost all video cassette recorders have the necessary tuner/timer either built-in or available as an accessory. Another advantage of the VCR is the large selection of prerecorded tapes that is available to the consumer. They include everything from tennis and golf lessons to speed reading and cooking courses. There are thousands of older films available and an increasing number of new films are being offered for sale to the VCR user. Formats There are several different formats of video cassette recorders available, each with its own combination of features and benefits. The different VCR formats use different tape cartridges, or cassettes. Most home VCR buyers will make their choice between the two major half-inch (named for the width of the tape) formats—BETA and VHS.' Tapes used on the BETA system cannot be run on the VHS system and vice versa. Here is a brief rundown of some of the key features available in both systems: Multiple speeds. Most decks can be set to run at two or three different speeds. At slower speeds, recording time is extended—up to three or six hours with standard vidéocassette tape, five to eight hours with thinner tape. Why include faster speeds then? Picture and sound quality can be somewhat superior at the faster speeds. Even at the slowest speeds, however, picture quality has been judged as more than acceptable. Picture search-and-scan. On a tape that lasts as long as five or eight hours, it can be tough to find the part you're looking for. That's why search-and-scan features are so desirable. They let you whiz tnrough the tape at high speed, while the picture rernains visible. You'll see some interference lines on the screen during the high-speed search (which can work in both forward and reverse directions) but the lines don't get in the way of this feature's '¦Hie JVC-developed VHS format is currently outselling the aony-developed Beta format by about three to one. Sony was tne first manufacturer to introduce video home recorders to me public m the late 1970s.—Ed. function—to make it possible for you to find quickly the section of the tape you're looking for. Tuners/Timers. All home VCR's except portables have tuner/timers built-in. They let you set the machine to record any available station at the time you select, operating much as the clock in a clock radio. To save weight and reduce their size, portable, battery-operated VCR's usually don't have built-in tuner/timers. For these units, a separate tuner/timer is usually available, and most often packaged in one carton as a complete system. The tuner/timer has a power supply to recharge the portable's battery and to run the deck on regular AC wall-outlet power when it's used indoors at home. Programmable Tuner/Timers. More sophisticated than standard units, these let you preset your machine to record several different programs at different times, on different channels. You can set the machine from one day to two weeks or more in advance, and then take off on vacation, knowing that all your choices, up to the capacity of the tape and speed you've selected, will be recorded while you're gone. Freeze-Frame Stills. This feature allows vou to freeze'the on-screen picture for closer study. Slow Motion. Anyone who watches TV sports knows what a slow motion replay looks like. With this feature, VCR's give you tne ability to see any scene in slow motion. Some units with this feature let you vary the speed of the slow motion, from slow to very slow, to freeze-frame stills. Fast Motion. With this feature the picture runs at two or three times normal speed. It can be used for humorous, "Keystone Kops" effects and, more seriously, when someone wants to "get the message" in one half to one third the time (especially good for sports events). This should not be confused with picture search-and-scan features that are much faster, speeding the picture at speeds which can be ten or twenty times normal. Remote Control. Most VHS and BETA VCR's come with a remote pause control, to momentarily stop the machine during record or playback, from a dis-