JVC HR-C3
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JVC's miniature VHS format was launched in 1982, and the HR-C3 was the first true VHS-C machine. The C3 is a very neat unit, surprisingly sophisticated and modern-looking for its age, with LCD displays and touch-sensitive buttons.
All the controls and connecting sockets are on the
top of the machine, and a neat sliding flap covers and
protects the playback controls while the camera is being
used to control it. The well-designed carrying case
allows access to all controls, sockets and - most
importantly - the battery, which clips to the bottom of
the deck. Unlike many full-size portables, no power is required to load or eject the tape, and there is a another clever battery-saving feature which powers down the machine between recordings, without unlacing the tape. This allowed shooting to continue later, without introducing noise or picture disturbance at the start of the next shot; most other machines could only guarantee this if the machine was left on between shots. |
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A tuner was also available to go with the machine, but timed recordings were not possible - VHS-C was not meant to be a home deck format.
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VHS-C cassettes use the same 1/2 inch tape as
standard VHS, and the same recording format. The
cassettes can be inserted into a full-sized cassette
shaped adaptor, which allows them to be played back (or
even recorded) in any normal VHS machine. A VHS-C cassette in its adaptor shell. When the lid is closed, motorised guide pins pull the tape out and across the front of the adaptor, and the shell's right-hand spool is linked by toothed wheel to the compact tape's spool. The combined tape then behaves just like a normal VHS cassette. |
VHS-C cassettes were initially limited to 20 minutes, because there wasn't room for any more tape in the cassette. As plastics technology advanced, thinner tape became realistic and 30 minute VHS-C cassettes became the standard size - using 15 micron tape rather than the standard 20 micron. Later still, in 1990, 45 minute C-format cassettes appeared, using even thinner tape.
In order to make the machines as small as possible, a reduced-sized head drum was used, 41mm rather than full-sized VHS's 62mm. To keep the recorded signals compatible with VHS, four heads were used, with the tape wrapped three-quarters of the way around the drum, and the drum span at 1.5 times normal speed (2250 RPM rather than 1500). The four heads take turns writing: as head 1 completes its scan, head 2 has travelled 3/4 of the way around and so is ready to start the next field. |
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This reduced-sized mechanism allowed the HR-C3 to be extremely small, about 25cm square, and kept the weight down to a remarkable 1.9kg.
In fact, the first VHS-C machine to be
available was the Sharp VC-220, but this was not a true
compact - it used a standard-sized VHS drum and
mechanism, with just a few simple changes to allow it to
use the smaller tapes. This machine weighed 2.6kg,
significantly more than the true compact machines. The original VC-220 |
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