Unusual VTR seen at Retrotech

[ppppenguin]

At Retrotech yesterday I saw this very unusual VTR for sale on one of the stalls. See photo. The vendor didn't know much about it.

It's a half inch open reel recorder, made in the late 60s or early 70s. Some of you will know the CV2100ACE which was common in the 60s and 70s, notably in schools where it was a reliable workhorse. The VTR in the photo will play CV2100 tapes but it isn't that model.

I have only ever seen (and used) one of these VTRs before, in the TV studio at Imperial College in the mid 1970s. I know of possibly 2 or 3 extant machines apart from the one I saw.

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to what I saw?

[peter scott]

Well without any knowledge of these machines it appears to be a CV2100 with a bit on the side. I did find such a thing, CV2000 but with a bigger bit. https://www.retrothing.com/2005/11/the_sony_cv2000.html

Peter

[ppppenguin]

The CV2000 was a 405 line VTR. Tape ran at 7.5ips. There may well have been different versions for other countries. The 625 line CV2100 looked very similar. Tape ran at 11.5ips. I think there were versions of both machines with an extra box on the side. I think it was for a loudspeaker and amplifier. There may have been a version with a video monitor built in. I need to hunt for my reference books.

The CV5600 was an early attempt at a low cost colour VTR. It used colour-under methods to record chroma. The same methods would be used in all later VCRs including Philips 1500.

At the time the CV5600 was introduced (early 1970s?) the only other colour VTRs were 2" Quadruplex for the broadcasters and the then new U-matic:: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-matic I think it was also possible to record colour on some models of the Ampex 7000 series 1" VTRs, later known as A-format. Possibly also some of the IVC 1" VTRs.