The term video originally was used in television as a form of shorthand to denote the portion of the electrical signal representing the picture, as opposed to the sound. It was not until the 1970s, with the growth of the new visual electronic media, that it moved into the popular vocabulary, and today it is used to refer broadly to virtually all systems involving the electronic creation or re-creation of images. Television, which gave birth to video, is now one of its branches. Video has become a dominant force in the lives of Americans. They watch television an average of more than six hours a day. As of the late 1980s, nearly 45 million households, or half the total, owned videocassette recorders. The same number (although not necessarily the same households) were connected to \Tcable TV\t, and almost half of those were equipped to receive special "premium," or pay-TV, channels such as Home Box Office (HBO). Nearly 2 million families have backyard "dishes" to receive programs directly from \TCommunication\t \Lsatellite\ls 36,200 km (22,500 mi) above the Earth. Americans make their own videos from cameras and camcorders, or store up TV programs for later viewing, buying some 350 million blank videocassettes per year. And they buy or rent movies or other programs on tape almost 1 billion times a year. Additional millions of Americans use office or home computers with \LVideo Display Terminal\ls. Even such older media as motion pictures increasingly depend on video technology. HISTORY The concept of television, the transmission of images over distances, had challenged scientists even before the invention of the movies or radio. The Nipkow scanning disc, invented in 1883, was a metal disc perforated by holes arranged in a spiral. When it revolved, the disc could scan a picture placed behind it. By rapidly changing the picture, the illusion of movement could be achieved and sent, via electric wires, from a transmitter to a receiver. The present system of electronic television was proposed in detail by a Scotsman, A. A Campbell-Swinton, in 1908. The many other early television schemes, however, envisioned transmission through wires, not over the air. Guglielmo \TMarconi\t's invention of the wireless radio (1895) spurred efforts toward over-the-air transmission of pictures, and in the late 1920s, radio, the motion picture, and television were combined. Charles Francis \TJenkins\t, the inventor of the modern theatrical motion picture projector, in 1928 began regular broadcasts of crude "radiomovies" in Washington, D.C., using motion-picture film as a source. John Logie \TBaird\t in 1926 developed a similar mechanical TV system in Britain, which became the basis for the British Broadcasting Corporation's (\TBBC\t) first regular television broadcasts. Also in the 1920s, Baird developed and demonstrated the first color television system and the first videodisc system, which was actually sold for several years at Selfridge's department store in London. Electronic Television Electronic television, which eliminated mechanical scanning discs at both the transmitting and receiving ends and substituted \Lcathode ray tube\ls as receivers and transmitters, was developed simultaneously and independently in the early 1920s in the United States by Vladimir K. \TZworykin\t and Philo T. \TFarnsworth\t, both of whom built on the tube developed in 1897 by Karl Ferdinand \TBraun\t in Germany. The first regular broadcasts of electronic television for the public began in London in 1936 using 405 horizontal scanning lines (see \Tvideo technology\t). In the United States an industry-wide engineering committee adopted standards for a 525-line system based on specifications developed by the Radio Corporation of America (\TRCA\t), and broadcasting in this black-and-white system was authorized by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but it was not until after World War II that regular broadcasting actually began. The U.S. system was known as NTSC, for the National Television System Committee, which developed it. After World War II, television developed rapidly throughout the world, most of Europe choosing a 625-line system that was incompatible with the U.S. 525-line standard. The U.S. standard, however, is used in most of the Western Hemisphere and the Far East. Color Television Over the objections of much of the television industry, the FCC in 1950 approved a color television system developed by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS, Inc.) that was incompatible with the millions of black-and-white sets then in use, and a second NTS Committee was convened to develop a compatible color system. The 525-line NTSC color system, compatible with its black-and-white system, gained FCC approval in 1953, but it was ten years before the public responded and bought color sets in any significant numbers. In Europe, two different 625-line color systems were introduced. These U.S. and European color TV standards are the basis for most video today. Video Recording Television's first decade was the "era of live TV," when most original programming was televised at precisely the time that it was produced--this was not by choice, but because no satisfactory recording method except photographic film was available. Many live television shows actually were televised twice for different time zones. It was possible to make a record of a show, a film shot from the screen of a studio monitor, called a kinescope recording. These recordings were frequently made for use by stations beyond the reach of cable or microwave interconnections with the networks. Because kinescope recordings were expensive and of poor quality, almost from the inception of television broadcasting electronics engineers searched for a way to record television images on magnetic tape. Audio tape recordings were widely used on radio, and tape recorders were becoming popular on the consumer market. It seemed logical that if signals representing audio could be stored on tape, their video counterparts could also be recorded. The problem was that the video signal was far more complex than its audio counterpart. Much early work on videotape recording was done by Bing Crosby Laboratories, established by the singer, who was the first radio performer to pretape his programs rather than broadcast them live. \TRCA\t also spent large amounts of research money on the development of \Tvideo recording\t. The breakthrough, however, finally came in 1956 from Ampex, the company that had introduced audio tape recording to the United States. Ampex solved the problem by mounting the recording heads on a drum that revolved at a high speed, impressing the signal crosswise on the tape, while the tape itself moved at a relatively slow pace. The Ampex-developed system was called "quad" because of its use of four recording heads; it used tape 2 inches (5.08 cm) wide, was subsequently refined to record and play back in color, and remained the standard studio broadcast video recording system for nearly 20 years. Electronic Newsgathering Almost from the start of the development of video recording for television studio use, electronics engineers knew that it was only a matter of time before a system would be developed for consumers. While literally dozens of "home" recording systems were developed, these met with little success before 1975. However, these early "home video" developments profoundly affected television news. One of the many home recorders was the Sony-developed U-matic (1971). It used a tape 0.75 inches (1.9 cm) wide, mounted in a two-reel cassette. A revolving head drum placed a track diagonally on the tape (the "helical scan" principle, used in most modern videocassette recorders). The U-Matic proved too expensive for consumers, but it was embraced by television stations and networks because its portability and good picture quality made possible electronic newsgathering, or ENG. Therefore, low-cost magnetic tape that needed no processing could be used instead of expensive photographic film that required developing and splicing before it could be shown on a news broadcast. Just as the U-Matic revolutionized television news, videotape began to transform other aspects of \Ttelevision production\t. Although film is still used, it has become the exception rather than the rule, and virtually all TV programming--including that on film--is now put on tape before being broadcast. (See also \Tradio and television broadcasting\t.) VIDEO TODAY Most of the major home video media originated as adjuncts to television broadcasting. These include videotape recording, cable television, and satellite reception, all of which have become, in one way or another, competitors of, or alternatives to, broadcast television. (See \Ttelevision\t \Ttransmission\t.) It appears to be axiomatic that electronic devices and systems developed for industrial use, no matter how expensive at the start, eventually lead to versions priced low enough for the consumer market. The Home VCR The most spectacular success story in the history of consumer electronics is the videocassette recorder or VCR. The VCR itself was preceded by several other video devices designed to play recorded material, but not to record. The first was the EVR, or Electronic Video Recording system, a film-based video player unveiled by CBS in 1968. Next came the LaserVision optical \Tvideodisc\t system, developed by Philips of Holland and MCA Laboratories of the United States and introduced to the market in 1978; it later became the basis for the successful digital audio \Tcompact disc\t (CD) system. \TRCA\t introduced (1981) the low-cost Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) system, which used grooves and a stylus--similar to an acoustic phonograph record--to reproduce video. In 1975, Sony marketed Betamax, a VCR based on its U-Matic system but using tape 0.5 inches (1.27 cm) wide in a smaller cassette. It was a quick success, both in Japan and the United States. The giant Matsushita Electric Industrial Corporation soon adopted another system called VHS (for Video Home System), which had been developed by its subsidiary, the Japan Victor Company (JVC). U.S. manufacturers and marketers of home electronic equipment contracted with Japanese makers of VCRs for a supply. When the leading U.S. manufacturer of television sets, \TRCA\t, embraced the VHS system and introduced a new version made by Matsushita with twice Beta's recording time per cassette, VHS began to surpass Beta in sales. The economies of mass production, aided by the immediate public acceptance of the VCR and the strong competition in the U.S. and Japanese consumer electronics industries, resulted in rapidly declining prices. As a result, the two play-only videodisc systems were unable to compete with VCRs, for which a wide variety of recorded material quickly became available. \TRCA\t discontinued the manufacture of its CED system. Philips stopped making its laser-based system. Other companies, however, including Pioneer and Yamaha, continue to sell laser disc players, which have developed a small group of enthusiasts among consumers and have penetrated the industrial, commercial, and educational fields. The Betamax Case VCRs initially were widely advertised as "time-shift" devices that allowed owners to record broadcasts when they were shown, but watch them at their own convenience. Two major motion picture studios, MCA and Disney, filed suit in 1976 against Sony, charging that the main purpose of the VCR was the violation of copyrights. Sony and its codefendants argued that viewers had the right to record programs from the public airwaves in the privacy of their own homes. In 1984, Sony (and by implication the VCR industry) won a complete victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decision gave viewers the legal right to record programs broadcast by television stations. Cassette Sale and Rental Although it was the first major use for VCRs, time-shifting is only one of three attractions of this popular device. With the rapid growth of the VCR population, sales and rental of recorded videocassettes--particularly motion pictures--became a huge business, giving rise to the new phenomenon of the video store, of which 25,000 now exist, slightly more than the total number of movie theater screens in the Unites States. Including all outlets that sell or rent videocassette programs, from convenience stores to filling stations, there are about 100,000 retail sources for such programs today. Although in the beginning the movie studios fought the VCR because of its ability to violate copyrights, films on videocassette have become a major source of income for them, and some feature films already realize more money from cassette sales than from theatrical exhibition. The Home Video Terminal With the growing popularity of video devices--not only VCRs but home computers and sophisticated video games--the television set or receiver has evolved into a home video terminal. With many new signal sources in addition to off-air broadcasts, monitor-receivers are replacing receive-only sets. Such monitors have special video inputs that can accept video signals from a variety of devices, bypassing the tuner, whose function is to pick up broadcast TV stations. Although any television receiver can be used to display pictures from a VCR, for example, monitors provide superior pictures. They can be used with multiple video devices. Many have special inputs for computers, and maximize the clarity and definition of computer images. Increasingly, receiver circuits are employing digital technology. Some monitor-receivers now use digital circuits for all signal processing, and thus they are, in effect, computers that receive and display video pictures. The digital circuits are more directly compatible with such other digital devices and systems as computers and \Tteletext\t and \Tvideotex\t information retrieval services, which provide on-screen information upon demand. Digital monitor-receivers also have the potential to deliver nearly perfect pictures, since they lend themselves to the development of such features as ghost and interference cancelers, as well as special systems to compensate for the wear of such vulnerable components as the picture tube. The Digital Future In 1986 the first digital videotape recorders were introduced for broadcast use. These have made possible a degree of excellence never before obtained in professional video recording, particularly when editing requires the copying of one tape on another. Instead of the gradual deterioration that occurs with standard analog recordings as multiple generations of copies are made, with digital recordings the 500th generation is indistinguishable from the first. Digital devices are already standard in the broadcast industry for such processes as editing, special effects, and titling. Many of these digital effects are now available for consumers in advanced video recorders (known generically as Super-VHS) and camcorders. Both incorporate digital circuitry capable of producing elaborate effects--zoom, picture-in-picture, digital art simulations, and many others--along with a sharper TV image. The compact disc, at first available only for audio, has extended its reach to include short video sequences (CD-V), and may eventually replace videotape as the prime medium for TV recording, in the form of the erasable laserdisc. The Video Industries Many of the basic principles and designs for video devices and products originated in the United States and Europe--for example, the videotape recorder, video cameras, and video display terminals. Their execution and production, however, have increasingly moved to the Far East, particularly Japan. Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese firms produce almost all black-and-white TV sets and a large percentage of color sets, although most of them have established final assembly plants in the United States, largely as a result of U.S. restrictions against imports of finished products. In the home VCR field, the situation is quite different. The first successful home video recorder was developed in Japan, and virtually all VCRs since then have been designed and manufactured there. Although manufacturers with U.S. brand names are leaders in the United States VCR market, they all procure their products from Japanese manufacturers. Even industrial video equipment, such as that made for television stations, increasingly is coming from Japanese firms. Although \TRCA\t traditionally had been the dominant force in broadcast equipment, it left the field in 1985 after Sony took over the lead in that area. The picture tube has long been a U.S. product, but this area, too, is increasingly being dominated by imports from Korea and Japan. THE IMPACT OF VIDEO In the decade of the 1950s television threw the motion picture industry into a deep depression as people stayed home to watch the free entertainment that TV provided. The movies fought back with 3D, color, Cinerama, and CinemaScope, and for a time, they managed to hold their own. But with the coming of the VCR and the videodisc player, both of which made movies easily and cheaply available for home viewing, the industry was pushed into another crisis. In response, motion picture producers are using videocassettes to sell their products. Within a matter of months--sometimes weeks--after a film's theatrical premiere, it may show up on videocassette. Shortly after its cassette debut, it may appear on one of the new "pay-per-view" cable services. Next in sequence is a regular premium or pay channel, such as Home Box Office or Showtime. For an "A" picture, the next outlet would be network television, followed by syndication to TV stations. Thus, movies are now made with the small-screen audience as well as theatergoers in mind. Video techniques are now used in the production and editing of movies, many producers shooting movies simultaneously with video and film cameras for the greater flexibility in editing permitted by electronic recording. In some cases, features are made on videotape and then transferred to film. With the development of high-definition television, which will provide the same detail as a 35-millimeter film, even the distribution of motion pictures promises to change. In Japan, experimental simultaneous distribution of feature films by satellite in high-definition video to hundreds of theaters is planned, with video projectors replacing photographic film equipment in the projection rooms. As the VCR's penetration of U.S. homes increases, the opportunity for programs appealing to many different cultural levels increases. Broadway and regional theater productions, opera, and dance performances have become successful on videocassette. No major performance need ever be lost, since it can be easily videotaped, as an increasing number now are. If video has affected theatrical entertainment, the new video media have also had a strong effect on the original video medium, broadcast television. The competition of cable and the VCR for the time and attention of audiences, and the wide variety of choice now available, have reduced the audiences of the broadcast television networks and thus their advertising revenues. Video is revolutionizing education and training, as schools and colleges learn to use this visual tool. Interactive videodiscs, in which the learner actively participates, are being used increasingly for training, notably in the U.S. armed forces. Some 8,500 private firms and organizations are estimated to have spent $2.3 billion to produce video programs for employees, shareholders, and others in 1985, and one source forecasts that this private video communications market will reach $7 billion by 1990. For the future, it seems inevitable that video will increase its presence and influence. Some significant factors should be the improvement in pictures through the adoption of high-definition standards; the increasing integration of the computer with the visual media, for more interactive forms of entertainment, education, and training; and the availability to vastly increased numbers of persons of the means of video production--especially, the camcorder and related devices--which could make creating for the the electronic visual arts almost as widespread as setting pen or brush to paper or canvas. David Lachenbruch Delson, Donn, Delson's Dictionary of Cable, Video, and Satellite Terms (1983); Ensign, Lynne N., and Knapton, Robyn E., The Complete Dictionary of TV and Film (1985); Fletcher, James, ed., Handbook of Radio and TV Broadcasting (1981); Hunt, Albert, The Language of TV (1982); Remley, Frederick M., ed., Tomorrow's TV (1982); Turow, Joseph, Media Industries: The Production of News and Entertainment (1984); Williams, Martin, TV: The Casual Art (1982).