History of Editing
One Inch videotape
(Various one inch formats)
The next format that was released in the early '70s was the 1 inch videotape system. The format introduced features such as shuttling with picture display, variable-speed playback and still framing. Even though the sound and picture reproduction attainable on the format were of slightly lower quality than 2 inch Quad, the format eventually became standard for the industry since 1 inch" type C machines required much less maintenance, took up less space, and consumed much less electrical power.
There were other formats of 1 inch such as Type B machines which were the norm in Europe during the '80s. The picture quality was slightly better but the B machines lacked slow-motion options.
U-matic ¾ inch (Low band) BVU (High band)
In 1969, Sony introduced a prototype for the first widespread video cassette (a cartridge containing videotape) the ¾ inch (Low-Band) composite U-matic system. The system which worked on a helical scan transport approach, was released commercially in 1971 and was used as a low cost method of offlining to create EDL's (Edit Decision List). The footage was transferred to ¾ inch cassette with matching timecode. The online used the original broadcast quality footage where it was an automatic process using the EDL's and less time was spent in the high cost edit suite. The process is comparable to film with work-print and neg-matching. Later a high quality (High-Band) ¾ inch BVU was released that was broadcast quality and was used extensively in ENG (Electronic News Gathering).
Betacam ½ inch
After it's introduction in 1981, Betacam ½ inch replaced ¾ inch BVU where Sony's Betacam became the standard professional field camera for location video work.
The Panasonic Recam, Bosch QuarterCam, and RCA Hawkeye versions were losers to Sony in the race for the first successful broadcast quality "camcorder", a single unit containing both camera and videocassette recorder/player. Sony followed through with their cost effective Betacam Edit editors which were popular with television newsrooms and ENG.
Digital Revolution
The '90s saw the introduction of the costly digital formats (Digital Video - DV) with Sony's D-1, which featured uncompressed digital component recording. Ampex released their DCT series but Panasonic trumped them D-5 format, which was uncompressed as well, but much more affordable.
The DV standard become widely used including the more robust formats such as Sony's DVCAM and Panasonic's DVCPRO as an acquisition and editing format. But the smaller Mini DV cassettes used with camcorders became commonplace, with the full-sized DV cassettes restricted entirely to professional applications.