The VCR has to deal with a really thin, fragile and extremely long piece of plastic tape.
The VCR must also read the tapes signals and convert these into signals the television can understand. These signals include sound and picture.
The average speed that the VHS tape goes past the VCR head is 5-8 cm (2 or 3 inches) per second.
The video signals carried on the tape contains roughly 500 times more information than the sound signals.
Two separate recording heads read these signals individually.
A television picture is divided into 525 scan lines (half of this, called a field, is displayed every 60th of a second). Each head reads (or writes) half of a television scan at any one time.
This is what the information on a tape looks like:
In this diagram, the head is rotating at 1800 revolutions per minute (30 revolutions per second).
In Short Play, the tape moves past the head at 33.35 millimetres per second and in Long Play the tape moves past at 16.7 millimetres per second. In Extended Play, the tape moves past the head at 11.12 millimetres per second.
Due to the head also rotating, the head moves over the tape at 5904 millimetres per second (41 kilometres per hour).
The path of the tape in a VCR is as follows:
The VHS has impacted on society by allowing television stations to pre-record shows, allowing cheaper access to movies and by allowing the recording and playing of favourite television shows. The VHS has impacted on many peoples lives by allowing numerous hours of enjoyment from �taped� shows and movies. The VHS has allowed normal people to record shows when they are out or unavailable and to share favourite television shows and movies.