Production Glossary
VHS
Video Home System, more commonly known as VHS, is an analog videotape format that was developed for the consumer market. Produced by JVC in 1971, the VHS format would compete in the well-known “format war” against Betamax, eventually winning and becoming the leading home video system until the advent of the optical disc (DVD).A standard VHS tape contains 430 meters of tape, which equates to 3.5 hours of playing time for the NTSC standard and 5 hours of playing time for the PAL standard. The VHS tape offers additional speeds- EP (extended play), SLP (super long play), and LP (long play). VHS is also capable of recording.
The VHS tape has a number of versions, but the most popular alternate version is the VHS-C. This tape is a compact form of the standard VHS tape and is used in handheld camcorders. The maximum recording time of the VHS-C is 40 in slow play and 120 minutes in extended play. The advantage of the VHS-C is that it is adaptable to VHS players because it uses magnetic tape identical to the VHS.
