Electronic Video Recording
{{Short description|Film-based format for television broadcasts, invented by CBS}}
Electronic Video Recording, or EVR, was a film-based video recording format developed by Hungarian-born engineer Peter Carl Goldmark at CBS Laboratories in the 1960s. Intended to be used primarily for educational and household use as a method of storing large amounts of videos and papers without taking up as much space as other media forms.{{Cite web |title=CBS Laboratories |url=http://www.bretl.com/documents/CBSLaboratoriespresskit.pdf |access-date=2025-04-24 |via=bretl.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250423022001/http://www.bretl.com/documents/CBSLaboratoriespresskit.pdf |archive-date=2025-04-23 |url-status=live}}
CBS announced the development of EVR on August 27, 1967.{{cite news |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1967/08/28/page/56/article/new-playback-device-for-tv-viewers |title=New Playback Device for TV Viewers |work=Chicago Tribune |date=August 28, 1967 |pages=2-18}} The 750-foot film was stored on a {{convert|7|in|mm|adj=mid|-diameter}} spool in a plastic cartridge. It used a twin-track 8.75 mm film onto which video signals were transferred by electron beam recording, two monochrome tracks in the same direction of travel.
Some EVR films had a separate chroma track in place of the second program monochrome track for color EVR films. The images stored on an EVR film were visible frames much like motion picture film, and were read by a flying-spot scanner inside an EVR player to be converted to a video signal to be sent to a television set.[http://www.bekers.org/EVR.htm BEKERS' CURIOUS EVR DONATIONS]
EVR was also released by CBS as a professional version for television broadcasting, called BEVR (Broadcast EVR). As a professional medium, the format offered extremely high quality. It was, however, quickly superseded by professional and consumer magnetic tape formats.[http://www.cedmagic.com/history/cbs-evr.html CED in the History of Media Technology, 1969: CBS EVR or Electronic Video Recording System Prototype]
Applications
In 1970 EVR was briefly experimented with as a form of media for part of a potential government mixed media network system{{Cite web |last=Meaney |first=John w. |date=1970 |title=The Implications of a Mixed Media Network for Information Interchange. |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED057864.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150425171313/http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED057864.pdf |archive-date=April 25, 2015 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |website=files.eric.ed.gov}}
In 1975, Nintendo created EVR Race, a horse betting arcade game that used the EVR system to play back video footage of animated{{cite web|title=Rare footage from Nintendo's groundbreaking EVR Race videotape-based arcade game - The Dot Eaters|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG2WQ1i_vO0|website=YouTube}} horse races. Players would place bets on horses, and then view a race in which one of the horses would win. Once the race ended, the player(s) who bet on the winning horse would receive a payout.{{cite web|date=2009-08-07|title=Iwata Asks: Punch-Out!! - The Proposition is to Use Two Televisions|url=http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/punchout/0/0|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111064027/http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/punchout/vol1_page1.jsp|archive-date=January 11, 2010|accessdate=2009-08-07|publisher=Nintendo}}{{cite news |last1=Kohler |first1=Chris |title=Nintendo Has Now Been Making Video Games For 40 Years |url=https://kotaku.com/nintendo-has-now-been-making-video-games-for-40-years-1796650347 |access-date=19 May 2021 |work=Kotaku |date=July 5, 2017 |language=en-us}} EVR Race was Japan's highest-grossing medal game for three years in a row, from 1976 to 1978.{{cite magazine|title=調査対象5年間のベスト1|trans-title=Best 1 of the 5 years surveyed|magazine=Game Machine|issue=159|publisher=Amusement Press, Inc.|date=15 February 1981|page=1|lang=ja|url=https://onitama.tv/gamemachine/pdf/19810215p.pdf}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.terramedia.co.uk/video/evr.htm The quest for home video: EVR]
- [http://www.labguysworld.com/Motorola_EVR.htm LabGuy's World page on EVR]
- [http://www.cbsretirees.com/cbs-evr/page1.html CBS, Photos of EVR]
- [http://www.totalrewind.org/revolution/R_evrsel.htm EVR page on Total Rewind - the Virtual Museum of Vintage VCRs]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB8zQWs89wU Demonstration film of EVR (circa 1969) on youtube.com]
{{Video storage formats}}
{{Commons|Videotape}}
Category:Audiovisual introductions in 1967