PRINCIPLES OF

VIDEO TAPE RECORDING

Introduction
Video tape recorder is a most complex piece of studio equipment with analog and digital
processing servo system, microprocessors, memories, logic circuits and mechanical
devices etc. Also these recorders have been the main limitation so for as the quality
output from studio is concerned. Right from fifties, continuous efforts are being made to
improve its performance so as to reproduce cameras faithfully by improving S/ ratio
and resolution. !esigner for video tape recorders had to consider the following
differences in the video and audio signals"
S.o. #tem Audio Recorders Video Recorders
$. %requencies involved &' () to &' *() &' () to + ,()
&. o. of octaves $' $-
.. /iming accuracy not so important very important
0. Recording medium o 1es2
limitation
2 Requires higher writing speed and lower head gap along with reduction in number of
octaves.
Magnetic Principle
3et us refresh ourselves with the magnetic principles,
%ig. $ 4a5 shows current carrying conductor causing a magnetic field proportional to
current.
%ig. $ 4b5 shows current carrying conductor when wound li*e a coil acts li*e a bar
magnet.
%ig.$ 4c5 shows current carrying coil when bent to form a ring, inner field remains
homogeneous but the outer field vanishes, i.e. field lines inside are able
to close.
%ig. $ 4d5 shows ferromagnetic material inserted in side the ring with a narrow air
gap causing a flux bubble because of magnetic potential difference
across the gap.
Associated equations, which we already *now, are"
,agnetic field intensity ( 6 # / 3

,agnetic flux density 7 6

(
,agnetic %lux 86 7A
4

is of the order of $'' to few $',''' for ferromagnetic materials5

9roperty of the ferromagnetic materials to retain magnetism even after the current or the
( is removed is called retentivity and is used for recording electrical signals in magnetic
form on magnetic tapes. /his relationship can also be represented by a curve called 7(
curve. ,agnetic tapes are made of ferromagnetic materials with broader 7( curve than
the material used for video heads as the heads are not required to retain information.
WRITING SPEED AND FREQUENCY RESPNSE
Recording Proce!!
:ith reference to figure $4d5 when a tape is passed over the magnetic flux bubble, the
electric signal in the coil will cause the electric lines of force from the head gap to pass
through the magnetic material of the tape producing small magnets depending upon the
strength of the current. 9olarity of the magnetic field which causes these bar magnets
depends on the change of current. !ecreasing current will cause S magnet and vice
versa. 9ower of these magnets is as per 7( curve. /hus the magnetic flux strengthens
the unarranged magnetic particles as per the signal and they stay in that condition after
the tape has already passed the magnetic head 4fig. &5. 3ength of the magnet thus
formed is directly proportional to writing speed of the head v, and inversely proportional
to the frequency of the signal to be recorded, i.e.
Recorded wavelength for one cycle of signal 6 speed x time
;r :ave length of the magnetic signal tape 6 v / f
Fig" # Recording Proce!!
/hus the problem to be solved in the development of V/Rs was how to provide higher
speed to record very high frequencies
/he other limitation of recording medium is the range, during when the extracted signal
is more than noise. /his range is only $' octaves. /hus the system can no longer be
used for recording/reproduction after this dynamic range of <' db, because of <
d7/octave playbac* response characteristics. 7eyond this range the low frequencies
becomes inaudible and the higher frequencies become distorted.
!uring the initial stages it was tried to record video signal with stationary video heads
and longitudinal trac*s using tape speed of the order of = m/s which was very difficult to
control besides very high tape consumption i.e, miles of tape for . to 0 minutes of
recording and this was coupled with brea*ing of video signal frequencies into $' parts
recorded by $' different video heads and then switched during playbac* to retrieve the
signal. /he quality of the reproduced signal was also compromised up to the resolution
of $.> ,() or so. Around $=+< the ?A,9@AB company of CSA then came out with
Duadruplex machines having two revolutionary ideas which laid the foundation of
present day V/Rs/VERs. /hese ideas were"
$. Rotating Video (eads and
&. %requency ,odulation before recording
Increa!e in $riting !peed %& rotating 'ead
:hen a video head mounted on a rotating head wheel writes on a tape moving across it,
will lay a trac* of length which will depend not only on the speed of the tape but also on
the rotating speed of the head. Single head with diameter d number of rotation per sec
as r and full omega wrap or two heads in F omega wrap i.e. little over $-' degree, which

most of the present day VER are using, will have a writing speed of dr minus or plus
the linear tape speed 4which is negligible as compared to the rotating speed5. /his
avoids the requirements of miles of tape for few minutes of recording in a stationary
head type of recorders tried earlier.
Fre(uenc& Modulation
#t was found difficult to record/reproduce $- octaves of video signal frequencies on a
tape even after increasing the writing speed because of the dynamic range of <' dbs or
$' octaves. /hus another problem for recording video frequencies was to reduce
number of octaves. /his was achieved by modulation. Amplitude modulation is not
suitable because information of output due to tapeGhead contact will appear as
modulation. %requency and pulse modulation system does not have this property.
/hese systems however produce large number of side bands. %or V/Rs where we are
having limitation on the requirement of band width, so we have to use lower modulation
index to reduce side bands of + ,(), as an example for average picture carrier level of
< ,() and modulating signal of + ,(), the side bands will be 4<H+5 ,() and 4<G+5 ,()
i.e $ ,() to $$ ,(). /he octave range of this modulated signal is now only 0. (ence
the octave bands are compressed with frequency requirement enhanced up to $$ ,(I
and the highest at $$ ,(I. /he extinction frequency is now higher but the octave range
has been reduced to 0 only.
Speed And Accurac&
/iming accuracy, as pointed out earlier is especially important for V/Rs as our eyes are
very sensitive to these errors compared to our ears which may not detect these errors in
audio tape recorders. #n order to reduce these timing errors it is important to create
same conditions for the capstan and drum motors of video tape recorders at the time of
playbac*, which were there at the time of recording. /o achieve this, the status of these
motors during recording is written on the tape itself along with the signal, 4called control
Trac)5 and is used during playbac* as one of inputs to the servo system. Servo system
are employed to control various motor, ensure constant tape tension and minimi)e
timing errors. /hese timing errors are further reduced to about + n sec. by using
additional electronics called !igital /ime 7ase Eorrectors 4!/7E5 to ma*e it
synchronous with other video signals li*e studio cameras etc.
Monitoring During Recording
,ost of the video tape recorders provide @lectronics to @lectronics monitoring 4EE
Mode5 at the time of recording. /he video signal is monitored after routing it through all
the signal system electronics of the recorders excluding the video heads and
preamplifiers etc. Some of the recorders also provide simultaneous playbac* for the off
tape monitoring by using additional heads during recording called con*idence 'ead!"
/hus the V/Rs could achieve wider frequency range with"
a5 %aster writing speed
b5 Smaller gap, and
c5 ;ctave band compression with frequency modulation.
Also achieving accurate speed for motors with servo system reduces the timing errors.
Pla& %ac) proce!!
!uring play bac* when the recorded tape is passed over the head gap at the same
speed at which it was recorded, flux lines emerging from the tape on crossing the head
gap induce voltage in the coil proportional to the rate of change of flux, i.e. d/dt and this
in turn depends on the frequency of the recorded signal. !oubling of frequency causes
voltage to increase by < d7. /his accounts for the well *nown < d7/octave playbac*
characteristics of the recording medium. /his holds good only up to a certain limit
thereafter at very high frequencies, lot of losses ta*e place during playbac* and
recording process causing noise to be more than the signal itself. #t may be noted that
when the gap becomes equal to the wavelength of the recorded signal, two adJoining bar
magnets may produce opposite current during playbac* and the output becomes )ero.
Similar thing happens when the gap equals &, . Kn. times the wavelength. %irst
extinction frequency occurs when gap becomes equal to wavelength. %or getting
maximum output, head gap has to be one half of wavelength. %requency at which )ero
output occurs is called extinction frequency 4%ig. .5. /hus the maximum usable
frequency becomes half of the extinction frequency. /hese parameters are related by "
gap head x &
speed writing
length wave
v
%
&
%
5 ,C% 4 frequency usable ,aximum
ext
ext
=
= =
since record on tape 6 head gap for %ext
Fig" + Pla&%ac) Proce!!
So in order to record the higher frequencies we must increase the writing speed for a
minimum value of wave length recorded on tape i.e. tape. /his minimum value of
tape is again restricted by the minimum practically possible head gap.
ow the ratio of video and audio frequencies is approximately .'', so we must increase
the writing speed or reduce the gap by the same factor of .'' to get the desired results.

9erhaps a speed of <' mph will be required to cope with the higher video frequencies.
Leeping in mind the practical limitations a gap of the order of '.'&+ mil and writing
speed of <'' ips or $+ mtrs/sec approx. 4/he requirement of portable machines
demands reduction in writing speed to achieve lower tape consumption. So it is always
a compromise or balance between various parameters involved. %or most of the present
day portable machines, higher performance specification even at lower writing speed
has been possible because of development of better quality metal tape and
improvement in video heads5 for V/RS 4compared to '.+ mil and >.+ ips for audio
recorders5 has been found practical and tried successfully. #f we insert these figures in
the aboveGmentioned relationship we get ,C% or the order of $< ,(). /his means that
with these parameters we can obtain a usable bandwidth for video tape recorders up to
- ,(). 7esides the requirement of attaining higher writing speed and reduced gap the
other limitation of recording medium is the range, during which the extracted signal is
more than noise. /his range is only $' octaves.