Talk:VHS/FAQ

Why does this article insist that VHS stands for "Video Home System"? I've found several sources claiming the acronym stands for "Vertical Helical Scan".

While there are possibly several meanings for the acronym, JVC, the company that invented VHS, as well as the two chief engineers who worked on the project, have mentioned (see references in the main article) that "Video Home System" is the original interpretation. Literally etched in stone, a plaque commemorating the invention of VHS at JVC can be found mentioning "Video Home System" as the meaning at the entrance hall of of the VHS Commemorative Hall in the JVC Yokosuka Plant, 58-4, Shinmei-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-8550, Japan. The hall is open to the public by appointment. The actual text is as follows:

“ At the Yokohama Plant of Victor Company of Japan, Limited, a team of engineers headed by Shizuo Takano and Yuma Shiraishi developed VHS (Video Home System) format. They looked ahead to the need for home video tape recorders and embodied their idea in unique inventions. The first model JVC HR-3300 was announced on 9 September 1976. Their basic design with subsequent improvement gained wide customer acceptance. VHS became the world standard for home video tape recorders. ”

Further evidence shows that JVC defined the VHS acronym as early as 1971, when the company published an internal document titled VHS Development Matrix; the VHS acronym was chosen even before key components and methods of the technology were chosen. Now that Google hosts the entire collection on Popular Science magazine - a prestigious technical source on-line, five different issues ranging between 1977 and 1984 reference VHS as "Video Home System" (same kind of search for "Vertical Helical Scan" came up with zero matches.)

Despite the documented evidence mentioned earlier, it appears that in later years, European pundits attempted to push "Vertical Helical Scan" as its meaning. Some say that this is how VHS records video. However, VHS' actual operation contradicts this belief, as VHS uses a slant azimuth recording method - a helical scan method that produces a diagonal video track, and not a vertical track which is impossible to do when the tape is moving past the tape head at a constant speed. Other pundits say that "Vertical Helical Scan" was the original meaning, and JVC changed the meaning later on. Again, the slant azimuth recording, M-loading, and many other aspects of VHS was already chosen during development of the Matrix. Despite these findings, many secondary sources stemming from European influence subscribe to the "vertical" meaning, even though no documented proof in the form of magazines or other academic material from the 1970s or 1980s have been presented. All sources citing this meaning can only be found on-line, all are dated post-2000, and none cite resources dating back to the 1970s/1980s.

Bottom line, when weighing the resources, the manufacturer, the chief engineers, as well as an overwhelming consensus of sources from both the East and West, "Video Home System" is what this article will use.