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In 1964, a team led by Nobutoshi Kihara developed the CV-2000, the world's first VCR intended for home use. This was the first step toward realizing Masaru Ibuka's dream of creating a video player that would be suitable for home use in terms of both size and price.
The CV-2000 was roughly the same size as an audio tape recorder of that time. This VCR, which had two rotary heads, was a reel-to-reel type unit and it reproduced fantastic black and white images. In addition, the price of the CV-2000 was less than one-hundredth a broadcast-use model, and less than one-tenth the price of an institutional model. The machine's key feature was the use of rotary heads, which cost more than static heads. This disproved the commonly held view of many in the industry that rotary heads employed for broadcast and institutional-use models could not be adapted for a home-use VCR. The world gasped in wonder at the picture quality of the new machine, and Kihara could proudly answer previous skeptics by saying,  Technology does not abide by common sense. Our goal is to break down ideas people have come to accept as common sense.
Although manufactured as the first home-use VCR, most of the CV-2000 machines were actually used for medical and industrial purposes before finding their way into schools and, eventually, homes. So in spite of the home-use label, in reality the reel-to-reel type CV-2000, which could record and play back black and white images, proved to be an extremely popular institutional model.
But before long, the Sales Department expressed dissatisfaction with reel-to-reel type black and white VCRs. Sales people requested color models and asked engineers if they could design a VCR that used a cassette tape similar to an audio tape recorder.
As the name reel-to-reel suggests, the reels that hold and wind the tape are separate units located on top of the actual VCR deck. The user has to pull the tape from the supply reel and feed it through the record and playback devices to wind the reel each time to operate the machine. Besides being extremely inconvenient, the process is tricky as the tape can easily be damaged when handled. The use of a cassette tape would eliminate this problem by allowing the user to operate the machine by simply placing the cassette tape in the deck, which would then, automatically run the tape. The move from reel-to-reel to cassette was rapidly occurring in the audiotape industry at this time.
Kihara grumbled, The construction of a VCR is very complex. It will be extremely difficult to build a machine that will use a cassette tape, let alone in color. You don't understand what you are asking the engineers to do! Nevertheless, Ibuka persisted with Kihara; Look how easy audio tape recorders can be used thanks to the cassette tape! Why can't we incorporate this function into video players? This is the obvious next step that has to be taken in the development of this product. Deep down, Kihara knew that Ibuka was right.
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 | The Lunch Box Cassette, one of
Kihara's experimental products. |
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The task then was to incorporate into the VCR deck the hold and play functions into the VCR deck. These functions had previously been performed by the devices on top of the deck. This was to be achieved with a cassette tape that could be used in a similar fashion to those used by audio tape recorders. However, in the case of a VCR, a further mechanism had to be included to automatically pull the tape from the cassette case so that the tape could pass over the drums attached to the record and playback heads. In other words, not only did the VCR have to play a tape housed in a cassette; it had to have an automatic loading function too.
Thus, Kihara and his team recognized three major challenges: to incorporate color, to develop a video cassette tape, and to design an automatic loading function. They developed countless prototypes, but most were unusable. Despite the obstacles, and after many failed attempts, Kihara eventually delivered the first usable prototype in 1968.
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