Philips N1500 VC30 video cassette with Op Art graphic
introduction to Philips N1500 / N1700 video cassette transfer
The Philips N1500 VCR (1972), was the world's first domestic video cassette recorder. The VCR format used large square cassettes, recording analogue video to half inch (12.7 mm) wide chrome dioxide magnetic tape.
At Greatbear we digitise all standards of VCR tape: VCR, VCR-LP and SVR.
We offer a range of delivery formats for our video transfers. Following International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives TC-06 guidelines, we deliver FFV1 lossless files or 10-bit uncompressed video files in .mkv or .mov containers for archives. We can also produce Apple ProRes mezzanine files for ease of editing. We provide smaller viewing files as H.264 encoded .mp4 files or on DVD. We're happy to create any other digital video files, according to your needs.
We can provide the appropriately-sized USB delivery media for your files, or use media supplied by you, or deliver your files online. Files delivered on hard drive can be for any operating system MacOS, Windows or GNU/Linux and filesystems (HFS+, NTFS or EXT3).
N1500 and N1700 video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.
We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.
For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".
Philips N1500 / N1700 video machines
Philips N1500 / N1700 format variation
Grundig SVR 4004 EL machine
Philips N1500 (top) & Philips N1702 (bottom) machines
Philips N1500 cassette dimensions: 12.7 x 14.5 x 3.8 cm
Philips N1500 / N1700 video tape risks & vulnerabilities
We can resolve most problems that occur with N1500 and N1700 VCR and SVR / SVC tape.
VCR tape brands / models
Common brands / models of VCR tape include: BASF LVC-, BASF SVC- and Philips VC- series tapes.
Philips N1500 / N1700 video recording history
In 1972, Philips released their N1500, the first successful consumer-level home videocassette recorder (VCR) system. Later variants included the N1700 VCR-LP (1977) and Grundig's Super Video (SVR) formats.
As with their revolutionary audio compact cassette mechanism, Philips offered the VCR system mechanism royalty-free to other manufacturers who agreed to maintain the design standard and use the VCR logo.
Read our blog articles: on the Philips N-1502 TV Recorder and Philips VCR – the first home video cassette recorder