LabGuy's World: Extinct Loewe-Opta Video Equipment Directions:  For a larger view of any image, click on the small image. To return, click your browser's back button.  Optacord-500: Vintage; 1961. Loewe Optacord 500, the first video recorder designed for home use*, attracts a lot of attention at the Broadcasting Exhibition in Berlin.  (Format not specified) Photo & info: Loewe History (* Every video company seems to claim to have made the first home VTR. ~LabGuy) Optacord-600: New! Vintage; 1965. This appears to be a fully packaged, earlier version of the machine that follows. The text on the back side of this picture reads: New York, NY. . . . HOME ENTERTAINMENT CENTER OF 1965. . . . Shown as part of a regular console television set, the Optacord 600 (r), first slow speed home video tape recorder, will be sold in the U.S. by Video-Medical Electronics Corp. next year. Recorder, which will tape programs directly from the television set, will sell for about $2500. Photo and info: John Fletcher N3NFO. Optacord-650: Vintage; 1968. A new portable video tape recorder was demonstrated recently by Video-Medical Electronics Corp. of New York. Excellent quality TV pictures which had been recorded off the air and from a CCTV camera were played back through a conventional TV set to which the recorder was wired. The pictures had good stability and were free from interference. Unlike some other recorders designed for home use which we have seen, this recorder operates at the slow speed of only 6 IPS. This speed is possible because Of the use of a single rotating head which scans the one inch video tape in a helical manner. The machine, manufactured by Loewe-Opta A.G. of West Germany, is expected to be on the U.S. market near the end of this year (1968) at under $3,000. Text and photo: Electronics World Magazine, November, 1968. Optacord-700: New! Vintage; 1971. The era of video recorders begins with the full color, easy to operate Loewe VCR Optacord 700 Color featuring a specially designed automatic tracking control. (VCR Format according to Michael Bennet.) Photo & info: Loewe History [HOME]......[CATALOG INDEX] Last updated: January 09, 2005