JVC , Japan in 1927 as the Japanese subsidiary of the U.S. firm, Victor Talking Machine Company. JVC was founded in 1927 in Yokohama as "The Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan, Limited," a subsidiary of the United States' leading phonograph and record company, the Victor Talking Machine Company. In 1929, majority ownership was transferred to RCA-Victor. In the 1930s, JVC produced phonographs and records. In 1932, JVC began producing radios, and in 1939 Japan's first locally-made television. JVC severed relations with RCA Victor during World War II. Today the record company in Japan is known as Victor Entertainment.
Post-war
Born as a company that manufactured phonographs, JVC pressed the first record in Japan, offering a rare combination of hardware and software production capability. Subsequently, as evidenced by the production of the world’s first VHS video deck, JVC developed into a leading technological innovator in the audio/video industry, creating new products that are a step ahead of the times for a worldwide audience.
Kenjiro Takayanagi, the “father of TV” who in 1926 became the first in the world to successfully project an image onto a cathode ray tube, joined JVC after World War II. He was involved in the commercialization of color TVs and the development of the two-head helical scan system, which later became the foundation for videocassette recorders.
Having made Japan’s first domestically manufactured phonograph “victorola” in 1930, JVC continued on by producing Japan’s first EP record as well as Japan’s first stereo record player, pursuing the realistic reproduction of sound sources and sound fields, through both hardware and software. Breakthroughs included the development of the 45/45 stereo record system and innovations in two-head videotape recorders and four-channel audio systems.
The world’s first VHS format video recorder, which was developed by JVC and introduced in 1976, eventually became the de facto world standard for video, and spawned an entirely new cultural phenomenon based on visual communication. JVC innovations in video continued, with the introduction in 1984 of the world’s first single unit video camera/recorder and in 1995 with the introduction of the world’s first pocket-sized digital video camcorder.
In 1953, JVC became majority-owned by the Panasonic Corporation. Panasonic released its ownership in 2007. In 2008, JVC merged with Kenwood Corporation to create JVC Kenwood Holdings.
In the 1960s, JVC established the Nivico (Nippon Victor Corporation) brand for Delmonico's line of console televisions and stereos.
In 1970, JVC marketed the Videosphere, a portable cathode ray tube (CRT) television inside a space-helmet-shaped casing with an alarm clock at the base. It was a commercial success.
In 1971, JVC introduced the first discrete system for four channel quadraphonic sound on vinyl records - CD-4 (Compatible Discrete Four Channel) or Quadradisc, as it was called by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in the United States.
In 1975, JVC introduced the first combined portable battery-operated radio with inbuilt TV, as the model 3050. The TV was a 3-inch (7.6 cm) black-and-white cathode ray tube. One year later, JVC expanded the model to add a cassette-recorder, as the 3060, creating the world's first boombox with radio, cassette and TV.
In 1976, the first VCR to use VHS was the Victor HR-3300, and was introduced by the president of JVC at the Okura Hotel on September 9, 1976.[3][4] JVC started selling the HR-3300 in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan on October 31, 1976.[3] Region-specific versions of the JVC HR-3300 were also distributed later on, such as the HR-3300U in the United States, and HR-3300EK in the United Kingdom.
1980s and the VHS/Betamax format war.
JVC's VHS tape won over Betamax to become common home recording format.
In the late 1970s, JVC developed the VHS format, introducing the first VHS recorders to the consumer market in 1976 for the equivalent of US $1060. Sony, which had introduced the Betamax home videocassette tape a year earlier, became the main competitor for JVC's VHS format into the 1980s, creating the videotape format war. The Betamax cassette was smaller, with slightly superior picture quality to the VHS cassette, but this resulted in Betamax having less recording time. The two companies competed fiercely to encourage others to adopt their format, but by 1984 forty companies were using JVC's VHS format, while only 12 used Betamax. Sony began producing VHS recorders in 1988 and after 1993 stopped making Betamax recorders for the US market, and then completely in 2002.
