What does VHS stand for?

Malaflam · February 28, 2003, 7:09pm

What does VHS stand for?
As in the tape format…not Vermont Historical Society or Virtual High School.

Q.E.D · February 28, 2003, 7:17pm

Video Home Standard

Malaflam · February 28, 2003, 7:21pm

Thank you much!

Amp · February 28, 2003, 7:30pm

Eight minutes. That some sort of record?

shunt · February 28, 2003, 7:30pm

That’s funny. www.acronymfinder.com says:

Vertical Helix Scan (video cassette format/technology)

yoyodyne · February 28, 2003, 7:40pm

Venice High School!

yawndave · February 28, 2003, 7:42pm

I thought it was Video Home System.

Q.E.D · February 28, 2003, 7:42pm

VHS

My mistake, the S stands for System, not Standard.

Ximenean · February 28, 2003, 7:51pm

IIRC it was originally Vertical Helical Scan (because the video head rotates, following a spiral path relative to the moving tape). Later they started calling it Video Home System. Maybe Marketing thought Vertical Helical sounded too technical. Next: What does DVD stand for?

shunt · February 28, 2003, 7:52pm

Sorry, it’s vertical helix scan. But you can call it Video Home System all you want. Do a google search. JVC created the technology in 1976.

http://www.jayden12.com/dvd/

From the link:

“The next revolution was the preservation and replication of moving video. The VHS tape (Vertical Helix Scan) was the first form of mass production video media that was available for public use. The next development was the audio Compact Disc that was introduced in 1982 by Sony.”

shunt · February 28, 2003, 7:53pm

Thanks for the clarification Usram.

DarrenS · February 28, 2003, 8:41pm

I’ll bite - DVD = Digital Video Disc, originally Digital Versatile Disc.

troub · February 28, 2003, 8:48pm

That would make sense to me, since I don’t think “Video Home System” makes any sense at all. Sounds like they came up with a technical acronym, started using it, and then thought, “No, that’s too geeky, what else could VHS stand for?” Otherwise, I think they would have called it Home Video System, don’t you?

By the way, as far as I know, DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc.

racekarl · February 28, 2003, 8:50pm

Close, but you have it backwards, it was Digital Video disk first, then “they” changed it to versatile.

Blown_Injected · February 28, 2003, 9:11pm

thanks for the link shunt - comes in handy for the stuff i’m working on right now.

Sofa_King · February 28, 2003, 9:14pm

Virtual Hentai System

Q.E.D · March 1, 2003, 12:01am

I emailed JVC to get the Straight Dope. Right from the horse’s mouth:

[sub]Some info edited for privacy.[/sub]

Mikahw · March 1, 2003, 12:19am

Not according to this FAQ (section 1.1.1) that says the official answer is that it doesn’t stand for anything anymore.

Derleth · March 1, 2003, 12:54am

And IBM does not, contrary to popular myth, stand for International Business Machines, but rather for Inferior Blowup Monsters.

Someone from DEC told me so.

Mangetout · March 1, 2003, 12:58am

While we’re here, I’ll just mention that I’m told the ‘DX’ in DX coding (the standard for the panel of conductive squares on film cansiters) doesn’t stand for anything at all. Don’t ask for a cite; I read this in a photography magazine years ago and I can’t find any support or denial of the idea.