1 inch Type C (designated Type C by SMPTE) is a professional helical scan open-reel videotape format co-developed and introduced by Ampex and Sony in 1976. It became the replacement in the professional video & television broadcast industries for the then incumbent Quadruplex (2 inch Quad for short) open-reel format, due to the smaller size & slightly higher video quality of 1 inch type C VTR.
1 inch Type C is capable of "trick-play" functions such as still, shuttle, and variable-speed playback - slow motion. 2 inch Quad lacked these capabilities, due to the segmented manner in which it recorded video tracks onto the tape. Also, 1 inch Type C VTRs required much less maintenance (and used less power & space) than did 2 inch Quad. Despite being a composite format like U-matic or VHS, 1 inch Type C has very high video quality, approaching the quality of component analog videotape formats like Betacam. The quality and reliability of 1 inch Type C made it a mainstay in television & professional video for almost 20 years, before being supplanted by more compact formats like Betacam, DVCAM, D-1, D-2 and DVCPro.

We use Sony BVH-2000's for any PAL transfers. Please contact us if you have a NTSC format tape, we have access to Ampex NTSC machines through an affiliated company