By Michael E. Long, Manager, CATV RF Product Engineering, Zenith Electronics Corporation
The home VCR and "Video Store" are considered by many to be a prime competitive force to Cable TV. However, the VCR is here to stay and must be considered as a factor in the Cable TV system design_ With proper marketing, promotion and equipment design, the VCR can be less of a problem and more of an opportunity. To accomplish this, the VCR must be integrated into the home equipment configuration as a supplement to the CATV service. Through consumer education and the installation of a user friendly interface product, the subscriber can remain satisfied that the Cable TV Company is not taking away the usefulness of his own home equipment.
This paper investigates various RF switching approaches to the VCR interface problem, analyzes their "user friendliness" and suggests a VCR- Baseband "afterburner" decoder or a novel RF frequency multiplexing device as the ultimate solution.