RCA VBT200

Description

The RCA VBT200 is the first VHS video cassette recorder produced by Panasonic (Matsushita Electric) for the North American market. In 1977, Panasonic president Masaharu Matsushita visited RCA in the United States and agreed to supply RCA with VHS VCRs built to RCA's specifications. The VBT200 featured a mechanical rotary tuner and was sold exclusively under the RCA brand name — it was never marketed under the Panasonic name. The VBT200 is closely related to the Panasonic NV-8600 series, differing primarily in the tuner design: the VBT200 uses a rotary tuner while the NV-8600 and NV-8610 variants use push-button tuners.