RCA VBT-200

Description

The RCA VBT-200 is the first VHS video cassette recorder produced by Panasonic (Matsushita Electric) for the North American market, and the debut model in RCA's VB series. 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 VBT-200 featured a mechanical rotary tuner, 2-head video, mono audio, and playback/recording speeds of SP and LP. It was sold exclusively under the RCA brand name and was never marketed under the Panasonic name. The VBT-200 is closely related to the Panasonic NV-8600 series, differing primarily in tuner design: the VBT-200 uses a rotary tuner while the NV-8600 and NV-8610 variants use push-button tuners.