Development of a high-density magnetic recording system for a consumer VCR using an MR head

We present a new consumer VCR format, MICROMV, and a higher density recording technique. Applying the MR head to a helical-scan tape recorder, we have successfully recorded at an areal density of 0.8 Gb/in/sup 2/ making it possible to store 6.5 GB of data on a small cassette of 12 cc volume. We also report a technique of electric-power transmission through a rotary drum and a method to compensate for the amplitude asymmetry of the MR head output signal.