"Fairly hard to believe?" Believe it
<grin>!
The tape dates from 1976. It's black and white and was distributed on
U-Matic. While not in the best of condition, I've dubbed it off as an
MPEG 4 for preservation purposes. It may not tell you anything new but
it certainly has novelty value. Oh, and its definitely the same system.
B&W reel to reel goes WAYBACK. I first used it in 1968, and that was with
obsolete equipment.
Sony CV series portable systems gave way to Sony AV series by about 1970.
U-Matic (cassette) came out about 1971
Quasar VX? home cassette units came out about 1976
Betamax and VHS came out about 1977.
"First"??!? depends on whether you mean prototypes (about 1971) or retail
"Best" prob'ly Beta, but that isn't what decides what ends up
dominating
the market (cf. 3" V 3.5" diskettes)
How long before DVD and BluRry are gone?