VPS, or Video Programming System, is a technology that celebrates its 40th birthday this month. It was developed in Germany by the Munich Institute for Broadcasting Technology (IRT) during a time when the video recorders in VHS or Betamax format were gaining popularity as “time-shifting machines” for watching time-shifted television. However, a major problem with these devices was that the recording of the program was based on a previously programmed timer, which posed a problem when a show ran overtime or other unexpected events occurred.
In order to address this issue, PDC (Programme Delivery Control) was developed in Great Britain, while the IRT worked on VPS in Germany. With VPS, users could enter the start and end times of the program they wanted to record and the electronics in the video recorder would look for the label on the programmed TV channel and only start recording when it was received. The end of the recording was also based on the actual end of the program, not just the planned time.
However, using VPS required a new way of thinking for experienced VCR owners. The usual time allowances were no longer applicable, and every program had to be programmed separately using the official program data. Many recorder manufacturers also had trouble with VPS, and it wasn’t supported by many TV stations, especially private ones. VPS also required an analog TV signal, so the switch to digital broadcasting affected its effectiveness.
Although VPS is still used and supported by fee-paying stations in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, its function is no longer relevant due to the rise of hard drives as the medium of choice for recording programs. Each hard drive has several hours in reserve for potential overcoats, and users can delete superfluous snippets from other programs without a loss in quality.
