Tape For Two

In 58 million homes, the VCR has become nearly as much a part of American life as the family car. But despite the VCR's advantages, video buffs complain about its limits. To duplicate prerecorded movies, for instance, requires two VCRs awkwardly cabled together. No wonder, then, that fans at Chicago's Consumer Electronics Show last week were excited by a new machine that eliminates the drawback. Moreover, its appearance was a triumph over well- wired opposition in Tokyo and Hollywood.

The center of the excitement was the first dual-deck videotape recorder available to U.S consumers, the VCR-2, made by the tiny Arizona-based Go-Video company. The VCR-2 enables its users to make high-quality duplicates of prerecorded tapes easily. It also lets viewers watch a tape while simultaneously recording off the air. Go-Video hopes to have a limited supply of the VCR-2 in stores by Christmastime, priced at just under $1,000.

But the machine's move from freeze-frame to fast-forward has not been easy. For starters, Go-Video could find no Japanese companies, which control manufacture of crucial VCR parts, willing to provide needed components. For another thing, U.S. movie studios opposed the machine. So the company sued 15 Japanese and Korean makers, plus the Hollywood studios, claiming restraint of trade. Several manufacturers have now settled with Go-Video, and Korea's Samsung is tooling up to produce the VCR-2. Meanwhile, Hollywood has modified its opposition because Go-Video agreed to install circuitry that will prevent the VCR-2 from copying movies protected by antitheft coding. Still, moviemakers may see double for a while. Many of the films on store shelves, including hot new rentals like Coming to America and Crocodile Dundee II, do not contain the coding.