Due to its familiar controls and operation, the V1 can function as an instant replacement for a video tape recorder of any format, or as an additional recorder/player. It is field accurate and can be controlled from an industry standard RS-422 serial interface using the familiar “Sony 9 pin protocol.” At the same time, the V1 has the advantage of locating immediately to any position on the disk, providing instant access to the video data.

The video data is compressed using DCT compression and recorded along with the audio and the time code address onto the hard disk drive.