To keep up with the progress of digitization in broadcasting stations, digital VTRs have been put into practical use. They have rapidly come to be used as a replacement for conventional analog VTRs. On the other hand. thanks to the progress of high density recording technology and image-data compression technology,consumer use VTRs have just begun to indicate the posibility of digitization even for Hi-Vision VTRs. This paper reports the present condition of the video recording technology and its prospects, focusing digital VTRs, which have shown remarkable progress in recent years.