Panasonic bought Quasar from Motorola lock, stock, & barrel, so they own it completely and fully control its fate (i.e., using the Quasar sub-brand to test the waters with a third early VCR format known as "The VX1000 Great Time Machine"). All the other "Panasonic" lookalikes (RCA, Magnavox, etc) were made under OEM license for those brand names.Back in the early superheated VCR days, Panasonic was "hired" by a great number of famous TV brands to make their VHS VCRs for them, while those brands continued making their own TVs (or had other OEM arrangements in place). As jjeff and I and others have discussed here several times, none of this would have happened had Sony not told RCA to go scratch when RCA requested 120 minute and extended recording speeds be added to the 1-hour Beta standard as a condition of offering an RCA BetaMax. When Sony said no, Panasonic jumped on the opportunity and offered RCA a 4-hour (LP) recording speed, in defiance of VHS inventor JVC. The rest is history: in the late 1970s RCA was *the* TV brand in USA, so whatever tape format RCA licensed would become the de facto standard no matter who got there "first" (much like the first IBM PC pulled the rug out from under early leader the Apple II within a matter of months). Beta was as good as dead from the moment Sony arrogantly showed RCA the door instead of negotiating intelligently.Once RCA bought into VHS, everyone else lined up and subcontracted Panasonic to make their VCRs as well, including Magnavox, Sylvania, Curtis Mathes, etc. The only American TV brand stupid enough to go with Sony instead was Zenith, which came to its senses a few years later and became one of the first spinoffs of the separate JVC VHS design. By the mid-1980s, portable "convertible" VHS became the rage, and the OEM market splintered into a confusing mess. At one point RCA's "convertible" was the hottest video product on the planet, but was made for RCA by Hitachi instead of Panasonic, for a time making RCA a brand divided. The success of the "convertible" eventually led RCA to abandon Panasonic for all models and move to Hitachi. When RCA went to hell in a handbasket some years later, all its TVs and VCRs were made by Funai (which had also bought Magnavox/Sylvania).At the peak of the VCR business, Panasonic had the OEM VHS contracts for all the TV and dept store brands except RCA (which moved to Hitachi) and Zenith (who went with JVC). Panasonic also had photography brand Canon, while Hitachi took Minolta. The famous stereo audio brands all went with JVC as VHS supplier, except Fisher which had been bought by Sanyo, and Akai & Aiwa who went rogue (Pioneer went with Sony SuperBeta). NEC and Toshiba made their own distinct VCRs and for awhile offered both formats simultaneously until settling on VHS. The Toshiba and NEC "HiFi BetaMaxes" were really interesting, offering a definite alternative to Sony for discerning video hobbyists. Sharp & Mitsubishi went to the extremes of the VHS market, Sanyo tried Beta and its own V-Cord before concentrating
