What is that telephone sounding beeping at the end of VHS tapes?

Question

After the feature is over and the screen goes black, just before the tape stops and rewinds - whats the deal with that beeping that sounds like someone punching numbers on a touchtone telephone? What is that?

Answer 1

The tone is used during the video cassette duplicatiing process. They use a long reel of tape to record hundreds of copies of the video.

As it is an automated copying system, the tone simply tells the mastering equipment it has finished one copy and where the tape can be cut and and reeled into a video cassette shell.

I have some very old audio cassettes (duplicated using the same system, it is after all magnetic tape like video) that have some audio tones at the start and end of each tape.

The audio cassette tone system is called 'XDR', not sure what the VCR version is called.

Answer 2

I don't remember ever hearing that.  Has it really been that long since I've watched a VHS tape?