The CBS/Fox Company (Duplicator)

History
This arm was originally established in 1967 as Magnetic Video Corporation. Initially, it was only an audio duplication facility. It became a video duplication facility in 1977, when it was expanded to become a home entertainment distributor. The arm was renamed to The CBS/Fox Company, a joint venture between CBS and 20th Century-Fox, in late 1982, shortly after the home entertainment subsidiaries of the former company and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were split, alongside Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's acquisition of United Artists from Transamerica.

List of Customers

 * CBS/Fox Video (1977-1987)
 * CBS Video Library (1982-1987)
 * Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment (1981)
 * MCA Videocassette, Inc. (1980)
 * Paramount Home Video (1979-1981)
 * Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical Company (1987)
 * Walt Disney Home Video (1987)
 * Worldvision Home Video (1982-1987)

How to Tell

 * Tapes that were duplicated at Magnetic Video Corporation would have "MAG1" engraved on the back of the tape.
 * 1984 tapes duplicated at CBS/Fox would have engraving on the right side of the tape that says "CBS FOX."
 * 1985-1987 tapes duplicated at CBS/Fox would have printings on the bottom middle side, including a day-year code that is read in either Day/Y0, Day/Y or Day/YY.
 * For example, if the day-year code reads "16550", that means the tape was printed on the 165th day of 1985.
 * Invisible dark ink printings and white barcode stickers on the left side of the tape began in 1986, with the code switched over from "DayY0" to "DayY." VCA/Technicolor continued these printing methods during the next three years, following its acquisition of CBS/Fox's duplication facility and name change to Technicolor Videocassette in 1987.
 * Sometimes, from early 1989 to late 1990, the code would read something like "18789." On some tapes, the code is kind of visible.
 * In addition to the above mentioned printings, SP mode tapes would have a code on the left (prior to 1986) or the right (after 1986) of the vertical-blanking interval that begins with "MV-GARD", "MAG", or "MAGVID" (pre-1982), "FOXVID" (1982-1986) or "CFV" (1986-1987). VCA/Technicolor continued this code method, rather beginning with "TVC," for the next one decade, following its acquisition of CBS/Fox's duplication facility and name change to Technicolor Videocassette in 1987 and Technicolor Video Services in 1993.
 * Most tapes printed after January 31, 1990, more than two years after Technicolor's acquisition of CBS/Fox's duplication facility, would have an engraving on the left or right side that indicates the company that distributed it, identical to the engraving on either side of tapes duplicated at Technicolor in Newbury Park and New York City. This never applied to tapes released by CBS/Fox.



Locations

 * Farmington Hills, Michigan (1967-1986) (moved to Livonia)
 * Livonia, Michigan (1986-1987)