Ampex machine's high price tag. Ampex sold only about 50 or 60 ATR-124 machines, and withdrew from the professional audio tape recorder market entirely in 1983. By the 1990s, Ampex focused more on video recorders, instrumentation recorders, and data recorders. In 1991, Ampex sold their professional audio recorder line to Sprague Magnetics. The Ampex Recording Media Corporation spun off in 1995 as Quantegy Inc.; that company has ceased producing recording tape. Starting in the early 1950s, RCA, Bing Crosby and others tried to record analog video on very fast-moving magnetic tape. As early as 1952, Ampex developed prototype video tape recorders
Digital video and Ampex developed prototype digital videotape recorders (VTR) in their research and development labs. Bosch's machine used a modified 1 inch type B videotape transport, and recorded an early form of CCIR 601 digital video. Ampex's prototype digital video recorder used a modified 2 inch Quadruplex videotape VTR (an Ampex AVR-3), but fitted with custom digital video electronics, and a special "octaplex" 8-head headwheel (regular analog 2" Quad machines only used 4 heads). Like standard 2" Quad, the audio on the Ampex prototype digital machine, nicknamed by its developers as "Annie", still recorded the audio in analog as linear tracks