COUNTER ASSEMBLY FOR A VIDEO CASSETTE

摘要

A counter assembly (20) for a video cassette (10) for indicating the number of times the program recorded upon the video tape (18) within the cassette (10) has been played. The counter assembly (20) comprises a position indicator arm (28) mounted on the cassette housing (12) and biased by a spring (32) to ride against the cassette take-up reel (16) to follow the diameter of the reel (16) as the video tape (18) is wound and/or unwound therefrom. The position indicator arm (28) mechanically displaces an oscillatory crank arm (38) between a first position at the beginning of the program and a second position at the end of the program. The crank arm (38) drives a counter unit (48) through a relatively loosely engaged escapement mechanism such that the counter unit (48) indexes once each time the program is played substantially in its entirety, while permitting tape rewinding and replaying of relatively short portions of the program without additionally indexing the counter unit (48).