As a real VCR enthusiast, I've done a little research on the early formats of VCR and during the 70's there were a number of different formats such as the U-Matic, Betamax, Vcord, Quasar, Cartrivision, Philips VCR, National/Panasonic VCR format and others but a lot of the time during the 70's only blank tapes were sold so you tape your favourite shows. However there were TV shows sold on cartrivision format in the early 70's but I'm not sure if they were movies.

The question is, when were movies first released on videotape? And when were movie video rental stores first came around?

Also I know there were VHS movies, Betamax movies and possibly Philips Video 2000 movies, but were movies ever sold on the earlier formats?