How They Sold Us Home Video Recorders In 1970. Do You Remember The Pitch?

I had every one of these machines and really couldn't have done what I did without them. Today as an independent documentary filmmaker and KZbin Creator, I still can't do without video. I love that I can record what I see and hear so easily and with such extraordinary quality. With only a GoPro and a separate microphone I can record nearly professional quality. Certainly the results are good enough for presentation on my KZbin channel.
But back when this video was made as a report on home video recorders, although I had one of these Umatic (we call them three-quarter inch) machines (in fact I had a dozen of them), I still preferred 16mm film primarily for the look of it and also I just liked the feeling of touching and editing 16mm film.
The marketing strategies used to promote home video recorders were largely centered around the idea of bringing the cinema experience to the home. U-matic and VHS were the two primary home video recording formats available in the 1970s. They used marketing to promote these formats including product demos, Advertisements on TV and in print (the ads featured sleek designs and emphasized the convenience of watching movies at home), promotions - (like free movie rentals or discounts on movies with the purchase of a home video recorder), plus rental stores like Blockbuster and Video Rental promoted to encourage people to rent movies to watch on their home video recorders.
In addition movie studios released movies on U-matic and VHS formats. Manufacturers offered home installation services that helped consumers set up their home video recorder including providing instructions on how to use the recorder and helping consumers connect the recorder to their TV.
As a young filmmaker I began recording TV shows and family members. I also recorded people for my documentaries when I didn't really care about the look of film. And yet today, without those old umatic videotapes that I recorded (which I have now digitized), I wouldn't have anywhere near as huge an archive as I do of content that I filmed or recorded from various media venues or was given to me by other filmmakers.
U-matic is an analogue recording videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and was introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, as opposed to the various reel-to-reel or open-reel formats of the time.
Sony originally intended it to be a videocassette format oriented at the consumer market. This proved to be something of a failure because of the high manufacturing cost and resulting retail price of the format's first VCRs. But the cost was affordable enough for industrial and institutional customers, where the format was very successful for such applications as business communication and educational television. As a result, Sony shifted U-Matic's marketing to the industrial, professional, and educational sectors.
A recurring problem with the format which I still experience frequently when I attempt to digitize my old videotapes is damage to the videotape caused by prolonged friction of the spinning video drum heads against a paused videotape. The drum would rub oxide off the tape or the tape would wrinkle; when the damaged tape was played back, a horizontal line of distorted visual image would ascend in the frame, and audio would drop out. The format video image also suffered from head-switching noise, a distortion of the image in which a section of video at the bottom of the video frame would be horizontally askew from the larger portion.
Audio quality was compromised due to the use of longitudinal audio tape heads in combination with slow tape speed. Sony eventually implemented Dolby noise reduction circuitry (using Dolby C) to improve audio fidelity.
U-matic tapes were used by professional broadcast television systems and by independent filmmakers partially because it was so easy to transport and set up the equipment. Several big-time Hollywood movies have surviving copies in this form. The first rough cut of Apocalypse Now for example, survived on three U-Matic cassettes.
Some television facilities the world over still have a U-matic recorder for archive playback of material recorded. For example, the Library of Congress facility in Culpeper, Virginia holds thousands of titles on U-matic video as a means of providing access copies and proof for copyright deposit of old television broadcasts and films.
If you found this of interest, please click the Super Thanks button below the video screen. Your support allows me to pay professional rates and get more and more of my thousands of my old videotapes digitized.

[@psikeyhackr6914]

I didn't buy a VCR until 1987 to record Star Trek The Next Generation and skip commercials on playback. A remote control on a wire! How stone age!

[@johnnyrottenpiss]

I love TNG. I've been getting clips suggested by KZbin lately. I'm thinking about rewatching the entire series.

[@psikeyhackr6914]

@@johnnyrottenpiss I have probably watched every episode at least 3 times. Some like Cause and Effect where the Enterprise kept getting destroyed in a time loop more than that. I do not think I have ever gone back and watched the entire series from beginning to end. DS9 is my fav though.

[@misters2837]

Our first VCR - VHS - had a remote on a wire...with ONE switch...Play (or record) / Pause...It was handy for taking out commercials so you could have the movie for years.

[@psikeyhackr6914]

@@misters2837 If I remember correctly mine had a rocker switch, fast forward and reverse. I would fast forward thru commercials and overshoot then reverse to the end of the last commercial. Episodes were 45 minutes I think. By Enterprise they were 42 minutes. The Original Star Trek was 50 minutes including a 1 minute preview of next week's episode.

[@EddyOfTheMaelstrom]

​@@johnnyrottenpiss best television show ever.

[@karenh2890]

I know my husband and I purchased our first VCR around 1984 or 85. It was so wonderful to record shows and watch them when you had the time. And skip through the commercials!

[@JWF99]

I can barely remember when they came out with 4 head vcr's, at the time, it seemed like such a big deal, also remember they had standard play, longplay, & extra longplay settings on them, you could record up to 6hrs on one cassette, but the quality was so compromised it was never worth it! Haven't thought about that stuff in quite awhile! Thanks David✌

[@TroubleToby3040]

I'm NOT disagreeing with you about the quality, but we used to record almost exclusively on long or extra-long play. We couldn't resist the economy. We had three films on every tape. 🤷‍♂ Also, as I recall, it wasn't that the quality was immediately much worse, it was that the picture deteriorated quickly with time. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I remember. 👍👍👍

[@JWF99]

@@TroubleToby3040 oh yea, absolutely! I lived most of my younger life on a budget! And I did the same exact thing, we had 3 movies on every single tape, and there's still stacks of them somewhere in one of our closets! It's just as I recall it, I can't swear to my memory these days, that's for sure! 😂 (just the best I can remember) the quality of them seemed to me to be nowhere near as good as the one's we recorded on standard play, now maybe it was mostly bc of the cheaper brand names of blank vhs tapes we bought? Possibly, Idk? You're also right about time taking it's toll on them, however our home videos of vacations and kids b-day's etc, were always on extra longplay too I'd say? And they seemed great especially at 1st, even compared to our recorded movies, for some reason? Who knows? But I doubt they're even watchable now, I don't own a Vcr these days, haven't had one in years✌

[@TroubleToby3040]

@@JWF99 I imagine you're right on all points... I don't want to get in a battle of one-upmanship, but your memory couldn't be any worse than mine. Mine is Swiss cheese, now. Good reminiscing, though. 👍😉

[@JWF99]

@@TroubleToby3040 For sure ToubleToby, you have a good evening, and thanks✌

[@GregoryTheGr8ster]

Also, I am glad that Chris Hawkins survived his injustice with Teac. His story is truly inspirational!

[@JustinBeller]

Growing up, my friend's family had a Betamax. The rest of us had VCRs. If we hung out at his house to watch movies, one of us had to lug over our VCR with VHS movies so we could be entertained. Otherwise, we were stuck with the same two movies he had on Beta. I can't remember what those two movies were, but we didn't want to watch them because they were boring. I asked him why he had a Betamax, and he said it was because they got it as a gift.

[@jacobm617]

You do realize that pretty much every movie released on VHS was also released on Betamax through about 1985? A steady stream of movies continued to be released on Beta until around 1990. Even into the early 90's movies could still be purchased on Beta through special order. Movies continued to be released on Beta until around 1996.

[@JustinBeller]

@@jacobm617 I was aware, but my friend and his family apparently were not. By the way, all the VHS movies the rest of us had were recorded off of HBO and Movie Channel. I was the one who had cable and recorded movies like an insane person. The VCR I had was constantly recording and I was one of those rare people in my town, at a young age, who knew how to program a VCR. Everybody else had their's flashing 12, 12, 12.....

[@zulubob5824]

What a great story!

[@BlakeNaftel]

It's enjoyable viewing this promotional tape about the incoming VCR tech of the 1980's. Like yourself, I'm both an archivist and independent filmmaker, but started with video first and later moved into Super 8 and 16mm film by the mid/late 1990's. I was thankful for the ease of editing that VCR's eventually provided, even if quality substantially degraded over tape generations depending on the format used. The addition of flying erase heads to most decks was a lifesaver for anyone doing complex/clean edits before the shift to digital in the 2000's. While multimedia editing is far better quality now, for anyone whom experienced the tape/A/B deck-to-deck era, it was a very tactile process (similar to film) that while unforgiving at times, gave cutting a news story or program a far more exhilarating (or aggravating depending on the machine) experience. I still have a functional Sony VO-5600, although most of my 3/4" tapes have been transferred, the few I still have around from the 1980's play great, even at the 40+ year mark. Thanks for the video, David!

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

I knew people, when I was a kid, who had Betamax. For some reason, everyone looked like Claymation in those movies. It was the strangest look. You also couldn't get movies over two hours long on Betamax, unless it had been edited. We had a first generation VCR in my high school. It was a relic, by the time I got to high school. It was a top loader, fake wood paneling, with these odd, toggle-like buttons to depress for the various functions. My Ancient History teacher was showing some program or another, taped off the television, and he had to fast forward through a commercial. As the commercial showed on the screen at a speed barely faster than regular play, my teacher quipped, "This thing is amazing. It whips through a minute-long commercial in 58 seconds!" (As an aside, the teacher's name was Larry Hunt, and he was the son of the big band leader, Pee-Wee Hunt. Oh, the stories he told!)

[@RCRWJR]

Did he have a brother named MIKE

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

@Rob C Nope. But he made jokes all the time about that, in reference to his son ("That kid's lucky I didn't name him Mike...") Years later, that son died in 9/11, unfortunately.

[@idahoplatypus7013]

1981, fresh out of tech college and I was busy cleaning and repairing VCR's. Gezz 😂

[@Gurl-5150]

I remember a rich family that my cousin Nannied for back in 1983 thar had a machine that was very similar to a VCR but the movies were the size of albums but were square and they had E.T., Annie, Grease, and Tootsie. There were probably others but we were in HEAVEN when we got to visitor there!!

[@africanfartingfrog]

Laserdisc

[@timf-tinkering]

@@africanfartingfrog Laserdiscs aren't square. CED seems more likely.

[@Swampzoid]

Good report. They didn't sugarcoat it. They expressed how expensive, lack of available movies and Sony being sued by Disney.

[@matthewfarmer2520]

Nice to see another video from you David, it a gem what you have. Thanks for sharing.🙂🎥

[@johnnyrottenpiss]

My family bought the Sony Betamax in the early 80s. When the local video rental store was liquidating their beta inventory (because they decided to no longer offer them), our family bought a bunch of them. It must have been upwards of 400 videos. It's likely that my parents still have all of them (and the player) somewhere.

[@auntissie]

Why does this seem SO much older than 1981!! Oh, the hilarity!! 😂

[@larrybud]

well, it IS 42 years ago!!

[@auntissie]

@@larrybud listen Sonny, when you get to my age, 42 years ago was LAST WEEK! You'll find out if you're lucky enough to live this long!! 💕

[@jamesmccarthy5086]

My dad used to have a vcr like that he’d record things with. I still have many of the old tapes of his they were cool

[@idiotwind2248]

Reminds me , I gotta return these tapes to Blockbuster

[@keithe.bilitsky833]

I really enjoyed your description ( write up). In the late seventies I was working on a fishing boat and was making an obscene amount of money, I don't remember what year it was, but my fir VCR cost me almost $ 500. It was an exciting time for me. I had my on phone at 12, was able to buy a $1000 stereo. I was the envy of my peers, every body wanted to be my friend. I don't know about you but the 60's, 70's and 80's were the best years of my life. What happened ??? Thanks for your videos, they bring back great memories and they make you think.

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

Keith: Thank you for your comment. If your resources allow, I would sure appreciate your using the THANKS button under any of my videos including the one you have commented on. It is something new that KZbin is beta testing and would mean a great deal for my continuing efforts. David Hoffman filmmaker

[@michaelt8682]

what happened is that you were young, and now youre not!

[@mattkaustickomments]

One of my relatives worked overseas with a “colony” of other Americans in the late 70s/early 80s. To entertain himself and colleagues and keep them culturally connected to America, he sent a VCR to us to record VHS tapes and mail them to him. The tapes would pass through the American families and then be returned to us to re-record new programming. When we got the machine, friends would come over just to look at it. It was huge and had big dials and faux wood paneling. It was way beyond our family’s means. We learned later that our family was considered “angels” by the other families for helping with homesickness and for our programming choices - a lot of which was PBS. I can almost guarantee Mr. Hoffman’s work was included in the programming.

[@GalactusOG]

81 was the greatest year of the 20th century.

[@geraldfarr8279]

Why?

[@alexmiles40]

I loved my VCR and VCR tapes. I paid for some of my personal recordings (family events, etc) to be put on DVD. Just a matter of time til that will be outdated also. Good memories=THX.

[@mwrcrft]

Yep the late Father in Law was a TV repair man in the late 70's he had the huge beta system and the color camera with the suitcase sized recorder that had to be carried over the shoulder.

[@drewpall2598]

This was fascinating in light of the popularity VCRs has faded. I still have one from early 90's great write up as always in your description. 📼

[@jeffsanders1246]

I remember having to rent them on the weekends if you were lucky enough to find one. LOL

[@JoeBlow_4]

Thanks so much for reminding me of this brief moment in history. I used to love to go to Blockbuster to pick out the movie for the night. Nothing like when there was just one copy left of that movie that had just been released and I was there to grab it.

[@sunbeam8866]

In fall 1980, I went on a car-trip with my folks to visit my Dad's cousin and other relatives near Miami Fla. Dad's cousin had a Beta Sanyo VCR deck, with a bunch of tapes, and I was hooked So, ln '81, I bought my first VCR - a two piece portable Beta-Toshiba - for about $1100. By then prices of the least expensive Sanyo Home VCR was around $600. But I wanted a portable, with a car-cord and rechargeable battery. By that Christmas, I'd scored a very basic color Sony camera at a closeout sale for about $500.Took the Toshiba & camera down to my folks in Virginia Beach, and taped their New Years party, with a bunch of their neighbors (a few of them in embarrassing situations!). Then, in August '82, I took the outfit on an epic 7000-mile cross-country road-trip from Virginia to California and back.That thing had a shoulder-strap to carry the heavy, suitcase size recorder, while the Sony camera perched on my shoulder - TV-news style. The tiny battery was only good for about an hour, So the car cord got a lot of use on that trip. By 1986, I'd upgraded to a Zenith two-piece Beta portable made by Sony. That portable unit was about half the size and weight of the Toshiba, and had many more features. But it was fragile. First, one of the folding metal pins that guided the tape while it was threading, snapped off its' plastic hinge. I was able to find and install a repair kit for that, but after another year, something started heating up on the main circuit board, and after about a half-hour, the video would switch to snow! So no more on the go videos for me the next few years. Fortunately, in late '82, I'd picked up a Sanyo Beta home deck on sale for $400, So I could still enjoy my tapes and record off the air at home. I finally got a Mitsubishi VHS deck in 1988, and that started another long chapter of my video hobby, that I won't prolong here! 🙂

[@jaminova_1969]

David, Thanks for the history lesson! Having grown-up with 2 parents that worked in ENG, I had dreams of becoming a journalist. Then reality set in. However, I worked for a rather large-midsize studio in SOCAL back in the 90's. I was tasked with an impossible project. To try to save NASA footage that was recorded on 3/4", 1", and Betacam from the 1960's-1980's. I basically took on this project with the understanding that it was not a priority for the studio. The client was UCSD-TV. They had tried to do the transfer and experienced similar results as to what you described. This is where I may be able to help. I tried several methods, the one that worked best was putting the tapes in a freezer and cleaning the VTR heads as much as needed! Best of luck to you!

[@michaelc6126]

Wow what progress we made since then. I remember getting one and back then it was the best thing to happen in home video entertainment.

[@cindirose3390]

Thank you for a way to reach across the Generation Gap to my grandchilren.

[@davidfarrell7318]

these machines were amazing i loved watching horror films on vhs i still have one today.

[@ctldel290]

We had one of those RCA selectavison. Priced into today's dollars the cost made me cry. Before the RCA we had an AKIA B&W reel to reel video system. The cost of that thing was astronomical. Still have it in the basement.

[@socialenigma4476]

I just can't get over paying over $1000 for a VCR! Or nearly $2000 for a color camera!!!! 😂

[@farmerj1]

Adjusting for inflation, the $1,000 VCR would cost ~$3,300 today. Amazing how much less expensive consumer electronics have become...

[@chitlitlah]

That could've bought a decent used car in 1981. That was the year I was born, so by the time I remember seeing VCRs in the store, they were mostly under $300.

[@mungomidge1090]

Inflation adjusted that's $3200 for the VCR.

[@pegschwalbach2500]

The newer technology is the more it cost. Do you remember how much the iPhone cost when it first came out?

[@swahler34]

@@farmerj1 in 2008 a 52" samsumng lcd tv was over $3k. Now you can get one at Walmart for $300. It is strange to be a consumer sometimes.

[@dimebagdave77]

This is great, Thanks!

[@bjnowak]

That was fascinating

[@GregoryTheGr8ster]

I remember my first encounter with a VCR like it was yesterday! Actually, it is more like the day before yesterday. Anyways, my brother had a friend, and his friend's father had bought a Sony Betamax VCR. MY MIND WAS BLOWN when I saw movies playing in someone's home. I never knew that such a miracle was possible. This was in 1979 or so. What an exciting time!

[@franksavage8031]

The good old days!

[@engelwyre]

The world of physical objects is getting further and further away. Very interesting look back, thanks for posting Mr. Hoffman. Which did you own, Beta or VHS?

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

I own both. David Hoffman Filmmaker

[@zach123101]

This is cool I really like this video, I always like a David video but I really like old technology especially when it's presented as brand new and unknown

[@maryheiman4091]

Who thought we’d ever advance to the point where we don’t even need equipment outside of our TV set, I can’t imagine what the next step is.

[@gamingsociety3684]

Killer Video!!!

[@theresekirkpatrick3337]

We didn’t have one and only black and white 📺 until i got married. In 1992 my husband sold audio and home theater systems etc. vcr’s were 300-600$ depending upon features 10 years they came way down

[@lolawalsh9187]

I bought one. Wonderful invention

[@adamv4951]

I remember as a kid when we got our first VCR. I thought I had died and went to heaven.

[@TroubleToby3040]

"What the industry calls 'time-shifting.'" Do they? Do they call it that? 😂🤣😂 My favorite part is when the lady said, "One of these machines can cost up to $800... Which is a lot of money back now."

[@ladybirdlee3058]

I remember when my mom got a vcr. I was so happy. My friends had vhs nd a betamax player and was jealous for years.

[@jazztheglass6139]

The VCR wars, the vhs tape ran slower and was a bit cheaper than these betamax. Also I think Phillips licensed more companies to manufacture vhs, competition brought the machine purchase price down very fast in 5-10 years. They say became quality was higher. TEAC the company at the end of this clip, got very big in reel to reel tape recording, and cassette recording. They came out with 4 track portastudio for musicians. It allowed a lot of the English synthesiser bands OMD, Depeche mode etc to buy cheap synths, rent or buy a portastudio and release singles on a small budget, or go into a studio and have half of it already on cassette

[@captainwinthewoods1889]

I wonder if this was from slightly before 1981. From Feb to Aug 1981 before going to college I managed the first video library in our town, one of the first in the country. We had many movies on VHS and Beta, marketed by companies such as Intervision, Hokushin and ITC. Highlights included Enter the Dragon and Annie Hall. Bond and Star Wars were not yet available to us. We had a machine of each type on display, Beta was better, but VHS was edging ahead in popularity. Both had timers. We also had a colour camera (JVC) to link to the VHS machine - the recorders and camera each cost about £1000/$ 12 years later in 1992 the wonderful Panasonic FS200 edit VCR (amongst others, but the FS200 was best) made it possible to do clean insert edits on domestic VHS, and complex home productions became possible. I made my first promotional film in that year for which I was paid £1000. At each stage we think tech has finally arrived, and still do. What's emerging now is domestic equipment and tech good enough to make a feature film. But we're still only half way. What lies in store is the ability to replace any actor in any movie with an actor of your choice, or yourself. The day is coming when every Bond movie will star Sean Connery. Also the era of photo or video material being admissible as evidence may soon come to an end.

[@moisesperez4605]

Totally remember these ads, at the beginning those VHS models were pretty expensive. But eventually I did own one.

[@nerdbamarich2063]

Fantastic Year. It's the year I was born in..

[@tortysoft]

The clip starts with an image of a Sony 1810 Umatic. I had one of them ! Odd, they didn't mention the Umatic.

[@starababa1985]

Back in 1979, my shop supervisor bought a VCR when they first came out. He paid $1000 and mostly used it to record the Muppets. We were stationed overseas in Korea and there wasn't a whole lot on military tv. Just a few years later you could pick one up for under $30.

[@larrybud]

I grew up on David Letterman because of a VCR! FYI, $1000 in 1981 is = $3400 in 2023 using "official" inflation numbers.

[@realbaresoles2]

I remember the time before vcrs very well, and how revolutionary this tech was. And now, it’s totally obsolete.

[@larrybud]

Sure, but it lead to current concept of time shifting, home movies, home rentals...

[@johnking5174]

The VCR was made popular by it's inclusion in the 1976 Columbo episode on NBC "Fade Into Murder" where the murderer Ward Fowler, played by William Shatner, used the VCR to create an alibi for himself.

[@oohweeoohwee9222]

The betas were so loud and clanky.

[@hobartw9770]

This killed the peep show.

[@Beez27]

Ha! Not only do I still have my Sony Hi-Fi Stereo VCR I still have a drawer full of personal tapes and movies.

[@Beez27]

@Texas Wunderkind wow. I have so many...classic Disney, popular movies from different years, taped TV shows too, and endless MTV interviews. Plus a promotional video for GTE Wireless/Mobilnet (now Verizon Wireless) taped in 1991. I worked in Product Marketing at their Corp offices back then and was asked to play an insurance adjuster inspecting a car and using the newest bag phone to report my findings to the office. Lol. We shot it in the parking lot of the Corp bldg in Atlanta. Classic. You've encouraged me. Maybe I should comb through those old treasures and see if any are worth anything.

[@billybobkingston5604]

When TV was worth recording

[@randybloomfield5090]

The prices came down to $400 by 1986

[@TheCablebill]

I didn't see any instruction for setting the time. This explains a lot...

[@tomcarlson3913]

The Zenith VCR used in the thumbnail and the majority of the video is the model JR-9000W. I own two of them that I've fixed to playing condition...They were Zenith's first VCR model and were a re-badged Sony SL-8200 (Sony's third betamax, and the fist beta to offer the longer record time of the BII speed) and I keep my nicer example on top of my working 1962 Zenith 29JC20 Color TV (Zenith's first color set which they waited till 7 years after color was introduced to market, despite contributing to the development of the color standard). They told a half-truth about these not having a timer....There was no internal timer, but there was matching accessory timer offered (I've got one). I also recently picked up a Sony LV-1901 which was a TV-VCR console that contained the first Betamax deck the SL-6200...I plan to try and use the Zenith to dub a BI speed test tape (every tape I have is recorded in BII or BIII) for the LV-1901 once I have time to test it's VCR. I've got a 1971 Sony VO-1600 U-Matic VCR (the first U-Matic) too...A lot of people call it a broadcast deck, but IMO Sony wanted it to capture the same consumer market they were aiming at with Beta. The early U-Matics were not built to produce precise enough sync for broadcast (unlike true broadcast formats like Type C and Quadraplex), and while other's claim the first U-Matics which had tuners 'weren't built for the consumer market because they didn't have built-in timers' I'd like to point out that BOTH the first 2+ generations of standalone Betamax decks AND the first generation U-Matics had matching optional external timers.

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

I use the Sony VO-1600 to copy my three-quarter inch videos. If I treat it very delicately, it keeps on working. Knock on wood. David Hoffman filmmaker

[@tomcarlson3913]

@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker I think I had to flip the belts over on mine once. I wish I could find a service manual with a schematic. The tuner on mine is dead, and while it's not really needed it irks the OCD part of my brain that the tuner doesn't work. (yes I know about the DTV transition, and workaround it with my own low power analog TV transmitter).

[@Jessica.Wakefield]

😆 the survivor of the week with his munched tapes! Oh, how I remember the devastation of the VCR eating tapes! I grew up very rural, and I had a cousin who lived in Minneapolis and would tape MTV in the early days for me. Blank tapes were expensive as heck for a kid back then! 😆

[@GalactusOG]

VCRs are now worth hundreds to thousands again. Technology value is cyclical.

[@darriusmackey7981]

Why

[@GalactusOG]

@@darriusmackey7981 They are rare now. No longer being mass produced. i fix old VCRs and sell them on Amazon for around 800 each.

[@darriusmackey7981]

@@GalactusOG wow

[@GalactusOG]

@@darriusmackey7981 VCR DVD combos go for around 1500. i look for them in yard sales, Swap meets etc.

[@andytaylor5476]

@@GalactusOG VCR's are analog right? Will they play tapes on digital TVs ok?

[@EddyOfTheMaelstrom]

She pressed those buttons like they were ignition switches on an F4

[@gzayas08]

Time shifting? Never knew I had access to such powers...

[@zulubob5824]

My first VCR was $300.......now they're $5 at thrift stores or in a landfill even if they work

[@johnb528]

I actually prefer the subtitle style on this old video which highlights each word vs the huge black box style on tvs today.

[@princeindrajitlawlaha7027]

VCR is like a time machine 😇 📼 ⏰ 🕰⏳

[@Dr.Pepper001]

They didn't tell you that you need degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering in order to figure out to program a VCR.

[@JerryStevens]

I didn't recall that there were 4 systems. I thought it was just VHS and Betamax. I don't recall Quasar VR 1000 or V-Cord II. What happened to V-Cord I? I remember the Betamax enthusiasts arguing for its superiority over VHS but I correctly guessed that the VHS would become the standard and bought that system.

[@websterdrums]

The prices make the latest mobile phones look like a bargain

[@SlimjimMK11]

That $1000 VCR today, after calculating inflation is worth $3600 today 2023.. Electronics have sure become throw away items today..

[@k9feces]

I didn’t get a VCR until 1990

[@jooleebilly]

I believe this was from 1980. Partly due to the price, and also the woman mentioning what was going on in 1975.

[@GnosticAtheist]

Chesus, 1000 bucks for a VCR system back then. That would be like ... well come to think of it fits well with the prices on smartphones...

[@aguy559]

What was the first VCR movie you ever watched?

[@joldschool64]

We are laughing at that old technology but the Young an up-and-coming generation will be laughing at our internet and streaming services.

[@smallteam]

$1,000 in today's dollars is about $3,411

[@sethc4758]

to put the cost into perspective since inflation makes the $2,400 price tag seem less impressive than it really was, a brand new Ford Ranchero, would've cost you $2,995 in 1970. so a home recorder and tv set was worth nearly the cost of a new car, granted the Ranchero was on the very low end, it was still a brand new car. cheapest new car today is a Nissan versa, at $15,830, not many Americans could spend that much on an entertainment system, especially without financing. crazy thing is if you plug it into an inflation calculator the $2,400 the system cost back then would be the equivalent of spending over $18,000 in 2023, so it'd cost more than the cheapest new car nowadays

[@matthewfarmer6830]

Hey David Hoffman did you hear David Crosby passed away today. He was 81.😔

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

I did hear. He was a memorable musical leader of our generations. David Hoffman filmmaker

[@briansmith2163]

VCR's and video rentals changed the film industry and allowed people to watch whatever they wanted, judgement free, in their own homes. Porn, obviously, got story and production money, but so did first time film makers in every category. Horror films made cheaply made a lot of money !

[@briansmith2163]

@@texaswunderkind Like that is a bad thing ? It told you a lot about each other and cost you NOTHING, and was interactive !

[@EveyBee]

Wow how about the survivor of the week, not giving up until he got all 10 of his damaged tapes replaced!

[@akazicool87]

Chris survivor of the week lol

[@chrisccc503]

Are you sure this was recorded in 1970? In the beginning of the video, the guy said "...even though these have only been on the market since 1975." ?

[@80sandretrogubbins25]

There is absolutely no way this is from 1970. The guy also mentions 1976 later lol.

[@J_Teriyaki]

I'll tell you who else is 'retro' ... David Hoffman ... and we 'dig" that fact!! I recall the local Butcher in outback Western Australia - 1987 (Herbert Hoover had been a gold mine Engineer there - 1890s) adding video movie rentals to his available items list. Perhaps he sensed veganism was 'just around the corner'.

[@gusty7153]

tech prices havent really changed much

[@pdd60absorbed12]

VCRs were popular with the Eastern Bloc nomenclatura as hopefully thumb drives are to DPRK elite.

[@ddwalker3744]

Disney was even messed up with there ways of thinking even way back then

[@redmustangredmustang]

So 800 dollars for a VCR back in 1981 would be $2575.

[@EddieStapleHands]

OMG. Honesty in advertisement?

[@Gazdatronik]

He calls her RHEEEAh. Its Pronounced "Ray" Reminds me of my old friend, He kept telling me his middle name was "Rise." I said, "that's unique. How do you spell that?" "R-H-Y-S" he said. smh "ITS REESE! Your parents have been telling you wrong for 25 years!"

[@sethc4758]

cant say i remember the pitch.. i was -25 at the time

[@indiaview9414]

Problem with generation before 1970s nobody had known "VCR" now after 5 decades even today's generation don't know "VCR"...VCR ruled Earth in between 1970s to 2000s after 2000 CD then DVD then pend drive now You Tube...

[@cs5842]

I like these things, where can I get one?

[@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker]

Many are sold on eBay each day. David Hoffman filmmaker

[@wiseforce7045]

Back then that thing cost $1'000. Huh?

[@cheesecop9321]

$800 in 1975 dollars is almost $4,000 today. Hooray for inflation.

[@theMightywooosh]

What killed the betamax?

[@Bout_TreeFiddy]

Betamax cost more than VHS to manufacture. Longer running time of VHS (at compromised quality) was also favored by consumers.

[@Happyland_Motel_Gamer_Cat]

Compare c.... tech to 1980s Japan tech. LOL

[@5jr.racing982]

I got my first VCR in 1986......it cost $450.00....two weeks pay back then....in today's money it would be about $1000.00...

[@stupedcraig]

The good ole days when you could own stuff and be happy.

[@stupedcraig]

@@texaswunderkind I guess thats why we will own nothing and be happy soon.

[@prestoncheapbtheadphoneste3010]

2:50 she put a lot of pressure in pushing those buttons. Ha. 🫤😐

[@texaspatriot4215]

I purchased my first VCR in 1983, I had graduated college in 82 and finally had the money to buy one, my first was an RCA unit and cost me about $400 if I remember correctly, by 83 there were video rental stores and I was in heaven with all the movies I could ever want to watch (when I wanted to watch them) 😊