Why Retro Tech Conquered the World

[@slidebean]

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[@ashweszi5319]

Pick-me dei hire with double digits iq making garbo content for dei hire kids to consume.

[@KarlBunker]

I'm a bonafide boomer, and I spent way too many years of my life with vinyl as the only realistic choice for listening to music. It was crap and I *hated* it. The introduction of CDs was a magical, epiphonal moment for enjoying music. To me, being nostalgic for old tech is like being nostalgic for dentistry before Novocain.

[@TheFrogfather1]

I was about to say the much same thing! Maybe it's people who didn't have to put up with these technologies that find them so cool. I put up with vinyl until 1985 when the first CD players came down from £600 to £300. Never looked back. I was into film in my teens and 20s as multiple boxes of Kodachrome slides will testify. My phone takes much better photos and I always have it with me. I can see why film makers like the look of film (although that can be pretty well simulated nowadays) but I much prefer digital presentations.

[@jackh8702]

Us millennials come from the other side of the spectrum. I have had almost unlimited access to any music that I want since I can remember and it leads to me skipping songs halfway or listening to a mix of songs randomly (which is great) but playing vinyl is sort a ritual where I put the needle down and listen to a whole side of an album non-stop. It just feels different in that way and makes me appreciate an album as a whole instead of just random songs

[@ectoplasmicz]

​@TheFrogfather1 when it comes to photography this is actually incorrect. Film cameras are much better at capturing light and thus are represented better in the print, while also requiring a different (and many would argue more difficult to learn) skillset to capture a photo how you want it compared to digital photography which involves thousands of shots to find the best one.

[@KarlBunker]

@@ectoplasmicz >"Film cameras are much better at capturing light" Pics or it didn't (doesn't) happen. 😁 I know there are people who think film is better, but it's a judgment call rather than a cut-and-dried fact.

[@wendysmithey5227]

@@ectoplasmiczI too am a Boomer, I think I’ll have to side with phone pics when compared to the grainy out of focus pictures my Kodak 110 camera took

[@LarsHaendler]

GenX here: Some retro tech is much simpler and much cheaper if you own it long term. My CDs collection is so much cheaper than any music subscription. The older you get the fewer additions you make. A CD player with actual knobs is something anybody can use even when being sleepy, drunk or in complete darkness.

[@citronovykolac]

I hate this constant sw update era. I feel like at one point, like 5 years ago everyone just decided that every update, every freakin week should somehow reduce or screw up the experience. I lost count how many times i exploded on waze because something that worked flawlessy for months suddenly broke only to be barely fixed with decreased qualty a week later but breaking something else in addition. With old tech it just works

[@AkshaySinghJamwal]

If it boils down to how it makes you feel, there's no argument for 'better', because better is subjective.

[@captainchaoscow]

Hi there - if you want to store the photos for many years. Don't use the photo albums with self-adhesive with foil.

[@aborne]

That plastic sheet with the adhesive page? Yep. Those are awful.

[@cyrilio]

what would you recommend? I'm going to make a couple of albums with all photos I've made during my life. Doing a bit of a auto-biography.

[@kuroibuta]

I use to be a real nostalgia junky but you can never really get back the same emotions and excitement that you had as a kid. Sometimes I've come back to video games and wondered why I enjoyed them so much... somethings are better left as good memories.

[@t.a.d.m.a55]

This comment feels like an epic plot to a great movie.

[@mayowa60]

lol. yeah like power rangers. used to be willing to die for that show as a child but watching it as an adult is soo cringe. some things are better left as great memories

[@fakealias]

I'm vintage game collector and yes I do play them. I've tried for years to enjoy new games but only a few I actually enjoy. PS1 and PS2 still does something to me no new game can do.

[@Mr.Coffee576]

It’s because PS1 and PS2 had an extensive game library and most of them were well written, bug free and amazing gameplay.

[@llai8501]

​@@Mr.Coffee576and aren't half baked upon release requiring another $50 fucking DLC 3 months after release.

[@outtheredude]

Or requiring you to spend ages waiting for the latest updates to download when you just want to pick up and play.

[@xandercruz900]

*me looking around my house* Retro tech? Even my computer wasnt made in this decade!

[@aborne]

It all comes down to the feeling "The grass is greener on the other side" which means, we want what we don't have. Young people don't have photos that are singular and important. Obtaining a vinyl album or CD takes effort and requires storage space, which is a sacrifice. This nostalgia for old stuff is a bizarre form of capturing the struggle or challenge of holding on to meaningful things. It's SO sad.

[@GrillinDude-ng9kk]

There's actually many cases where the "retro tech" wins out for decades, sometimes centuries, simply because you can't get a better combination of simplicity and utility. For example, in manufacturing, plastic injection molding machines are practically unchanged from their inception. Lathes, Dishwashing machines, speakers, a piano, spoons, all remain relatively unchanged from their original invention sometimes hundreds of years ago. I'd argue Vinyl records are the "spoon" of solitary music listening. Magnetic tape and CDs came after, but are generally harder to manufacture and store. Vinyls are a more elegant solution that the barrel based audio storage before, since a flat disc is the simplest possible shape to accomplish the same task. Of course its different if you talk about on the go music, but in terms of listening to music in your house, I think people in 100 years are still going to use vinyl, just like we still use magnet+inductor+membrane based speakers. This is as someone who has never listened to vinyl in my life and have no emotional association or nostalgia with it. It's just objectively the best mix of simplicity in setup and how it works and quality.

[@pedroreis6384]

Hello, just wanted to let you know that the HDR is really quite intense, and if you have a good HDR monitor (like a Macbook Pro), the transitions between clips can be so intense that it's borderline seizure! White shouldn't be max brightness, but rather "paper white", which is around 200-300 nits

[@johnl.7754]

Because we are getting old so value the “good old days” (even if it was nothing special…just being young made it special).

[@cdot.8492]

the ability to literally pick up your favorite things from previous eras is so cool for todays world. mementos are great physical reminders of memories and help ground us.

[@snippingtool7810]

I admit that most of the time, I'm interested in retro tech for the nostalgia factor. This, coupled with the hype of film photography on Instagram, made me try it and finally buy an old Canonet G3, a mechanical film camera. One thing I found from older camera like this is the simplicity, and a certain tactile feeling when using the dial to change the settings. There's also a sense of rewards after every film being processed and scanned, something you won't find in most modern cameras. Of course modern camera is much more versatile in this regards, but that feel when you carefully picking up objects due to limited amount of frames, using different film stocks to achieve a certain looks, and collecting processed film to scan later, it just hard to replicate with a modern cameras.

[@scruvydom]

Lots of interesting topics here! I'm a retro tech geek and while there are commonalities, the pleasures and value do depend on the medium. Vinyl: I think the sound quality argument compared to high quality digital sources is essentially moot. As you alluded to, the job of vinyl is having a physical manifestation of the music you love, the pleasure in flicking through your collection to find something you want to listen to or a particular record, and the zen of placing the needle and letting the whole thing play out. DJing vinyl also feels great, and the lack of all the digital assistance in terms of bpm counts, sync, quantization etc make for a more focused experience. Cameras/film: The joy of shooting film is twofold - the experience of taking the photo, and the final product - the way that film renders reality. Film cameras cover a huge range of shooting experiences, different form factors, price points, eras, technologies. A lot of film cameras from the latter half of the 20th century are perhaps some of the finest examples of mechanical engineering in human history. Using an old Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Canon is a tactile delight, and because you can't see the photos you're taking, you're encouraged to take your shot and move on, rather than crimping, spending time on a display screen or in menus. Then when you get your film back, you have the pleasure of seeing the ways different film stock render light and colours. Shooting slide film in particular is an experience all photographers should treat themselves to. Games: Retro games look great on retro TVs. Emulation is amazing and there are so many great ways to play the entire catalog of game history at this point. But playing retro game systems on a nice PVM or even consumer CRT isn't just a dose of nostalgia, it's also an amazing gaming experience by any standards, with the gorgeous way those old TVs handle low resolution games. Nowadays basically all the Gen 6 and older consoles have mods or flashcards which let you load your backups (or more commonly, illegally downloaded roms lol) on a hard drive or SD card and play the entire library, plus fan mods, translations, homebrew from a slick UI - perfectly bringing together retro tech with modern convenience.

[@lenOwOo]

photos used to be something that you take only in special occasion, that's why they are precious. In the past (20 years ago), i need to call professional photographer just to get some photos taken. Now we have too much of it and most photos felt just like junks filling my device.

[@FacePlant1324]

They found a way to make cds hold over a terabyte so they might make a comeback to

[@AdityaBhave.]

Oh yeah I read somewhere, it's probably going to be a petabyte! That's 1024 terabytes! Whatever the case, it's gonna be awesome. Cheers

[@bandwidthpiggy9378]

Have any links? better cds and dvds have a lifespan of 100 years so that would be sick

[@AdityaBhave.]

@@bandwidthpiggy9378 yea that's gonna be a new nostalgic piece of tech for years, if it gets mainstream.

[@AdityaBhave.]

I tried sharing the link but I guess youtube doesn't let us share external links. You can just Google it there are lots of articles published around this. Cheers

[@cyrilio]

As a student I always bought a throwaway camera every vacation I went on with my friends. This was in 2004. So early days of digital photography, but towards the end of my time as a student we definitely had digital cameras and phones. I still cherish the images shot during this period. Somehow people did more ' their best' when it's a pic for a film camera in stead of a digital medium. Yeah it looks crap, but that was part of the process. Half of what we did I already forgot, just like how the printed film looks like. Wouldn't want it differently. EDIT: If I'd go on holiday today with my friends I'd probably buy a throwaway camera right now. It's not about the tech.

[@imnobodywhoareyouu]

I started buying cds because some bsides and bonus tracks are not available on streaming services. Or some albums just dissapear from there. The thing is, now artists are releasing new material not available on cd, just vinyl, so I got a turntable for those cases.

[@Atemosta]

"Nonstalgia Tech" is going to be my next startup idea - thanks Caya 😂

[@AkshaySinghJamwal]

This isn't just about Peak End Rule. The 20th century, for the most part, had brands creating products that were built to last as long as possible. Compare that with an iphone. It's not even been 20 years since the product was first launched. I have a Bronica S2A that was manufactured in the 70s. It's entirely mechanical and still works. In comparison, I probably wouldn't trust a 10 year old digital camera unless it's been sparingly used.

[@schmatzler]

So true, my most treasured piece of hardware is a Hitachi boombox from 1986. It's three years older than me and just sounds amazing. I regularly use it to watch movies and get a really oomphy sound. That thing is so solid, it will probably still work when I die one day. Compared to that, buy a modern bluetooth speaker and see how long it will last. The battery will die within years, the Bluetooth standard will be outdated soon...it's gonna be trash.

[@bkayser05]

I was thinking the same about my first cell phone, one of those blue Nokia bricks. I swear you could drop it from low Earth orbit and it would still work after it hit the ground. A modern cell phone couldn't survive a 2 story drop. I also had a flip phone, I think by Samsung in college around 2006 or 07 and dropped it while trying to talk and keep my balance on ice. It fell into the street, snapped shut, and a car drove over it. The phone, camera, everything still worked perfectly after I picked it up and was worried it would be destroyed. The only way you could tell it was damaged at all was a small chip in the plastic had formed. Some products were just built better in the past, the equipment was more durable, while being less efficient. Obviously, modern technology is focused on performance over durability, but the performance is so good, we are willing to accept the loss in durability for the better performing equipment.

[@kmarshie]

Thank you for helping me prove that I am NOT a millennial. I experienced all of these items when they were actually in use and cool.

[@microMobilidade]

I own a 7 year old ipad pro, it works great for everything I need. But I work in field support, and I know its better to have a backup nokia phone with a 3 week battery than to rely on a new smartphone which purpose is entertainment and an urban life with multiple ac outlets. I read on my Ipad when its plugged in at my desk, but I have printed books for whenever I know I want to go outside and not risk loosing a several k device for a read while doing my nomad day. That cassete player doesn’t need a firmware upgrade to work today, and it wont becmoe sloggy or slow tomorrow

[@aborne]

Here's some advice about photography: keep the best, delete the rest. And if it's REALLY important, then print it to paper. I personally have 60 photos on my phone, and a few more stored in folders on my computer. Unlike the rest of the world, I don't have several GIGABYTES of images that will never hit anyone's eyeballs ever again.

[@jackiedelvalle]

Unlike the rest of the world, you must also have TIME.

[@BohdanBrailov]

Generation of the garbage collectors always have an excuses of their junk-addiction. Prior week i got a couple of ipods 5th gen

[@bkayser05]

I have a retired coworker who loves older media; vinyl, 8-trac, cassettes, CDs, and VHS. I once asked him if he really liked all the cracks and pops in older versions. He said, "God, no," whenever he got one when he was younger he would return it to the store to get a better piece of physical media. So I always find it ironic when people claim that is why they prefer vinyl are the imperfections because someone who grew up with it, hates the imperfections. He loves the sound and being able to hold the media in his hands but being nostalgic doesn't mean being stupid. Nobody wants a bunch of pops and cracks in music or video blips, they want the clean version and I don't think anyone should be criticized for picking one over the other as a preference, whether it's digital or physical media.

[@P1Gman]

The thing about old tech, is that companies can't brick it. Nintendo can't stop updating my N64 and bug it to death like they can with my Switch.

[@gramophoneservice4173]

I think the unique position of time and access today gives room for a view on this subject beyond nostalgia, simplicity and consumption narratives. It's the possibility to see different tech not as evolutional but as parallel. So new, more HD tech is just another form instead of a different quality defined by objective measurements to come to the one ultimate truth in reproduction of sound and/or images. You can choose your tech based on taste, like food or drinks. And just like food and drinks the quality of the sound / image provided by the tech of your choice is also defined by growing used to it, an acquired taste, as well as belonging to a group of users and perhaps most importantly the actual ritual that comes with the device and the format. So crappy 64 bit sound can be experienced as nicer than lossles streaming just because your ears and mindset feel comfortable with it, just like sitting on a wooden chair can be chosen over a soft lounge couch.

[@outtheredude]

Although I'm an Xer, I came in right at the tail end of VHS during the DVD boom as I came from a poor background and simply didn't have the disposable income of my own to buy into such tech before then. As a result, most of my subsequent purchases were initially on DVD, which on the whole was better than the VHS versions in terms of features, image quality, and reliability, with literally just one VHS cassette, 'Explorers' (1985), in my video physical media collection (because the DVD version only had the Director's cut, not the theatrical release I was raised on that played on TV when I was a kid). I then supplemented my DVD collection with Blu-rays later (including the region free version of 'Explorers' 1985 that included a full widescreen HD version of the Theatrical cut that allowed me to finally dump the VHS player). Later still, I tried streaming, as it promised to have everything, ever, on tap for just a modest monthly subscription. Turned out to be like playing 'whack-a-mole', with content constantly changing hands amongst multiple streaming services, disappearing altogether, or never being available in the first place. Also, the quality in several cases wasn't as good (or in the case of the fuzzy felt adventures of 'The Moomins' having only the Americanised version available, instead of the darker British version I originally saw during the school holidays). So I stuck with my now extensive physical media collection. This was even before the controversy that emerged when Criterion were handed an "ideologically edited" version of 'The French Connection' (1971) from Disney/20th Century Fox and published it believing it was still the original version. So newer doesn't always mean better if the people in charge of providing the newer tech and the media for it makes things worse for the consumer, like with the example above.

[@amitlevin8841]

I think the one reason why people these days are so obsessed with retro Tech is because stuff like Blu-ray vinyls or film you actually own your product and the results no use the agreements no it said the company is sold you lose access to the video that you put what's yours is yours

[@kayEnt3rtainm3nt]

Wait... Are blu ray discs now retro tech?! I know 4k discs are now available, but so many movies are still only offered on physical media as blu ray and not yet 4k.

[@g.o2092]

Almost had a stroke reading that but I think the gist of it is: People just want to go back to those simpler times when we actually OWNED what we bought. No strings attached Right?

[@polloman15]

This is the first HDR video that I’ve watched ever on youtube and I gotta say, for a second I thought that my iPhone kicked the bucket 😂

[@crombajaa]

I'd say not just Nostalgia. Even though they were considered expensive during their time they were WORTH every penny. Not like today's tech where you have to change the whole set/ Board if one small problem arises. Don't get me wrong today's tech will always be today's tech. Advanced, Powerful, small...and pieces of shi t etc. But they are fragile and the companies hold the power of the tech. Not the repairmen and ~women. Old tech lasted longer. If things did not work they were easily fixable with a whack or just taken for repair. They were good, different, and pleasant to look at. They had character in every product. The hype was real. Not like today's 24-hour online promotion. There were hardcore fans for each product. Also, do you see the problem with today's tech and all other things? They are easily forgettable. They are gone and replaced in a flash just to make more money, more sales, more customers, and more profit rather than making people happy with their one little product. The same way tech from the 40's, 60's and 70's were the flashiest and craziest styles for cars, refrigerators, etc.. Even now they are memorable. And even now they might work if you switch it on But today's tech in another 25 years? I don't think so.. There may be many other reasons, factors. But these are a few.

[@kevynlopez6831]

Love it!

[@rohanjaiswal18]

one word answer: nostalgia!

[@H0mework]

I have you set to show all new videos but I don't get the notification.

[@Feedinkoo]

Please start a series on pitch review ❤❤ love your videos

[@SunnyDallasRealtor]

Because it’s better…. We hit the threshold of USEFUL tech decades ago. I’m going back

[@Code7Unltd]

Cathode Ray Dude described the problem in one of his recent Quick-Starter videos (for future scholars it was the 7th video in that series, focusing on Quickweb, Quicklook and **shudders** Daystarter), more specifically near the video's end. After wrapping up overviewing Daystarter and how Quicklook worked, the guy speaks on how perfection in tech and HP's "perfection crisis" caused something stupid and dangerous under the hood like Daystarter to come about.

[@schmatzler]

Nice to see a CRD mention here!

[@martalis7452]

I got my first phone at 12 ish and these days i find it hard to remember how it was before such a reliance and connectivity with smartphones feel wild thinking about it but I really feel the point about photos they really just feel like files you have hundreds of and you never look at anyways that most times i think why bother even taking a picture i think love to get one of those Polaroid cameras but they sure are really damn expensive 😂😂😂😂😂

[@shwenho9730]

Thanks ! One of the few inspirational videos I have seen.

[@marilthecat]

friction creates meaning and closeness to the item. Similar to the Ikea effect, these devices have a focus and work as they should. Digital has made things more commercial in a way

[@strictlyaesthetic9202]

REEL to REEL Was the end all...Reel to reel was the only tech that challenged vinyl... RESEARCH

[@t0astz]

lol why was the photo of a guy on the phone in the toliet

[@leviccas_9294]

"Present day camera has much higher resolution " ??? With digital movie camera isn't the digital camera and projection systems still around 4k? And with IMAX film we are talking about 18k. And wow, watching films on a phone!? Why would you do that!?

[@magalengo]

Where did you get that shirt? 😊

[@Raphaelogwu]

Nostalgia, that's all there is to it. Legend of Zelda is it

[@ironspider9280]

The first thumbnail was better

[@lipstickzombie4981]

Dude I'm a Gen-Xer. Only thing I'm nostalgic for is the grunge era but not the technology. Let the kids have our crap as we make money out of those things. 🤣

[@thewanderlustlady]

Nintendo 64 is the best console ever made and I will die on this hill 🙌

[@Hoxgene]

A special kind of stupid sometimes makes alot of $$

[@singletona082]

For me it's a case o 'what can we make this stuff that would otherwise be garbage Do?

[@Walker956]

wjhats the point of sponsors anyway. evertyone is just gonna skip it. waste of money for the sponsors dudes.

[@psolien]

We're not ! 🤷‍♂

[@giordanolugo]

DON’T SHAKE YOUR POLAROIDS

[@alekdaniels]

For some reason, I think the downvotes on this video is a huge number relative to the views

[@neilcyrus9045]

1st comment

[@unzin-rb6pm]

modern tech, like modern women, are without class