WEBVTT - TechStuff Sets its VCR 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:17.480 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.000 and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:21.720 and I am an editor and how stuff works dot 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.279 Com with a cold. Excuse me sitting across from me 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:28.600 as always his senior writer Jonathan Strickland behind every Man 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.159 Now a Live stand. Thirty ghosts for that is the 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:37.600 ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. That sounds ominous, Yeah, no, 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.440 it's it's totally ominous because I also have a cold. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.480 So we would like to apologize to our listeners beforehand 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.160 for all the awkward pauses, coughs, clearing of throats, sneezes, 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.159 and other shenanigans that are going to happen as a 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.040 result of both of us having a cold at the 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.200 same time, and the one juvenile joke because you may 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.640 think it's funny, but it's not anyway, and Jonathan's giving 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.640 me an now he's beating his head on the microphone again. 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.160 So yes, um, today we're going to talk about the 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:12.440 video cassette recorder. Why, Chris, why would we ever talk 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:17.679 about the video cassette recorder, a technology that is almost 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:21.920 forgotten about today. Yeah, that's the problem. Uh yeah. A 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:26.240 while back, Uh my father uhs VCR. He he had 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:31.200 it to uh plugged in and during a summer thunderstorm 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:35.920 or as we call it in the South, a week day, Yes, um, 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:41.800 a power surge atomized the transformer inside the VCR. Sadly, 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.600 this did not give the VCR superpowers where it then 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.680 went on to fight villains and you know, various locations 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:50.920 around the world. That's what happens in the comics, right, 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:57.400 lightning atomization superpowers. Really real life lightning atomization computers and 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:02.080 or people don't work very anymore. Yeah. So, so basically, 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:06.040 the the power, the thing that makes the power work, 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.520 and the VCR is now gone. And I said, you 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:11.600 know what, it would be cheaper to get a new 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:13.959 VCR than it would be to fix this one, which 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.600 is very likely true, which is which is often true 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:20.720 with electronics. So I recycled it. And my my father 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.600 has a lot of old videotapes that he wants to 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:25.200 be able to watch. I thought, oh, I'm gonna go 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.320 get him a VCR. I'll just go down to the 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.880 department store and pick one up. As it turns out, no, 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.080 I won't because you can't find them anymore on most 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.520 store shelves. Um even even electronics stores. Yeah they they 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.200 If you find one, you're you're not going to have 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:45.639 your choice. Yeah, I mean, well one or two maybe. 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.280 But but it's not like it was where like say 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.919 you go look for a smartphone, you have a display 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.600 of smartphones to choose from, You have different carriers to 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.919 choose from. Even even looking for something like a Blu 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.520 ray player or or even a DVD player, there's there 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.600 are a hand full of them to choose from. If not, 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.760 uh you know, pretty good sized display. But where that 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:09.120 used to be the case with VCRs, uh, it is 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:10.800 not so much the case. And I was thinking, he 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.160 you know, I'm they're so they're so disposable. I'm sure 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.200 there's gonna be a tiny little VCR that I can 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:18.440 I can get. It doesn't have to be Hi Fi, 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:22.560 you know. No, No, they're gone. And I was started thinking, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.880 who when did they stop making these things? Because I 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.000 just figured that everybody there are enough videotapes out there 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.720 that somebody would still make one. I mean, hey, they 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.720 do it with turntables and people don't. People are starting 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.720 to collect vinyl again. But you know, it almost disappeared 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.560 for a long time there after the CD became popular. 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:43.360 So I started thinking, and we should look at the 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.840 VCR and and see if we can uncover what happened 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.360 to it. Um. But I think first we sort of 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.720 need to get it back into the technology. And uh, 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.800 it's something that again, uh is something that I thought 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.440 if it went back to a certain point maybe in 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.720 the early eighties, uh, mid seven and needs, but it 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:05.800 really goes back, uh decades before into the nine really. Yeah, 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.920 now to really set the scene back at this time, 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:14.320 the way that that you would capture images was using film. 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.320 Oh yeah, and we've talked about film quite a bit 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.839 in this podcast even recently where we talked about, yeah, 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:25.400 to use using a chemical reaction where exposing a a 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:29.360 a film that's coated in chemicals to light activates those chemicals. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.800 You then process that film with other chemicals to make 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.359 a negative image, not one that is you know, bad 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.320 or ugly, but is negative in this anyway. You've heard 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:45.840 those podcasts, so right, So even capturing film motion picture 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.120 film was done through this way, and the way you 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.440 would capture sound is you would use, through various means, 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.840 a magnetic tape, and in the way motion picture film 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.240 was working was that you would have a strip of 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.720 magnetic tape that ran down the side of the film 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:05.440 that was arranged in such a way so that the 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.599 sound you were hearing and the images you were seeing 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:12.160 were synchronized. So someone came up came up with the 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:14.920 idea and said, hey, wait a minute, we were putting 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:19.320 sound on magnetic tape, what if we put pictures on 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:23.919 magnetic tape too? And that became the quest to create 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.920 the the what would become the VCR. But really at 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.599 first it was just getting video onto magnetic tape, and 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.600 there were a lot of challenges associated with that. One 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:39.440 of the big ones being that that video information, the 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.920 the image information, took up a lot more space than 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:45.240 audio information did. So you had to find a new 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:49.239 way to encode that information and put it onto tape 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.000 so it wasn't going to take up too much space. Otherwise, 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.359 what you would have is a mile long tape that 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.240 would be maybe oh a couple of minutes worth of 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.599 video because it had it quared so much space to 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.680 record all that information. Well, people shouldn't be too terribly 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.920 unfamiliar with this this problem. I mean, uh we deal 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:10.080 with that every day. In the internet. Uh, you know, 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.760 broadband connections can give you full motion video. You can 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.480 uh play games with very low latency where you can 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.240 uh count on being able to round a corner and 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.360 get a shot off at your opponent before uh, you know, 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:25.960 you you freeze and then find out that you died 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.160 because there wasn't anything you could do. Um, we have 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.640 the same we have the same problem with uh, well, 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.360 with DSL connections. You know that the voice uses a 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:39.400 certain amount of of the uh telephone line's capacity, and 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.240 that's how they use uh the telephone mine to carry 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.520 the Internet is is there's this unused capacity and that's 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.720 how um, that's how DSL works. And you know, kind 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.080 of simplified sure, um, you know, but anybody who's looked 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:58.280 at an audio cassette and a video cassette knows can 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.480 see exactly what you're talking about, Jonath, because uh an 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:05.160 audio cassette is uses a much narrower piece of tape 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.680 um than a video cassette can. But there are other 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.960 challenges too, I mean, uh, it sort of depends on 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.680 how much video you want to capture a video cassette 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.880 can be recorded in a number of different quality levels 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.280 and UM to fit when once you've standardized on a 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:26.920 cassette size, uh, and then you start adding time to it. Oh, well, 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:29.239 this one can do eight hours instead of six hours 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.480 if you recorded at the correct quality. Then you start 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:34.440 having to talk about the tape's thickness because the tape 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:36.600 won't fit in the cassette won't fit in the machine 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:38.920 if you leave the tape at the same size, and 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.000 it won't work the same way inside the cassette. So 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.480 something has to give. UM. But we could talk about 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:46.280 the mechanics of that in a moment. We were going 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:50.440 to talk about the history and so back in the yes, yes, 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.640 and before that of course, uh as as pretty much 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.000 everyone knows we have live TV. UM. You know you 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.800 burps and gaffs and things that fall over and all. 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.800 You might have a a famous Hollywood actor think that 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.360 what he's doing as a walk through rehearsal instead of 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.760 the actual, uh, the actual program which did happen with 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.120 I think it was a Lawn Cheney Jr. Really yeah, 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:21.160 he was supposed to apparently, Um. Mr Cheney was somewhat 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.360 the worse for wear because he had um had a 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:28.240 little had a little little drinking pooh, and thought that 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.160 he was going in for a rehearsal for something that 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.280 he was doing, and there was a fight scene and 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:35.040 in the fight scene he's supposed to pick up a 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.679 chair and it's breakaway chair slammed across the back of 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.960 someone and knocked them unconscious. He, thinking it was rehearsal, 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.640 not realizing it was going out live, picked up the chair, 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:46.719 went through the motion as if he was going to 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:50.200 swing the chair, then very gingerly set the chair back 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.560 down where it was supposed to be. And I actually 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:55.960 have this on DVD somewhere, so I'll have to see 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:57.719 if I can dig that up. But anyway, yeah, it 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.640 was live TV. It wasn't It was and something that 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.959 people could mess with and edit things out, and uh, 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.480 you know it went out warts and all. Well. A 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.520 couple of guys working for Ampex, which is again a 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.520 familiar name for people who've worked with professional recording equipment 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:18.520 UM named Charles Ginsberg and Ray Dolby, UH worked on 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.640 the first commercial real to real video tape recorder and 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:25.600 that would be Uh. It looks very similar to a 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.840 real to real audio recorder. This was around nineteen six 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:33.559 and uh completely revolutionized the TV industry because at this 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.480 point you could record a TV broadcast to be played 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.400 at a later time. So if you had something like 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:45.840 Mr Mr Cheney's gaff, uh happened and you know, you 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.440 could go back and do it again if you needed to. UM. 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:53.320 But before that everything was live and this this really 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:57.160 changed things for the industry. Of course, these machines were 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:01.440 were not inexpensive. Uh, they were not any as they 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.719 later became UM. And so it was really sort of 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:10.640 the exclusive world of uh, you know, professional TV people 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.600 who are using this kind of equipment, and that would 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.199 that would remain the case for decades. Yeah, I mean 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.160 in uh it was nine one Sony came up with 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:27.439 the first inexpensive VCR. Expensive again meaning industry not consumer. Yeah. 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.040 In nineteen seventy one, Sony had the U Matic system 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:33.800 right right, U M A T I C. And that 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.920 was almost exclusively restricted to commercial use. Yeah. They used 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.800 the wider tape and had had the advantage of being 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:43.880 very high quality. UM. But it was it was much 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.839 larger than what we use today. Uh. You know, those 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.320 of us who still have working videotape players. Um, but 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.040 it was it was really the mid seventies when the 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.600 equipment became inexpensive enough. Yeah, yeah, I actually have something 0:10:57.679 --> 0:10:59.520 kind of fun fun to say before we get the 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:04.320 mid Sea yea in nine. This is the first time 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.680 we have a consumer video cassette recorder of This is 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:12.200 not a VHS or BETA. It's using the same basic 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:17.240 technology but different format. So the very first consumer VCR 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:22.200 from my research, was a Phillips Model fifteen hundred, which 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.599 came out in the United Kingdom, of all places, in 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.760 nineteen seventy two. Phillips is a British company. Our pals 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:32.800 in the United Kingdom. Do you get that? Pal? Ah? Nice, 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.560 thank you. There's nothing you can do with NTSC No, no, 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.280 we'll talk about that in a minute. But um yeah. 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:41.400 They managed to get their hands on one in nineteen 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:47.240 seventy two, and it cost the Princely some of six 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.560 hundred forty nine pounds in nineteen seventy two. And I 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:55.120 know what you're thinking, Chris, You're thinking, gosh, Jonathan, how 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:57.840 much would that be in today's dollars? So you would 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.000 have to convert pounds into dollars and then used an 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.560 inflation calculator. Who has time to do that? Will? Sir? 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.560 I tell you I had time to do that this morning. 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:09.840 Anyone with Wolf from Alpha, which will do it for 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.439 you automatically. I didn't use Wolf from So the answer 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.360 Wolf from Alpha gives may be different from the one 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:19.959 I have, but based upon the historical currency Conversion website, 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.240 sixty nine pounds in nineteen seventy two would be equivalent 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:30.119 to nine thousand, eighty seven dollars today. So just shy 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:36.160 of ten grand the very first consumer video cassette recorder. Meanwhile, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:40.840 Chriss is looking at Wolf from Alpha as we record 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.800 this to see how how far apart the two conversions are. 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.920 Do you have an answer from Wolf from Alpha? Why 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:54.520 did I get six? Okay? Six? This is good radio 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:56.800 right here? Oh? I know it is. Well, that's the thing, 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.720 is it? It shows you how expensive this device was 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.520 at the time. I mean, it's not something that everybody 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:07.720 had in there. Tim Grhant to drop on a VCR. Yeah. Um, 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.280 do you have an answer? No? Because I did it wrong. 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:12.200 So all right, we'll just have to ignore it. I'm 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:17.280 sure some listener will be very helpfully let us know. Anyhow, So, um, 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.559 so yeah, it wasn't until the mid seventies when VHS 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.920 made its debut. Yeah. Actually, uh. In well, in Japan 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.240 it came out in seventy six, but in the United 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.200 States we had to wait till seventy seven before it 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.719 came over here. And before that, Sony had come out 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:36.720 with a competing standard, the Beta standard. Yes, so Beta 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.440 had been on the market for a year before VHS 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.160 managed it to come to store shelves. Uh. And so 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.600 there were there was the videotape wars, which I think 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:46.600 we've actually talked about in a previous episode we have. 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.000 And and of course Beta as short as someone else 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.840 will point out as short for Beta max UM and uh, 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.520 but you really didn't compete for for quite a while. Um. 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.480 Of course Uh. Beta max is still used or was 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:04.640 used for a long time in um TV work, even 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.560 after it failed as a standard that you would see 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:13.040 on the store shelves at your local video rental place. Right. 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.960 The biggest differentiator between the two, at least early on, 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:24.520 was that well, Beta had a slightly better resolution than VHS, 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.880 but only slightly. I mean, the difference wasn't as dramatic 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.160 as say VHS to DVD, but it was there, it 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.800 did have a higher quality image, and also it could 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.080 only record up to two hours, and VHS the big 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.120 thing about that was it could record up to four hours, 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.240 so that that really helped push VHS over Beta, even 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:49.400 though since Beta had been on the market for a year, 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:51.680 they had managed to bring their prices down, so when 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:57.440 VHS first launched, it was actually more expensive, right right. Well, um, 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:00.440 here again, the the average consumer is is going to 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:02.520 look at it and go, well, I can I can 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:07.000 buy blank video cassettes for a VHS machine and record 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:11.480 more video on it. Uh to allow me to record 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.560 more myself, and therefore this is a better value for me, 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.680 even though the marginal difference in quality might make me 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.520 think about a Beta max machine. And the VHS standard 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.200 was introduced by j VC, yes, and that's also going 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:26.040 to be important in a little bit. But j v 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.720 C the first model they introduced in the United States 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.840 was the hr Dash thirty three hundred, which cost one 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:38.800 thousand dollars in nineteen which in today's money three thousand 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:43.480 five dollars. Yeah, that's a that's a healthy chunk of 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.480 change to drop on the VCR. Yeah, and it's it's 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.200 amazing too, because a lot of these machines were top loaders. 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:54.000 I remember that, Yeah, you'd popped the door open, slide 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.040 the cassette in, and then pushed the top of the 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.760 door down back into the video player. I had one 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:03.400 of the yeah, and this was um. You know, it's 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:05.240 interesting to think of that because I think the last 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.680 time I actually went shopping for a VCR, I was 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.880 just looking for for one to because I've got tapes 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:12.480 I wanted to be able to play them. This was 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.400 years ago, but I remember running across models that were 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:17.720 like thirty or forty dollars. So to think of it 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:21.520 as being almost well, thirty five bucks in today's money 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:25.400 back then. Uh, that's kind of kind of mind blowing 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.560 right there. And of course, uh you might say, okay, 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:34.920 so what happened between nineteen fifty six and nineteen seventy six, Uh, well, 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:37.120 one of the there were there were several things that happened. 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.840 Of course, the like all technology, it seems like people 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.520 find out better ways to achieve the same effect. So 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:48.080 you know, gradually these machines are getting smaller, they're getting lighter, Uh, 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.120 the qualities going up. They're getting more affordable as as 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.600 people can mass produce them in greater quantities. But there 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.760 was also something else, uh that that is common with 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:58.920 this kind of technology, and there were people that just 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:04.960 didn't want VCRs on on people's home entertainment shelves. Are 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:10.280 you talking about organizations like the Motion Picture Association of America. Yes, 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:15.040 so you've got these organizations that were legitimately concerned that 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:20.120 home access to this kind of technology would mean a hit. 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.800 It would take the organization. Organization would take a hit, 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.320 the whole movie industry would take a hit, as people 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.400 would refrain from going out to the movies and instead 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.560 watch things from their homes. Same sort of concern was 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:36.359 from the television industry. If you didn't require people to 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.280 be at a certain place at a certain time, then 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.320 how can you guarantee that your advertisers are spending the 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:48.199 right amount of money for advertisements during that slot on TV? Oh? 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.800 Oh but what but what? But what happens? I ask 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.679 you when when your favorite one of your favorite movies 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:57.359 comes on on the local station, you could record it 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.760 yourself and then never have to go see it again. 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:03.480 You could watch it again any time you want it. 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.320 Yeah that's not cool. Yeah, So these were real arguments 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:09.040 that were brought up against it. That was one of 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.240 the reasons why it took a while for this stuff 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:13.000 to get to market, was just because there was a 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:17.159 big resistance on the part of the content providers. So 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.520 it seems like that happens every time there's there's something 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.400 that's one of these revolutions in technology. If this episode 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:26.000 we're all about digital video recorders, it would be the 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:31.400 same story. Or audio cassettessettes. I mean, really, any any 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:33.440 time you get to any kind of medium where you're 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:38.359 permanently putting something down. Yeah, yeah, there there are people 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.600 who are saying, wait a minute, how are we going 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:42.600 to make money now? Well? Yeah, I mean that it 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:46.720 gave rise to uh to these industries. They were able 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:48.480 to record it the first time and then they could 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.000 show it to you or play it for you any 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:55.359 other time for a fee. Yeah. They were the two 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:57.840 major industries popped up because of this. You had the 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.760 rental industry. Yes, so companies like Blockbuster and all the 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:04.720 other rental agencies out there that could rent out video tapes. 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:08.000 They would not exist without this. And then secondly you 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.840 had just the home theater market industry, people who were 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:16.240 purchasing tapes so that they could own these movies that 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.320 they loved in a more permanent fashion, instead of being like, oh, 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:22.880 I saw this great movie in the theater five years ago. 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:25.600 It's called Star Wars. I really wish that I could 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:27.840 watch it again, but no theater is showing it, and 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.919 there's no I mean, why would a theater release it again. Well, 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.640 suddenly this created a whole new market for these old films. 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.360 So once the industries realized this, they started to reverse 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.000 their decision. Oh now, I get it, and they made 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:46.840 stupid amounts of money on Oh. I remember buying UH movies, 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:50.280 movies when they first came out on video cassette, and 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:54.399 they were exorbitant for a film. Well, and in a 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:56.960 lot of cases that was because those movies were priced 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.920 for rental agencies, so that you would have a cup 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.400 any like Blockbuster. I always use that one because that's 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:05.240 the one that most people are familiar with. But Blockbuster 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.359 would say, all right, we'll pay a hundred dollars per 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.480 UH copy of this film, and then we'll make it 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.280 up by renting it out to X number of customers, 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.399 and so it will take us, you know, a certain 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.560 number of times before we make our money. Back. But 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.280 after that, it's all profit as long as that tape 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:26.560 is undamaged, you know, as long of that tape is 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:30.960 is is lendable. Yeah, so, uh yeah. There were a 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.719 lot of videotapes that never went on sale for a 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:38.280 price that the average consumer would consider reasonable because it 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:40.880 was never meant for the mass market. It was meant 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.200 for the rental agency market. One of the movies, there's 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.960 a movie that I talk about among my friends all 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.720 the time called Blood Salvage. The tagline is if Jake 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:52.920 can't fix it, it's been dead too long. It was 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:58.240 a gothic Southern horror movie about a a guy who 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:03.040 runs a wrecking facility. He Um. He has drives an 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:07.200 old tow truck and he um salvages parts from from 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:12.840 vehicles and people. Anyway, I was an extra in this film. 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:14.840 Don't even bother trying to find it if you want 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:16.800 to look for me, because you first you don't know 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:18.920 what I looked like when I was twelve and two. 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:21.720 You would have to have eagle eyes and your hand 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:25.080 on the pause because it's gone in a flash. But anyway, 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.400 I wanted to copy this movie because I actually enjoyed it. 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:32.480 It's a goofy horror movie, can't be tongue in cheek 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:35.760 kind of gross, you know, right up my alley. Right, 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.600 So I went looking for it the only place. Finally 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:42.960 I got it on eBay when someone got it from 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:46.680 like a fire sale from some rental company. But yeah, 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:51.159 that's why those those tapes were that expensive. Soe alright, 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.080 So the VHS has been on the market for just 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:58.800 four years or so, in VHS made up sev of 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:03.159 all cassette sales. By then Beta had dropped down to 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.399 and it was all VHS from there on out until 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.880 really the late nineties nineties, and it didn't really start 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:15.080 dropping off until the two thousand's. But we'll get into 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:18.240 that after we talk about how this stuff works. Yeah, 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:20.840 I mean, that's that's one of the important things too, 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:24.000 is UM in general, these machines all kind of work 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:27.840 the same. We're talking about Beta max and U uh, 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:31.640 you know three quarter for the television industry, UM, three 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:36.480 quarter inch UM for VHS. There basically, they're all a 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:39.359 reel of magnetic tape inside a cassette. And that's one 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:43.199 of the cool things about video cassette recorders is that 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:46.640 these devices, I mean, and I talked about the cassettes. 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:50.480 The cassettes themselves are designed to protect the tape, which 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:55.200 is necessary because uh, certain young people I know would 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:58.359 gladly reach in and grab the tape and pull it 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:00.080 right out of the cassette if it was possible to 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:02.320 do so easily. Um, it is if you know what 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:05.120 you're doing. But it's got protections on it to keep 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:08.680 it from getting stuff spilled on it or getting spooked 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:12.679