One for the old ens.

[adfabia1]

Who remembers their first VCR recorder? Mine was a single speed VHS Sanyo (about £500) complete with a wired remote control.

My last was a SVHS JVC (again about £500) but on viewing the other day I wonder how we marvelled at the picture quality.

[FUBAR]

Bright red top loader the size of a suitcase with a carry handle rented from the video shop in 80's . I used to think with the marvel that was the video shop, that the guys who worked in there, had the jammiest job on earth! 

[mannyo]

We had a Toshiba (rebadged Sony) top loader betamax, also had a wired remote pause button and two day timer. I remember it had 8 manually set analogue tuner buttons. The thing was also the size of a suitcase and needed two people to lift it due to its weight.

 

We had the Toshiba version of this, its a late 1970s machine.

http://www.totalrewind.org/betamax/B_8000.htm

[kentphil1]

My first vcr was a single speed toshiba, was really good in it's day, but watched a vid back on our flatscreen the other day on our sony vcr, and wished I hadn't bothered - snow and auto tracking half the time on the old tapes.

 

While we're reminiscing on older kit, does anybody remember the Laserdisc machines?.

[Macdemon]

My sister in law had one when she was a student nurse and my brother sand her were dating about 35 years ago.........I remember the remote was corded and was only about 6ft long hahaha.

 

CLUNK, CLUNK, CLUNK.

 

And those visits to the video library where we all tried to decide on a couple of decent films to watch.

 

A friend of mine had a laserdisc player and a few films, the tech never really caught on.  :(

[mannyo]

Laserdisc did not really take off in the UK, but was really big in France and some other EU countries. Until very recently you could still buy the discs in large French department stores and some hypermarkets. Discs are I believe still in production, but titles are limited in production and certain genres.

 

What was a shame was that VHS won over Betamax, the picture quality from my late fathers betamax machine would put run rings around the quality of VHS output. Marketing however headed in the VHS direction, just like BLU-RAY did with HD-DVD.

[giandougl]

I keep one in the cupboard as the grand-children sometimes ask me to copy a VHS tape to disc..

Discs are so keep cheap now at a £1.00 at most boot-sales, makes it hardly worth it to copy one.

[kilted]

Had a number of old VHS tapes that I remember as being HQ that I wanted transferred to DVD - borrowed a mates VHS-DVD machine and stopped after about 5 minutes as the quality was hopeless. Ended up buying the DVD's

 

Best ever office teapoint discussion - colleague talking about his old VHS and the superfast freeze! Elicited numerous comments about "So why would you need a super fast freeze then?" "been watching videos you shouldn't have?" etc.

.

[scottalej]

Philips Video 2000 in the early 80's. Mum was doing an open uni course and the programs were on BBC2 in the early hours.

Edited 16 February, 2015 by scottalej

[Chriswright03]

Had a video and thought it was the dogs at the time and yes I suppose it cost 500 quid.  I go back further than that and had an 8 track stereo in the car and the cassettes were the size of a house brick. Talking of bricks.  At work we had the early mobile phone where it was more than the size of a brick and weighed even more!

 

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

 

Regards Chris

Edited 16 February, 2015 by Chriswright03

[softscoop]

We used to have a Sony C5 Betamax.

 

It was huge, and at the time, it had a 14" portable TV sat on top of it as the player took up so much room.

 

As it was top loading, you had to lift the TV up to change the tape

[AndyC]

Found an old monochrome TV from back in late '70's when clearing MIL house recently. 12" screen. It was has heavy as our modern 42".

 

Andy

[vRSgone]

I had a Philips N1500 video recorder in 1972 ( I actually collected it from Philips Research Lab in Eindhoven - I was a buyer for a major brown goods company). It used a larger cassette than the VHS system & was  developed by Philips in cohorts with Sony as a downgraded U-Matic recorder It was released about 6 - 12 months before the first Vhs recorder in the UK, which I believe was the Ferguson Videostar model 3292.

 

Who remembers the Decca Video Disc player? I believe it predates the Philips laser disc player -I had one, supplied by Decca from their Bridgnorth factory, I suppose you'd call it a Beta model now, but this was a pre-release model for appraisal.  It used a diamond stylus, rather than a laser, but the disc could only play for 10 minutes or so. Picture quality was surprisingly good but it never was a commercial success, although I believe they developed a juke box system for pubs/clubs which was marketed by Ditchburn. 

 

I can also claim to have had (on appraisal) one of the first CD players in the UK, again collected from Philips in Eindhoven, (it was an unbadged Sony product, with whom Philips had developed it), together with the only 2 discs they had - one by Billy Joel , the other ABBA. I think it was late 1983 early 1984.

[Aspman]

Sony Betamax toploader with wired remote. About the size of a small suitcase and needed serviced about every 6 months.

I don't think we learned to program it. Must have been 82/83 at a guess.

[curleybar]

We actually borrowed a mates from work when he went on holiday because we couldn't afford one when 1st married !

I do remember watching Rambo & also promising the local video shop that I would return their one copy of "Nightmare on Elm St" early because

someone else had booked it.....!

[JohnMcL7]

It was a betamax we had at home originally although I can't remember the make, I just remember it being big, silver and needing to load the tapes in at the top.  It's strange trying to explain that to children now how amazing it was at the time to be able to watch programs when you wanted to or watch them again when now you can pick up a phone and watch pretty much any program or film you want with ease.  I also remember before the video player how my sister would like to have BBC2 on during the day when there were no programs on and instead it jsut slowly scrolled through ceefax pages with background music that she'd dance around the floor to.

 

I also remember the shrinking video selection at the local rental store as Betamax slowly died off and we eventually had to get a VHS recorder instead.

 

John

[dazz600]

Our first VCR was a ferguson videostar

Still remember it,and how hard it was back then to set the timer

Oh how I love the skybox!

[JohnMcL7]

Anyone remember the super advanced video plus codes?  I saw a picture of an old TV Times and was amused to see these listed against the programs.

 

John

[kilted]

Our first VCR was a ferguson videostar

Still remember it,and how hard it was back then to set the timer

Oh how I love the skybox!

Yes been there done that. At the time I was only a teenager so I ended up learning how to do it so I could show my parents!

 

Anyone remember the super advanced video plus codes?  I saw a picture of an old TV Times and was amused to see these listed against the programs.

 

John

It was sometimes easier to just set the thing normally than to dig out the video+ code

[@Lee]

Dad bought a Sony Betamax machine, can't remember the model but as mentioned, the quality was much better than that of VHS but for some unknown reason Betamax died out.

He then bought two Sony VHS recorders. Tape to Tape from the rental store

 

Forgot, the neighbour had a Ferguson Videostar, remember watching a pirated copy of ET on it not long after its cinema release.

Another neighbour had a Video 2000 thing, I seem to remember him adding titles to home videos with a BBC Micro. He was an OU perpetual student.

[GentleGiant]

Yes been there done that. At the time I was only a teenager so I ended up learning how to do it so I could show my parents!

 

It was sometimes easier to just set the thing normally than to dig out the video+ code

 

 

I remember going into my local Panasonic shop and setting the clock on his window display model as the flashing 12:00 was sooo annoying to walk past every day. The owner actually thanked me as - even with the manual - he couldnt figure it out!!

 

He also stocked "Dual" turntables, and that is where my HiFi bug started.

Edited 22 February, 2015 by GentleGiant

[JohnMcL7]

Dad bought a Sony Betamax machine, can't remember the model but as mentioned, the quality was much better than that of VHS but for some unknown reason Betamax died out.

He then bought two Sony VHS recorders. Tape to Tape from the rental store

 

 

Apparently the main reasons VHS won out was due to cost and recording length, JVC licensed out the VHS technology allowing companies to compete and bring prices down while Sony didn't initially and on their early release, VHS had twice the recording time as Betamax.  I'm a bit puzzled why my parents went for Betamax though as it seems VHS was the more obvious choice in Europe for the time they purchased it but it was perhaps down to a neighbour already having Betamax and thus being able to share tapes.

 

John

[ric04vrs]

Philips Video 2000 in the early 80's. Mum was doing an open uni course and the programs were on BBC2 in the early hours.

We had a Grundig video 2000, allegedly better quality recording than either VHS or Betamax, plus the tape was like a big cassette, where it could be turned over to double the recording length, making a 4 hour tape into a 8 hour tape

[Titanium_Man]

Sony Betamax toploader with wired remote. About the size of a small suitcase and needed serviced about every 6 months.

I don't think we learned to program it. Must have been 82/83 at a guess.

Crap, we had one of those.

Guess this somehow makes me an "old en" then :(