Jesus.

[spuzzlightyear.livejournal.com]

Comments

[inateapot.livejournal.com]

This is amazing! Can you imagine what it must have cost????

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly.

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

Somewhere I have an ad from 1980 listing a similar VCR for ~$1500, so the one pictured would have been more.

In 1985, the first VCR I purchased was about $400.

[ejia-arath03.livejournal.com]

If I owned one of those, I'd use it as a casket to get myself buried in when I die.

[whoseline_wlsc]

Wow that is something. I'd never seen a VCR like that before.

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

Actually, my friend's mother won one—I think it was a Philco—in a raffle in the 70s, and after that, she always bought raffle tickets to everything. She never won again, though.

The tape was top-loading, and the door would ease down in slo-mo to click shut. The deck was built like a truck and weighed a ton.

[jasonbeast.livejournal.com]

I remember VCRs like that from when I was in elementary school in the 70s. They cost thousands of dollars.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Saw them a lot and had friends (well their parents) who owned them.

[jazzybabe56.livejournal.com]

thats actually a Beta machine if I"m not mistaken - we had one - they were actually better than VCR's but VCR got the patent to sell worldwide before Beta did.....

anyhow - this is pretty amazing!

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

You're confusing VHS, the technology, with VCR the generic name for Video Cassette Recorder.

Sony Betamax was the first consumer grade VCR but was limited to only one hour of record/playback time. Later models of Betamax had two hour play/rec times but by then it was too late.

Sony refused to license the Betamax technology so a group of manufacturers came up with the VHS standard, which originally included a two hour record/playback time (eventually 6 hours) and kicked Sony's butt in the market place.

It's true that the Betamax tape transport system was superior to VHS, but it wasn't enough to overcome the lack of licensing and the play/record time issue. Consumers, as a group, generally choose convenience over quality.

And the VCR in the ad is VHS, not Betamax. Before about 1982, all VCRs were top load.

[jazzybabe56.livejournal.com]

thank you! I knew something happened along those lines with licensing but I couldn't remember exactly what! :)

we had the top loading Beta too...shows just how old it actually is .............I'm sure we still have it and my brother says it still works.....

but life moves forward - frankly I love Dvd's....so convenient..

[meezergal.livejournal.com]

I remember these! A store near my house used to sell them. This was before everything went big-box. :(

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

JFC that's a huge item of furniture.

I think I saw one of these in person once--the TV, anyway--and the picture was actually really awful.

But wow, look how far forward it goes. It would take up most of the living room!

[asphaltwanderer.livejournal.com]

Oh man, we had that VCR when I was younger. It was a tape eating beast.

[1geek-queen.livejournal.com]

All I can say is, "Wow!"

[cheesygirl.livejournal.com]

Damn, that thing's as big as a zamboni! I remember when VCRs were that enormous too.

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

Really? He looks so different without the beard and with the glasses! Forget turning water into wine and all that raising the dead stuff. Conjure a few of those puppies up and you'll have followers for life! (When they're not watching TV, of course!)