Poll – What was your first? Beta, VHS, other?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by cgw, Mar 23, 2021.

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  1. jojopuppyfish

    jojopuppyfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    In 1980 when VHS and Beta first came out, I was 10. Home video opened up a whole new world of entertainment.
    We went to a new video store down the street and the whole store had VHS and very few Beta tapes....so we bought a VHS for about $1000. It came with a video camera.
     
  2. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    October, 1979.
    I bought the first VCR sold in my then-small Tennessee town, an RCA VHS retailed for $1,000.00.
    My reason for taking out the needed bank loan was my just purchased TV Guide informed me that PBS was set to broadcast the footage they had shot 9 months earlier at Volunteer Jam 5 , which featured the return of the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash survivors.
    Having had a very emotional time that night, I knew I had to own my own copy.
    One problem : I had a shift to work that night at the plant, from 3pm - 11pm.
    My first recording would have to be captured via the timer.
    I set it, said a prayer, and went to work.
    When I arrived home, I rewound the tape, pressed play, and exhaled as I saw my efforts were successful.

    Now that same footage has been on You Tube for several years. I threw the tape in the trash a couple of moves back, in late 2018. Kept that tape for 39 years though !
     
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  3. Armjim

    Armjim Music is indeed a gift from Heaven

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    My Dad worked for Motorola and had access to all kinds of machines. He brought home a recorder in 1977 that I immediately started using to record TV programs. It was sort of a home based closed circuit TV recorder. Then in 1978 he brought home a combination TV/recorder which I believe was the forerunner of the betamax. I still have the cartridges I used from the 1970's and the betamax tapes. The 1977 machine lasted until I was packing up my house in 2017 back in VA getting ready to move to Texas. I could not get it to work so I let a junkman cart it off. As I type this I am regretting not bringing it here and having it repaired.
     
  4. Andy Saunders

    Andy Saunders Always a pleasure never a chore

    Location:
    England
    Ferguson VHS was our first VCR, still have a SONY VHS recorder in the bedroom.....:wiggle:
     
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  5. 93curr

    93curr Senior Member

    Betamax, 1982

    Couldn't convince my parents to pay for a Sony, so had to settle for a Sanyo. I don't think anyone in my family ever forgave me for talking them out of VHS.

    First tapes I ever bought were Raging Bull for about $90 and Blondie's Eat To The Beat for about $40. And that was a lot of money back then.

    I've still got about 25 or so beta tapes,, collecting dust, all music, with no way to play them.
     
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  6. apesfan

    apesfan "Going Ape"

    VHS- Magnavox 1977
    Beta- Sony 1980
    Laserdisc -Pioneer 1990
    DVD- Pioneer 1996

    More than you asked...
     
  7. Tanx

    Tanx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    I read the rest of the description after clicking on the poll (not for the first time). I didn't actually own a Laserdisc machine, but it was the first of those technologies I experienced. I had to watch "A Man for All Seasons" for a class in college, and the librarian led me into what was basically a tiny studio. She loaded the disc with white gloves on and I had to watch the film there. Very cool experience.
     
  8. Tanx

    Tanx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    My friend had a Betamax. I remember having to put down $60 cash deposit on each tape I rented from Tower Records!
     
  9. 93curr

    93curr Senior Member

    Pompeii is on blu ray on the Early Years box set. It's truly awful, though. I still watch the original edit included as a bonus feature on the DVD instead.
     
  10. forthlin

    forthlin Member Chris & Vickie Cyber Support Team

    Got my first VHS machine for my birthday November, 1980. At the time there were only a couple of places that sold blank tapes, they were $20 a piece.
     
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  11. johnnyyen

    johnnyyen Senior Member

    Location:
    Scotland
    VHS. News reports at the time suggested Betamax would fail, so I went for VHS. Didn’t the format have bigger financial backing than Betamax?
     
  12. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    I debated whether to go with VHS or Beta, and went with VHS. For me, it was mostly an issue of features. For the same price I could get a better VCR with VHS. As an example, at that time for the same price I could get a Beta VCR that could record one event over three days, or a VHS VCR that would record four events over two weeks. I ended up getting a basic Sharp VCR with a wired remote and the ability to record in SP, LP, and EP (SLP).
     
  13. Rigoberto

    Rigoberto Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA (UT)
    I don't think there were any licensing fees for VHS like there was with Betamax.
     
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  14. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    In 1985 my girlfriend's parents gave her a non-working VHS VCR. Being a guy, I told her I could fix it even though I knew nothing about VCRs. I opened it up and saw a mass of belts and white nylon gears, and I hoped she would forget what I had said. But... after messing around with it for about a week I figured out how it worked and saw that two gears weren't meshing together because it just needed a new spring. Victory!

    When we broke up a few months later, she gave me the VCR.
     
  15. polchik

    polchik Forum Resident

    betamax rental ..... scarface was the film ! lol
     
  16. applebonkerz

    applebonkerz Senior Member

    VHS
    LaserDisc
    DVD
    BD
     
  17. soundboy

    soundboy Senior Member

    My parents purchased a 2 head top-loading RCA VHS VCR (complete with wired remote control)in the early 80s

    I still have a Panasonic Hi-Fi VHS VCR and a Sansui-branded VHS/DVD combo player/recorder.
     
  18. MikeJedi

    MikeJedi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    VHS. 1986. Dad always talked about high fidelity at home with movies. He really researched it and was happy the price came down for us to buy it.
    we went over to I think Silo or someplace like that. He always said we are going to get a HIfi VCR.to hook up to our receiver and two speakers. He wanted the best for the money .. he said this is going to sound as good (or better for the time ) what you could get in a movie theatre. !! Almost got the Beta as he thought it was a little better on both counts. But a lot of salesmen were warning that Beta just did not have the support (they were right of course ultimately). What’s the next best for Sound and pic. We got the Fisher FVH 850 I believe. Awesome sound I remember. Sounded like a theater in our house with our 19 inch Sears TV !!! And the picture was clear. !! :)

    I ran out and bought with my allowance Star Wars for 60 bucks on VHS at Tower. I was in Heaven lol. :)
     
  19. Jamey K

    Jamey K Internet Sensation

    Location:
    Amarillo,Texas
    1980 VHS. Before you could rent movies, I bought Christopher Reeve's first Superman at the same time I bought the VHS.
     
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  20. James Slattery

    James Slattery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island
    VHS for my college graduation present in January 1980. I know people who were recording far further back on 3/4 and EIAJ reel to reel. Even got some stuff from a guy who had Cartrivision.
     
  21. Scooterpiety

    Scooterpiety Ars Gratia Artis

    Location:
    Oregon
    I bought an RCA Videodisc player in 1981, it was less than half the price of a VCR at the time.
     
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  22. Greg Gee

    Greg Gee "I tried to change but I changed my mind..."

    Location:
    Oklahoma
    First deck I owned was a nice Sony Betamax that I bought in 1984. My first VHS deck came along in 1990 with the release of Batman on video. A Laser Disc player came along in 1995, then a DVD player in 1997. I've had my Blu-ray player since 2007.
    I remember everytime I moved, I would lose whatever video player I owned at the time to the movers...everything except the LD player; I'm guessing they weren't as popular with the movers since media could be difficult to find. ;o)
     
  23. cgw

    cgw Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Upstate NY
    I had a Sanyo. It worked OK until the loader bit the dust. Until the early 90's anyway. I did not really have a problem finding beta tapes to rent.
    When it broke I got a VHS - Sony.
    I also found a cheap old used Sony beta to play what few tapes I had. It is such a clunker that I have used it only a few times.
     
  24. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    This video by Technology Connections should provide a lot of information the Video Format Wars:


    BTW, he's done many videos on all formats and I found some interesting information I wasn't aware of. As an example, with the CED Format the discs could be pressed out using the same technique that was used to press out vinyl records.
     
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