Posted: 6/19/2004 8:07:52 PM EDT
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Taking a cue from the first microwave thread, when did your family get your first VCR? Dad bought ours in 85. My uncle had one and would usually let me watch rented films. I had rented a couple and wanted to watch them, he refused to let me use it. Dad got pissed and went out and bought one that day. IIRC, he paid around $400 for that thing. Top-loading GE. The "remote" had a 10' cord on it. Lasted till 95, could have been repaired as the guts were still good, the carriage stopped locking though. |
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Bought my first one in '83. Paid $350 for it. I had a friend that bought one when they first came out and paid over $1K for it. The one I have in the living room right now is an Emerson 4 head, it works good as any other, and we paid $75 for it. But then again, I remember when your basic calculator cost over $100. I REFUSED to buy a DVD player until the price came down to UNDER $200. It happened pretty fast, if you think about it. |
First VCR the family bought was one of the first big ass top load Betamax machines. No remote, mechanical tape counter, etc. '79-early 80's. I still have a Betamax kicking about somewhere out in the garage. It was a freebie & worked so I kept it out of nostalgia. I have a reel to reel player waiting for me at my parents house also. Don't really have a need for it but dad brought it back with him from 'nam in '70 along with a ton of music reels he recorded. Along with never played Iron Butterfly tape..  I wish he could've brought back the sniper Garand he had in country though 
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I don't know what year it was but the machine was an Olympus VHS portable with a battery pack. My plan was to get a movie camera to go with it (that never happened). It cost several hundred dollars. It still works and is hooked to a TV right now. I remember the guy selling them tried to get me to buy a BETA because they were so much better. |
I don't know about that, I've got a few porn Betamax tapes in the collection   . I think what killed off the Betamax (a much better system at the time IMHO) was the fact that Sony screwed the pooch much like Apple did. They wouldn't allow licensed clones. If you wanted a Beta machine you had to buy it from Sony, if you wanted a VHS machine there was plenty of manufacturers competing for your $$$$ which drove the price down. Sony eventually allowed Beta clones but it was too late. Compare how many personal computers IBM has sold to how many IBM clones (with kickbacks to IBM) are out there compared to Apples.
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…my local video stores only stocked VHS Porn  Andy |