Home video before the '80's

[Telecolor 3007]

Hello there folks. Since I do live in a Romania, videokarma is for a long time a place to find info about U.S.A.
Well, I do have a curiosity now: who could afford before the '80's home video. Not only LaserDisc was expensive in the '70's, but also video cassettes. Betamax and V.H.S. however where cheap comparted to system like Cartrivison (did you know some one who owned such machines).
Did you ever seen a home V.T.R.?
There where people that where eager to make some loans for video stuff?
And how did "Kokak" Videoplayer VP 1 (Super 8 film "videoplayer") produced image without a camera.

[Electronic M]

The cartrivision system was early 70s and died pretty fast it was defunct well before betamax and VHS. Betamax and VHS were 1975 and later.

Hollywood movies and to an extent time shifting weren't a thing between the death of cartrivision and the birth of betamax. Some people did time shift on EIAJ, and U-matic. I actually have some U-matic porn tapes that were originally rental tapes so that industry was clearly up and running before Hollywood was convinced there was profit in rentals.

Use with cameras was the main app for early VTRs as most didn't have clocks for timeshifting.

There were outlier cases of timeshifting like Hugh Hefner using 1" helical machines to record television, and a TV, VTR, stereo console Ampex built both in the late 60s.

[old_tv_nut]

This catalog, on page 47, describes the VP1 as a flying spot scanner.
https://www.dtvgroup.com/Super8Sound...nd_Catalog.pdf

[NowhereMan 1966]

I've seen reel to reel VTR's in the Radio Shack catalogs from the early 1960's where you could tape programs off the air for future viewing but you had to pony up $4000 to $6000 or more to buy it. IIRC, I think Elvis Presley had one.

[Telecolor 3007]

Probably in early '60's they costed so much. In 1967 for a simple sytsem (no timer included) you could pay 1.500 $ (se image 13): https://worldradiohistory.com/Archiv...Shack-1967.pdf
The nice "Normende" radio (image 104) was pretty expensive. But they where nice... probably only 1 in 100 people had the money for one, but still it was wow.

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

This catalog, on page 47, describes the VP1 as a flying spot scanner.
https://www.dtvgroup.com/Super8Sound...nd_Catalog.pdf

Yes. I found that information, but didn't puzzled at the moment who it did worked. I wonder how good the image was.
Those sincro systems for sound where pretty complicated if you wanted to record. Some had film strip atached (I think they camed later on for Super 8) so if you dind't want no post processing. For playback of prerecorded stuff (you could buy/rent 8 and 16 m.m.) it was more simpler.

Thanks a lot, gentelmens!

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

The cartrivision system was early 70s and died pretty fast it was defunct well before betamax and VHS.

Thats sad.....I would love to see some movies on it!!!

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Dude111

Thats sad.....I would love to see some movies on it!!!

See my comments on the quality of 1-in-3 skip frame recording here:
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread...p+frame&page=4

[JOJCANADA]

I actually have a Sony tcv 2010 that i picked up a while back with a built in monitor, very cool piece, works great.

[ronl]

I remember having one of those reel to reel video recorders on my bench years ago,simular to the one you got Jojcanada.unfortunately, video head was quite worn.Hey Jojcanda ,good to see a video karma member near my hood.I'm in Surrey bc.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

Well, I do have a curiosity now: who could afford before the '80's home video.

I just made it into the "home video" world before the 1980s, when I bought my first VCR in about September 1979. It was the first set-top Sony Betamax, model SL-7200. One full day's wages (eight hours at US$4 per hour) was enough to pay for two one-hour blank tapes for that machine. I still have those early tapes.

[MX70]

There was the Philips VCR format introduced in 1972, the N1500, first 1/2" home vcr using cassettes. Available mainly in UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand (where my wife is from and her family was familiar with this format) but was actually available in North America (Norelco in USA) as Philips N1481. It was only available for about a year in the early '70s and very, very rare to find here today. I was watching a Philips N1481 on the 'bay a few years back and it sold for $450 CDN ( way more than I wanted to spend) in unverified working order, so someone REALLY wanted it...

[MX70]

I recall browsing a 1975 Eaton's catalogue my friend's mother in law saved , and they advertised an Akai 1/4" portable video recorder and b/w camera available, I remember the price was around $2000 CDN - in 1975 money!

[MX70]

Originally Posted by JOJCANADA

I actually have a Sony tcv 2010 that i picked up a while back with a built in monitor, very cool piece, works great.

That's a sweet piece! The "consumer" version , the TCV 2020, in wood cabinet with an analogue clock/timer was sold a few years ago on the 'bay - it went for around $2400 CDN after something like 44 bids.

[DVtyro]

Home video before 1980s was half-inch reel-to-reel black-and-white skip-field machines, used in particular by video collectives like Videofreex. Later in 1970s, wealthier people would use Umatic, which Sony originally intended for home use.