Betamax, VHS, DVD, DVD-HD, now Blu-Ray.

[Bibbyman]

Some 25 years ago I was real jealous of some engineers in our office.  One had a Betamax video player. Then another bought the just introduced VHS video formant player.  Each machine cost something over $4,000.00.  Then a third engineer bought some kind of early laser disk player.  The disks were the size of a 78 album. There was a lot of discussion as to what format was best and what format would dominate the market and so on.  The only thing I knew is I wanted one but there was no way our budget could afford one.

Finally, after a couple of years there started to be places that would rent VHS players.  I can't remember how much I paid to rent a VHS player for the weekend but I think it was around $50 plus I had to put down a $200 deposit. We had to go to Columbia to rent tapes.  They were like $10 for the weekend and $50 deposit for each.  The first movie we watched was "On Golden Pond". 

Mary was dead set against buying a VHS player/recorder until I brought this one home.  The very next day we went back to Columbia and bought an AKIA VHS player/recorder.  The price had started to drop and this was the first one we'd seen under $1,000.00.   I think we paid $800 something for it.

Often on Friday after work we would run to Columbia and rent tapes for the weekend and return them on Monday after work.  Finally there was an electronics place in Jefferson City, where we worked, that rented tapes and the rental prices fell. 

To buy a movie was unheard of.  They ran between $60 and $100.  Blank tapes were over $10 if I can remember right.

Things went pretty normal for a number of years.  The prices of the VHS recorder/players came down and tapes were available everywhere.  Life was good.

Then came DVD format.  At first the only thing available was players.  They really didn't replace the VHS recorder.  But, as we all know,  now DVD player/recorders are everywhere at a modest price.

DVD has pretty much killed off the VHS format.  All the video rental stores are dumping their VHS movies.  Wal-Mart and other retailers have very few VHS movies and only a few blank VHS tapes.

Late last fall when Mary was doing some "deep cleaning" for the holidays,  I boxed up probably more than a hundred VHS tapes we seldom watched any more.  (One box is still setting at the end of our bed.)

Just when I'm getting to where I've about figured out how to format, record and "finalize" a DVD,  along comes another format – Blu-Ray. I've seen advertisements on TV saying that new movies will be available in DVD and Blu-Ray but I didn't know what that meant.

The other day I heard on the radio that Wal-Mart had selected Blu-Ray over DVD-HD format.  And that by April they would be phasing out their DVD stuff.  The report went on to say a couple of other major distributors followed Wal-Mart's lead and selected Blu-Ray as their next format.  This pretty much put the last nail in the coffin for DVD.   

We've collected hundreds of DVDs.  Will we have to have a player that will play VHS, DVD, and now Blu-Ray?

http://www.blu-ray.com/

At what point do we get too old to keep up on the "bleeding edge" of technology. smiley_old_guy

[footer]

In case you havent read this before.
from here.  http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/

So at least you can still watch your dvd movies, which was not the case with all the previous techonology changes.

2.2  Will Blu-ray be backwards compatible with DVD?


Yes, several leading consumer electronics companies (including Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp and LG) have already demonstrated products that can read/write CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs using a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical head, so you don't have to worry about your existing DVD collection becoming obsolete. In fact, most of the Blu-ray players coming out will support upscaling of DVDs to 1080p/1080i, so your existing DVD collection will look even better than before. While it's up to each manufacturer to decide if they want to make their products backwards compatible with DVD, the format is far too popular to not be supported. The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) expects every Blu-ray Disc device to be backward compatible with DVDs.

[Brad_S.]

I feel your pain.
After much research on which system had the superior technology, I bought a Betamax VCR. The rest of the world went with VHS.
After much research on which system had the superior technology, I bought a MacIntosh. The rest of the world went with IBM.
After much research on which manufacturer offered the best all round machine, I bought a Timber Harvester while the rest....OK, I won't go there.
I quit buying cutting edge electronics and now I sit around and wait for a clear winner to emerge. It sounds like Blu-Ray will be the choice but I'm not buying in just yet.

[DouginUtah]

Footer beat me to the 2.2 FAQ quote.  ;D

Are we all clear on the fact that you need to have a High Definition TV (1080i or 1080p) in order to justify a Blu-Ray player?

Okay, maybe 720, but I'm not sure about that.  :

[footer]

I feel your pain.
After much research on which system had the superior technology, I bought a Betamax VCR. The rest of the world went with VHS.
After much research on which system had the superior technology, I bought a MacIntosh. The rest of the world went with IBM.
After much research on which manufacturer offered a the best all round machine, I bought a Timber Harvester while the rest....OK, I won't go there.
I quit buying cutting edge electronics and now I sit around and wait for a clear winner to emerge. It sounds like Blu-Ray will be the choice but I'm not buying in just yet.

I agree 100%.........Although, I never bought the Betamax, i bought a VHS deck for $900.00. I never bought a MacIntosh, but Instead, waited and put together a 486 with Windows 3.1 for $2000.00. Then Windows 95 came out and I had to upgrade from 4 Megs of ram to 8 Megs for another $350.00 and Upgrade the 128 meg hard drive to a 500 Meg one for another $300.00. And anothe $100 and some odd dollars for the windows upgrade. Then in a few years Windows 98 came out the whole process started over. Now I  won't by the new technology when the prices over inflated.

[logwalker]

Wow great stories. Heres mine. In 1980 the first Sony Walkman cassette player came to the US. I was an avid skier at the time and thought that would be way cool to get one and ski to the music. So I ponyed up $200 which at the time was about a weeks take home pay and took her home. We had two preteens in the house and wouldn't you know that within a couple weeks the Walkman had received some pretty rough treatment and was ruined. Never did get the full story but I got over it. But it really hurt to think of my hard earned pay lost to that need to have the first of a new technology. It wasn't a few months and tape players were available for $50. I waited for a year or so and got one for $25 and it had an FM/AM radio built in.

I have never taken the plunge so quickly again and always remind myself of the "Walkman Syndrome" if I feel tempted. Works for me. Joe 

[Bibbyman]

I looked on the Wal-Mart and Sears web sites and it looks like the Blu-Ray players are just under $400.00 and they are only players.  Nowhere do they list that they record.  I found a couple of disks advertised – one was just under $15 and the other just under $19. 

I think I'll stick with the VHS, DVD player/recorder we have now until the prices go down and the features go up. 

Last fall I got all caught up with the Dish network's offer for FREE upgrade to Dish HD and up to four FREE receivers and FREE installation.  I called them up to see if I really qualified being already a Dish customer.  We did.  Then in the conversation I found out that we'd have to pay some $15/mo rental on the equipment on the FREE upgrade.  We happen to own our dish and receiver so it didn't sound so FREE to me.  I told the lady we didn't need HD and more receivers that bad.  We'd wait until our unit failed.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeaha Blue Ray and HD-DVD players are out. I have software than can burn those formats, juts not a recorder. I have a Blue Ray player though, it also plays all the older CD formats, it's a computer designed as a console. The Blue Ray prices are high here - $30. I won't buy a burner for some time. I always wait for prices to fall. Even when buying a DVD movie, I wait for the price to drop from $26 of a new release to $14 or $10. That usually takes about 3-6 months. Some local stores won't drop their price, so I just buy on Amazon. A boxed set goes for 50-$60 dollars here, I get it for $36 on Amazon. It's always been that way here in our area. If you go to the major centres the price is way cheaper. The grocery store here 'Atlantic Superstore' have been selling videos for a long time, but their prices stay high. I'm glad we have internet to by-pass those outfits.  ;D :D

[Bibbyman]

Yeaha Blue Ray and HD-DVD players are out. I have software than can burn those formats, juts not a recorder. I have a Blue Ray player though, it also plays all the older CD formats, it's a computer designed as a console. The Blue Ray prices are high here - $30. I won't buy a burner for some time. I always wait for prices to fall. Even when buying a DVD movie, I wait for the price to drop from $26 of a new release to $14 or $10. That usually takes about 3-6 months. Some local stores won't drop their price, so I just buy on Amazon. A boxed set goes for 50-$60 dollars here, I get it for $36 on Amazon. It's always been that way here in our area. If you go to the major centres the price is way cheaper. The grocery store here 'Atlantic Superstore' have been selling videos for a long time, but their prices stay high. I'm glad we have internet to by-pass those outfits.  ;D :D

When we hit Wally-World, I go to the $5 DVD bin.  Then I hit the $7.50 display, then up to the $9.95 and so on.  I'll almost never pay full price for a DVD.  The exceptions have been a few Walt Disney old movies that I know they'll never put in the discount bin.

We have hit BlockBuster and whatever the other one is in town and look over their used DVDs for sale. Again, we only buy if it's a bargain.  We were members of one of the places and rented for a while.  Then they got to letting "other people" (our sons) rent movies on our membership.  All you had to know was a telephone number.  A couple of times "they forgot" to take the movies back and the next time I was in, I had a lot of late fees to pay.  We made them cancel our membership.  They were pretty broken up about it.  The next few times we were in and bought movies, they tried to get us to member up.  No way.   >:(

[Kevin_H.]

When I heard the story, I thought walmart had chosen to drop the DVD-HD format and support the blu-ray, Which I understood to mean that they would still carry DVD's but not the DVD-HD?  I hope this isn't the end of DVD's altogether! I really like being able to back up all my movies.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah they'll be aroundfor awhile. Although the prices sure have dropped on DVR + R DL format. Went from $10 each down to $2 recently.

[tonich]

Maybe I am little old fashioned, but I really don’t fell for Blue-Ray right now.
As predicted a while ago, FDD was supposed to die several years ago.
I still keep seeing many people working with Floppy recently.

So, get used to it!  ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Hey you never mind.  :D I do have floppy, but I have 2 hard drives, a Jaz , Zip 100, and Sony CDR drive as well on this old antic. I can still buy 35 TPI 5-1/4 floppies for my old C= 128 to.  :D

[Larry]

Bout a month ago I got a new air brush...the instructions and helpful tips were on a DVD with no paper manual.  I had to break down and buy our first DVD player...and it even records.  While in Walmart the department manager was telling me they were going to all Blu-Ray in a short time.  He also said a lot of the new TV's will have built in Blu-Ray players.

After I got the new toy home Kathy found out we can check out DVD's from the library...for free. I've been suffering through a new show everyday now since I got the new machine...think I'll take it back and trade for a good book. ;D

[olyman]

if you go to a best buy, and look at the tv that has a movie playing in split screen. one side being dvd, and the other bluray, theres a lot of diff!!!!

[Tom]

I'm a little slow.  CD's are still "new" to me.  I like VHS because I've recorded a lot of shows off of the TV over the years and have quite a collection of stuff that is ill documented.  I've got stuff that I'll never be able to buy and don't know how to get it onto CD or another recording medium.   I've got old Chet Atkins appearances (I really like the one with the Boston Pops Orchestra) and the one show of a short-lived group that I've really liked, The O'Kane's.  Lots of Austin City Limits shows and almost the entire series of "The Hulk, thanks to my oldest boy who never missed a show.

Bibbyman,
I was told, years ago, that VHS recordings are almost as pure as CD and sometimes better.  The suggestion was to use them for other than movies.  They will record hours on end as audio and keep their fidelity.   If you have a lot of good music, make copies on VHS.  You will have music for a party that will last all night and you can afford to repeat songs because of the longivity.  VHS is Stereo and can be used to drive your audio amplifier and speakers on your Stereo system or even a "surround sound".

I still would enjoy making casette tapes for travel, but, the automobiles don't favor cassette players anymore.

I'm not sure what to do with my "collections"

[SwampDonkey]

I wouldn't toss the VHS yet. Tom your shows on tape will out last those DVD's. I've seen many of them fail, straight out of the box. Get one bad area on the DVD and the who disk is a toaster. On a VHS, you just keep reeling on beyond the bad spot in the tape. Use good quality tapes to record on and they last a long time. Heck they even used film from the thirties and converted them to DVD without doing more than digitizing the film. Then promptly placed the film back in storage. The software takes out the dirt because there are 3 rolls of film one each for Cyan, Magenta and yellow. One frame might has a spec on it in one roll and the others not, so it can be recovered. Just see how crisp movies like Wizard of Oz are from 1939 when restored. They had to be good quality to begin with because garbage doesn't begat stunning quality. :D

[pigman]

I have a real nice AKIA reel to reel autio recorder-player. I wonder if now would be a good time to upgrade to one of those 8-track recorder-players. :P  I don't want to buy new technology too quick and pay too much. :P

[SwampDonkey]

You mean down grade?  ;D :D

[asy]

Guys..

Want to know the reason VHS won over Betamax (the better system)?
Want to know the reason IBM won over Mac (the theoretically better system)?

It's really simple....  ADVERTISING.  That's it...

The advertising made the former more popular and therefore beat out the latter.

I will be quite upset if they do phase out DVDs as we have quite a collection. Gotta love those discount bins, you can sure pick some good stuff up in them!

asy :D

[Bibbyman]

Our line of PCs....

Way back a long time ago, one of the engineers bought a Sinclair 1000.  It was the first computer for under $100.  It was about the size of a pancake and had a chicklet keyboard. You could store data and programs on your cassette player.  He had it a few months and then the Commodore came out and he upgraded to that.  I gave him I think $15 for the Sinclair. About all you could do on it was make a basic program that would add one to the sum and put it in a loop and watch it count up numbers.  But that was pretty exciting.

http://oldcomputers.net/zx80.html


The next PC, if you can call it that, was the Atari 400.  It had program cartages about the size of a cigarette pack.  You could play games and do some programming.  We played a lot of ping pong. 

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=76

Then we went plumb nuts and got a Kaypro 4.  It was the first PC we had with a real keyboard, two double sided floppy drives, a black and white screen about 7" across.  It was billed as a portable as the keyboard snapped to the front of the main box that held the monitor and floppy drives.  I think it had 4k of memory and ran on the CPM operating system.  It came with a lot of software including a spreadsheet and word processor.  The software was very simple.  I think we bought an Okidata printer to go with it.  I think we paid about $2,000 for the Kaypro 4 and printer.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=548

We later bought another Kaypro II at a yard sale or something for a couple hundred bucks.  My older son played with it for a while.  It has some kind of accelerator board in it.

The first DOS base machine was a Leading Edge.  It had two double sided, double density floppy drives and came with a lot of software. I came out right after the first IBM PC and had the 8088 processor.  We used it a number of years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading_Edge_Model_D

Then we had three Gateway PCs.  We had very little trouble with the first two.  The second one is still running out in the saw office.  It must be 10 years old.  There is very little left of the third one.  We've replaced everything including the box, monitor, mother board, processor, drives, fans, keyboard, etc.

The last PC we bought was an ACER notebook.  It's been very reliable.

We sold the Keypro 4 in a yard sale for $100.00.  I still have the Keypro II in my closet.  I've ran a cross the Atari 400 a time or two.  I don't know if it's still around or not.

[SwampDonkey]

My first computer I used was a CBM Pet 8032 and also a 4016. They were used mostly for word processing, but could be programed through BASIC, they were connected to a dual floppy drive and we had Daisey Wheel printers. This was in High School. Then I bought my first computer a C= Vic20 with a dataset drive for storage. It had about 4 k or ram I think. I sold it to a room mate in college who used it for some hobby project. I then got a C=128 and used it in the first two years of college, it was as capable as the 286 at the time andmore colors, 100,000 colors. Had two screen modes and a C= 64 mode, and CP/M 3.0 mode. The disk drive could read DOS, CP/M and CBM formats. I then went to an Amiga 3000 which I used the rest of College, then I went to an A4000 which I still have and am typing this reply on. :D I then went on to a couple of Toshiba laptops since 2000. 'They said Amiga was dead, long live the AMiga' is the moto.  Well, it does live on, there has bene a new OS released in the last couple of years and that OS is even compatible with old AMiga models 15 years old with PPC accelerator cards. :D One of those loaded babies can still fetch $2000-3000 bucks off eBay. WHat is a 386 worth? :D

[footer]

Gee......You guys are making me feel young ;D

[Bibbyman]

Toshiba quits HD DVD business

[isawlogs]

Well now , I was one of them that bought a VHS for 1500$ and bought the same model one year later at the low cost of 800$ , only to be able to copy movies that where rented .  :
  That was the last time I bought something nearly new to technologie . I waited to get a compact disc player for under a 100$. I bought a DVD player for less then 50$ , maybe I will wait this new thing out some and they will be giving them away  ;) :P

  Compact disc player .... I never did like them very much, I liked hearing the noise the needle made in the back ground. Led Zeplin and Pink Floyd never did sound the same . Maybe that was not the needles fault  :