TiVo’s Early Ancestor….
Posted by Chuck on November 3rd, 2007
Check this out. It’s an actual ad from the Birmingham News November 1977. I found it on one of my favorite history sites, Birmingham Rewound. I can’t imagine there were many families who could afford to shell out a grand for one of these early VCR’s. It was ‘84 or ‘85 before my dad brought one home to my family. I want to say he paid over $400 for it then. It was a lot of money, but it sure was worth it to be able to tape all those movies on HBO. It was the early days of having your own video collection. Good times! Now I don’t even own a VCR and I haven’t since my divorce four and a half years ago. But we got plenty of DVD players. I’m typing on one of them now. Funny how times and technology change. I wonder if, one day, we’ll look back on the TiVo like we do this early VCR ad and reminisce?
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:45 am
My dad. My dad is one of those fools that bought a VCR in the late 70’s, maybe 1980, and spent $1,000 on it. He had to be the first! This was just the beginning for him on his “I must be first in having all things electronic even if I don’t know what they do” phase. (Well, phase means there’s an ending…)
Regardless, we had this kind of VCR. Back then, you had to pay a monthly fee to belong to the video store, so you could pay to rent movies. It was ridiculous!! I remember that first VCR… it was a BEAST. And the “remote” had a cord.
Ahh, good times…
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:45 am
Did I not just leave a comment?
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:16 am
That is too funny! I wasn’t even around in 1977….and I think we probably got our first VCR around 1986. I can remember putting a tape in to record a show on TBS called Rocky Road. I remember trying to be very quiet b/c I thought it would record everything, including my voice, lol.
November 3rd, 2007 at 11:11 am
Although I don’t remember VCR’s at that price, I recall paying around $400 for the first one I bought. Once it broke down I paid a repairman to come in. When he opened it I was quite surprised to find it was a big container with next to nothing in it.
I, however, still have two. A DVD/VCR combo unit picked up at a silent auction at a bar last year, and my fifteen year old TV with the built in.
They both get used nearly every day.
November 3rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
I remember when my dad bought us one and it was $500. I thought we were RICH!! When Paul & I first got married, we got a hand-me-down VCR from his family, and it was a top-loader. That thing lasted FOREVER!! I was actually kind of sad to see it die.
Ah nostalgia….
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:17 pm
This is my 3rd and final attempt at posting a comment!
My dad was one of those crazy fools that had to have the “first VCR”. He spent $1,000 on it and it was a BEAST. This began a lifelong love affair with having the first of everything for my dad. To go along with this VCR, we had to have movies! To rent movies, that required a monthly fee to belong to the video club, where you could the pay to rent a movie. It was expensive times for a VCR owner. The “remote”, also, had a cord. Good times, indeed.
November 3rd, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Chas - I seem to remember wondering early on, if they recorded sounds in the room too…like a tape recorder.
George - You know, you reminded me. I do have one of those DVD/VCR combos. We never use it, but it’s there.
Julie - I remember my ex, FA, had one of those top loaders in her dorm room. We watched 9 1/2 Weeks on it. Closest thing to porn we could find.
Taja - I remember the monthly fee thing at video rental places. The place we went to used index cards and would write down the movies you rented.
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Remember when you went to the video store and had to choose between Beta or VHS? My how times have changed!
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:09 pm
I don’t remember when we got our first VCR, but I know my BIL had to have one and I think, like many of the others here, that he paid about $400 for it. Since I spent so much time at their house, I must’ve destroyed their copies of Goonies, Trading Places, etc. from having watched them ad nauseum. My husband and I bought a DVD/VCR combo player too, but I can’t think of the last time we used the tape deck. Why did we do that??
November 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Chuck,
I still have a BetaMax, an 8-Track player, 2 turntables, and an RCA Video-Disk player (with a needle). Yeah, I’m on the leading edge of technology.
November 3rd, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Jerry - Damn man, you’re like the ultimate entertainment historian guy! I remember a friend of mine in the early to mid 80’s who had one of those Video Disk players. The disks were the size of a LP right? I watched American Werewolf In London on his families machine.
BO Amy - LOL you did it because you thought there might be a chance you’d have a reason to someday pop a tape in…Goonies, what a great movie!
Julie - Beta….yeah, I’d forgotten all about that! I always chose the VHS.
November 4th, 2007 at 10:43 am
I knew a guy who studied and studied. He dropped $800 + on a BetaMax because he KNEW it was the technology of the future. The last time I saw him he was managing a bowling alley.
November 5th, 2007 at 8:43 am
I have a vcr/dvd combo now, sad thing is as I began packing for our move this weekend, I realize now that there’s a baby in the house again we’re about to start using the VCR side. See, I still have all the Disney movies on VHS from when the teenagers (now 15 & 16) were toddlers. I guess some part of me always knew I’d go crazy and have another baby (8 months ago) but did I have to wait so close to almost being free? Wait … wasn’t this about a vcr? What about those huge cameras that recoreded on the VHS tapes, did you ever think you were part of the crew on a movie set? hahaha
November 5th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Pretty soon that Blu-Ray shit is gonna take over the world and regular DVD’s will be extinct. Sometimes technology sucks.
But yeah, I remember we owned a Beta-Max….
I was the first kid on the block
November 5th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I look at my television that way. Or the television I used to have….
November 5th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
We got Betamax first. And it was a superior technology, but Sony didn’t want to share, and people didn’t want to pay Sony prices. So, after a few months, we got a VHS VCR.
My husband and I still have two VCR’s but neither are connected to a TV.
November 5th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I remember my Ex paid $400 for our first DVD player and we were one of the first that had one (and he bought it while I was out of town so I came home and it was just “there”). My parents were fairly cheap so we didn’t have a VCR for a really long time, well after most people did.
I think we’ll get to the point where we watch holograms of TV in mid-air and at any distance before too long.
November 5th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I think I saw my first Betamax around 85… vhs probably 87. Did not own one until much later in life.
November 5th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I feel so deprived. We didn’t even have cable in our house when I was growing up. I remember when I went to a bar and MTV was playing on the TV, I was so facinated. I sat for hours and watched it.
November 5th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Sugdad - LOL poor fella!
Pammy - True. I’ve got a lot of those Disney, Land Before Time and Pokemon movies on VHS. Reckon it’s yard sale time for them!
Slick - You’re right about the Blueray. I sure wish I had a HD TV.
OGC - What happened to it?
Lynda - We never did the Betamax. Reckon that’s a good thing.
Becky - Yep, it’s hard to believe how quickly technology goes down in price. I was just reading in the paper this morning that the slingbox is under $200 now. I’d like to have one of those. And I agree about the holograms.
Logtar - I’m not sure I ever saw a betamax….maybe I’m missing something.
Cake Lady - LOL you poor thing. I guess thats why you turned out so pure, right?