1980: VIDEO DISCS - the future of HOME ENTERTAINMENT? | Tomorrow's World | Retro Tech | BBC Archive
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- The video tape wars are raging, with multiple recorders and tape formats vying for dominance.
Michael Rodd reports on the current state of play in the home video recorder market, and looks at some of the exciting new machines on offer - including a new 'portable' VCR and machines that offer up to eight hours of recording time on a single cassette.
Into this hyper-competitive market comes the Philips VLP-700 LaserDisc - a video disc system which offers increased picture quality and playback control over its tape-based counterparts, but without their recording functionality - it will be on the market in early 1981.
Could this shiny upstart herald a new era of home entertainment media?
This clip is from Tomorrow's World, originally broadcast 31 January 1980.
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I remember my dad getting a VCR in the 80s, absolute beast, lasted until the millennium and then gave up.
'absolute beast' the VCR or your dad? 🙂
@@RUSH2112RUSH lol the VCR.
You're lucky it lasted that long. Any idea what model it was?
you make it sound like the VCR was the lone soldier fighting against a horde of iPods
I still use VHS because it's more reliable than DVDs and you actually own the real item itself, unlike with streaming.
Michael Rodd was a class act. This was my favourite era of Tomorrow's World.
Spot on - that show in that era was just excellent. Every Thursday night, just before top of the pops
@@TheChiefSmeg69 Oh, that was an hour of TV heaven.
mine too
I remember my family getting it's first VCR in the late 80s - a stylish silver and black Panasonic VHS model with wireless remote. By that stage, it was pretty much a certainty that VHS had won, and the only other contender, BETAMAX, was on it's last legs. What I recall most about the family VCR was how tricky it could be to program, how annoying it was to reset it all after a powercut (which were still relatively frequent in those days, going out for an hour or two at least every other week), and how my parents struggled to do more than press stop, play and forward/rewind, ha ha. Learning to plug cables in the right holes, program the VCR and do all manner of minor troubleshooting "cut my teeth" on "technology" in general, so much so that I became the family "fix it man" for electronics until my 2 younger brothers caught me up 5 or so years later. I still recall how annoying the low quality of VHS recordings were to me, even before I'd seen a laserdisc recording, no matter how good quality tapes I tried to get my hands on. It was great being able to watch The Young Ones the next morning when I was on twilight shift (which meant I usually got home after the 11pm start of the program), and then watch each episode again and again, seeing the quality diminish as I went. They were "fun" days, learning about technology and having a new level of convenience and entertainment, but the convenience of today runs rings around it, not to mention "perfect every time" audio and video quality. :0)
We had one similar in the early 80s
V 2000 gave VHS and Betamax a Good run for thier money, when videos first came out because you could ,record on Both sides of the tapes, Trouble was Only a selected few Shops ,rented films to watch, So your right VHS was best ,HAPPY DAYS ALL THE SAME ! 80,S FOR EVER ,!
I remember our first "piano key" VCR. I also remember my Mum asking if we could talk while it's recording or will our voices come out on the tape.
Lol my mum said that to me to stop me talking over the tv until I learned otherwise 😂
You've gotta love Mums! 🤣🤣🤣
I am sat here surrounded by many of the machines and tapes demonstrated here. I've even run some tapes for Michael Rodd himself!
I remember him from 'Screen Test'
Love your videos about video formats
The truth is Laserdisc was the only (semi) successful video disc format for the home, the RCA version actually used a stylus and was about 15 years too late when it was introduced (technolgically). Lasers wouldn't catch on really until the 90s. It had a short career as the ultimate formate for quality before DVDs were introduced in the late 90s. But there are some people who still love Laserdisc and collect them to this day.
I remember the first time we got a VCP, and then a few years later, a VCR. It all seemed so incredible at the time but now it's all in the cloud, to watch wherever, whenever, and on whatever device you have near you.
Wherever there is an internet connection (and a good one preferably) you mean.
@@c0mpu73rguy yes but now with mobile data, that's almost anywhere. I'm presently on vacation and watched the latest episode of my favorite show on mobile.
@@sban8377 "Almost anywhere" where you are I assume is "almost nowhere" where I am. Most places too far from a big city don't have mobile data. And since mobile data is very limited anyway, it's barely enough to watch a movie before burning all your credits for the month.
@@c0mpu73rguy Where do you live? Is it a european country? Seriously curious, not sarcasm!
@@fragnix808 Yep, I'm in eastern France but I often have to move south. While it is decent-ish in the east (if a city is near and if the weather is fine), it is catastrophic in the south west.
EDIT: This is by no means a complaint, just an observation. Internet is not that important outside, as long as it works at home.
A concise,, clear explanation, presentation.
I wander exactly how many people that got curious, or even mistook one of these video discs and literally tried to play one in a vinyl record player, and regretted it.
underrated comment nice one bro
Nobody ...... unless they're stupid!
The DVD format released in the nineties is closer to this broadcast than today. New release films releasing on it still. Folks enjoying standard definition in 2022.
just don't put SD on a 50" + TV, because it makes the limitations much more apparent... Otherwise, yes, much more future proof than TAPE.
@@aaroninclub Football looks terrible in sd on a big tv
@@aaroninclub It depends the SD. Something like a Commodore 64 computer(or almost any computer or game console until about 1995) that outputs progressive SD(it halfs the vertical resolution to achieve this) will look fine even on the biggest screen, but a Sky box, DVD player, Playstation 2 or Dreamcast will look like crap even on the best flat panel because the interlacing artefacts. The beam of a CRT simply moves so fast that it blurs the picture a bit, acting as a natural filter.
@@fattomandeibu comments like yours are why I enjoy the invention of the internet.
@@fattomandeibu so the Wii only utilizes interlace also? I know it was a cost-cutting console which compensated for the lack of sales from the GC and N64...
I remember being excited in the 80s over video tapes and the ability to watch banned films, now even its successor is old fashioned.
Kinda makes you feel old.... 🤣
Nothing beat the joy of taping a rarely seen late night movie and trying to pause the tape when the adverts came on. 😂🤣
I am still watch and collect Laserdiscs. A timeless format.
Yeah I always pray there is a player at goodwill
I think they took off big time in America and Asia …..Nobody bothered in the UK with Laser Disc.
We had the RCA video player in the 1980s. Was basically a record player with black LP-size discs. May even have had a stylus because ours would jump forward every now and then, which was infuriating. My Dad paid £99 in 1985. Looking back, it was crap - but I still have fond memories of it, especially watching Duran Duran Greatest Hits and the uncensored version of Girls On Film for the first time. Ohh, yes!!! Pressed the Skip Back button on that a few times.
Yes, that was a CED machine, and it did indeed have a stylus it used. The disc would eventually get worn, like a record. The hard plastic cover for the disc had a velvet strip at the end where the disc would get wiped automatically, upon the machine loading and unloading the disc.
Video disc player with the disc in a sleeve? I have the same ‘girls on film’ disc, fantastic, isn’t it 😛
@@alexrankin2235I remember when those CED players 1st came out in late 1983. Never had one myself, but I did have an early stereo (pre hi-fi) VHS recorder & I always enjoyed recording stereo TV/radio simulcasts on it
I remember when I was a wee nipper in school, my mate turns round and gives it "them cd's are gonna take over them tapes and no one's gonna have them tapes no more" and I was like "naaa mate that'll never happen. Tapes will be around foreveeeeer" then of course cd's did take over... But now these days if you give a cd (or a tape) to someone for Christmas, they look at you funny 🤣🤣 my how things have changed eh?
I haven't bought a CD in nearly 10 years!!
When the Charity shops first refused VHS, about 8 yrs ago, I was shocked.
@@aidy6000 I usually buy music on CD still. I like to see the sleeve art, and I don’t feel like I own it unless I’ve got a physical copy. And if the internet goes down, my iPad breaks and I can’t afford another, the streaming site has technical issues or something like that I can still listen to music.
Where I find digital music buying to be an advantage though is when I want a song but don’t really want the rest of the album. Then I can buy one song for a relatively low price.
@@aidy6000 me too, but that's mostly because modern music is shite.
I still buy CDs but only so I can then rip them into a lossless format rather than buying lossy audio from online stores.
Always thought that Michael Rodd was a big influence in the creation of Alan Partridge.
That is exactly what I thought.
Absolutely his mannerisms especially 😂
Aaah ladyboys!
what i like about these videos, is how well they explain how tech works in just few words. all those nowday videos are like 30 minutes for something that can be explained in 30 seconds.
CDs and DVDs had short life tho
Because before they would think how can they explain this in a very simple way. While now most are thinking how can they explain this that will make them look smart.
Not ad driven, unlike youtube. I'm so fed up with the 12 minute video saying something that takes 15 seconds to say.
I still have got over 20 CDs and over 100 DVDs, half of the latter being porn :)
Even though today's media players have a much higher resolution, they have a super cheap feel to them. Back when you had amazingly complex machines like VCRs and laserdisc players they had to be built to precise tolerances in order to function correctly and you could feel it in the weight of the units. Today's solid state home video units are basically some chips inside of a cheap plastic shell.
Which reflects their prices
Video players used to cost a fortune, $1000 is a lot of money in today's world, but especially back then where a brand new civic costed $3000
Now you can get a decent bluray player for $70
@@tristan6509 came here to say this.
Accessibility is key to success. That's why all thw aforementioned portables bombed commercially.
I'd rather have my 4k HDR and cheap feeling plastic player device than some heavy looking device with its low-res NTSC/PAL interlaced video output.
These aren't things you pass down to the grandkids either like some heavyweight furniture. They're made for landfill or recycling. But, ideally, they should be made to be as easy to recycle above all else -- this is the more mature responsible thing to do going forward with these entertainment devices.
My first dvd player had to get an update to play certain films. When he opened up it was 50% empty space.
@@MartinFarrell1972 you need air flow to prevent overheating, otherwise called empty space
State of that disk 😮 RCA was stylus, totally different animal 😂 Loved Tomorrow's World, every Thursday would watch it with my Dad
"Electronic home movie camera!" How wonderful
Some day, they'll build one into a phone that fits in your pocket, including the recording mechanism!
1:33 look at all the finger prints...give it a clean for god sake :)
I remember all these old VCR systems and huge top loaded recorders, one time back in the 80´s when i rented a movie i got home and i had gotten the wrong type of cassette, ha ha.
I'd keep quiet about that if I were you! People will think you're dumb! 👎🤣
I've seen that animation on how the video disc works used repeatedly to show how the compact disc worked. That is how optical discs work so there's nothing wrong with recycling it. Still, I did find it interesting to see it in an article older than 1983.
My dad bought a Sony portable Beta VCR and camera around that time. The thing was always faulty and my abiding memory of the time was my poor mother having to take it all back to the shop, plus me and my younger brother who was in a push-chair, multiple times for repair, having to cross a busy road to do so. After repairing it for the 4th time, the shop then refused when it packed up again. So my parents had to take them to small claims court in the end...
I remember watching this programme. It was a couple of years after this before my parents got a video recorder. By then VHS was pretty much standard. But already by 1979 we were being shown educational programmes at school on a Betamax machine on a trolley with a TV on the top shelf. This was wheeled in one day by the school technician, who put in the tape and switched it on as we and the teacher watched expectantly. Much to our delight, the tape began not with the schools programme but Monty Python and Michael Palin as Mr Gumby doing flower arranging!
Yeah you can't beat them crymanthesums!!
You have to be a "technician" to put in a tape and switch a VCR on? ... We must all have been technicians then? 🤣
Is no one going to acknowledge that this guy is clearly the inspiration for Alan Partridge? Haha!
now Isee it
That was my first though, his speech pattern is uncannily similar!
I've just commented this very thing, before I scrolled this far. Absolutely.
Not seen this one before. Great episode. Xxxx ♡
The tape format 'issue' soon went 80/20 for VHS/Beta.
DVD is the descendant of Philips LaserVision & CD.
We now have 'solid state' recording , editing & playback units in our pockets!
0:39 ''barely''' portable VCR machine
"offers something we want to watch over and over again." Well, that happened... I can't remember how many times I watched Airplane! on this thing, skipping back to get the full joke in the dialog. Lovely bit of kit. Shame it sounded like a washing machine spinning up....
Surprised it played with those finger marks on it.
My first VCR: A top-loading Panasonic NV-366 (with wired remote control) rented from Visionhire. Went it went wrong the engineer removed the cover, powered it up, then ‘cleaned’ the spinning head drum by holding a piece of card against it.
During my stint at Visionhire (1987-1993) the Panasonic NV366 along with the basic NV333 were sold as ex-rental models for the bargain! price of £119.99. One reason there was a huge demand for those models was that they wern't fitted with the anti video piracy Copyguard circuit. Yes the SERVICESCOPE Techs knew all the repair short cuts.
@@Bruce-vq7ni - Thanks for the reply Bruce. At the time (1983) we thought we were right posh going for the 366 over the 333!
Paper soaked in Isopropyl Alcohol would be better, as cardboard is hard and inflexible and would likely damage the ferrite head tips! ... Dumb technicians, if you ask me! 👎🤣
I still have a Pioneer LaserDisc player and a big box of diiscs for it.
Did it still work last time you tried it? (Have you even got something to plug its output into?)
@@G6JPG Yes it works, I plugged into an analogue Sanyo TV via SCART.
I remember back in 1980 my dad bought a betamax video recorder and tried sticking a vhs film in it😂😂😂.
He'd have a job, as the Betamax cassette was smaller than VHS!
This is the precursor to the dvd 📀 which was a smash hit with consumers
This stuff was madly expensive!
See that suitcase sized machine on the right in the middle with the orange button on the front ? well my uncle had one of those machines installed in his front room and one day oh back in the 1980's sometime my parents took me to visit good old uncle Ted and wow when I first entered his from room and saw that box whirring and buzzing away I thought this is the future now... I'm looking at tomorrow wow... I was about 12 years old and I just loved the lights and it even had a remote control... amazing, any way they left me alone for a while and that's when I was looking around his front room for whatever it was when all of a sudden I found a secret cache of VHS pron... I couldn't believe it, literally a wardrobe of smut befell my poor adolescent eyes... all I saw were the names on the sides of the cases... anyway I quickly shut the cupboard door sat back down in front of the TV and when everyone returned I was no longer a boy... "No uncle... we'll leave the hug... see you next year byeeeeee!"
I’m assuming you meant Porn 😂 or did you find a load of prawn? Either way your uncle was a pioneer in his field.
You too huh. Uncle Ted has a lot to answer for don't he
Video Discs like DVD blu-ray and 4k are still relevant today it's amazing how it stands the test of time
No there not at all there obsolete too
@@leonardhpls6 Transparently not, hence why people still buy them, including those with the most expensive home cinemas. The image & audio quality is excellent.
Not to mention that people own them(&/or sell them) forever, and can play them regardless of losing their internet connection, or a service closes down.
WoW.... I can't wait for this Space Age technology to arrive in my home town. I will be one of the first consumers to purchase one of these glorious contraptions. I ever so wonder, what else may be on the horizon to titillate my curiosity. 🤔
These are definitely the future! I’m going to trade in my Betamax VCR for one 👍🏻
I do when they would bring back ‘Tomorrows World’, it would be nice to see what they think is the future now or they could look back at what they thought would be the future back then
It would be pretty boring. What's left to invent? Back in the '70s and '80s, there were lots of new technologies, like VCRs, CDs and mobile telephones, which seemed revolutionary to a lay audience, and were easy to demonstrate on TV. Everything's a computer now, and the information about new developments is freely available on the internet.
He nearly had an hernia picking up that "portable" video tape machine.
@paulwilson1555 I once rented one of those bulkier portable machines from D.E.R for a friend's wedding....& you're right, they weighed a bloody ton !
It’s magical
It’s incredible where we are now with anything we’d ever want to watch literally at our fingertips. Different time. I see it with my daughter when she asks to watch something, and she is very specific in what she wants, because she knows it’s possible. If she wants to watch Blippi ride a helicopter, 5 seconds later she’s got it.
amazing in its time
I see the fingerprints on the disk. Instant freakout.
I'm more freaked out by the scratches.
you can't hold it on 1 side without holding it on the other. And the risk of dropping(scratching) it is too big if you focus on only holding it on the edges
I can remember getting my first VCR in the early to mid 1980s, it was around £400 but as I bought it on hire purchase (credit) I ended up paying substantially over £550 for it which is well over £1700 in todays money, not the most exciting of anecdotes i know but I thought I'd add my two pennyworth anyway...
That's _hire_ purchase (you were hiring it until you'd paid off the loan), and "penn'orth" (short for pennyworth)🙂
@@G6JPG Thanks
That’s my dvd players grandad 😂
I need to get one of those "time shifting devices"!! :D
There was quite a large shortage of Flux Capacitors in the '80s which unfortunately made the units very expensive to buy.
I'm a Canadian, so we've got a few time zones. I remember satellite (digital) TV being advertised as "time shifting" because you could watch programming as it came on in different time zones.
My favourite was watching the Simpsons a half hour early because of Newfoundland.
@@Larry Ah, I remember the 80's, back when you could buy plutonium in any corner drug store.
This certainly was an improvement to chiselling 1s and 0s into stone.
😂👏🏼
that's called "M-disc"
Is that for watching ROCK 🎶 MUSIC? 🤣
@@marcse7en ha ha!
From memory the 900th anniversary Domesday Project was put on this format and within a few years was unreadable and effectively lost to history!
Exactly! Whereas the original Domesday book can still be read today.
It was even a special version - I don't _think_ the home player could access it. However, there is (or was a few years ago - not sure if still going) a group of enthusiasts working on rescuing what was on it, for posterity.
Which is why archeologists still do drawings of digs rather than rely on technology.
Oh boy, do I miss Tomorrow’s World!
Good news! ... If you wait 24 hours, you'll be in it! 👍🤣
@@marcse7en 😂
Sadly, I fear if they tried to do something similar today, it'd not be the same.
@@G6JPG I agree. Shame. The closest we ever got in recent history was the early series’s of the gadget show.
Still got loads of vhs tapes with carry on films on them 🤣
Who remembers the Betamax apocalypse of 1984? So many VCRs died that year when the owners switched to VHS
Is it true that people switched to VHS for the vast catalogue of porn?
@@jfletcher1029
I don't know. It sounds plausible. But I think it was VHS being the cheapest video system that made it popular, despite it offering inferior sound and picture quality compared with other systems
@@jfletcher1029
It was the other way around. People didn't switch to VHS because of porn, porn became prevalent on VHS because that was the most common video form as it was cheaper and also held more footage even if the quality wasn't as good.
Yikes! Look at all the scratches and fingerprints on the laser disc! I would hate to see how those people handled their record albums!
Yeah, but remember when CDs came out and there was this weird urban myth that they were impossible to damage or scratch. And then we realised they jump because they have a tiny mark on them. 😂🤣
The days when VHS recorders were called "time shifting devices" 🤣
Ok, well now I fully understand the term "Compact Disk" 😂
'Compact' in Compact Disc was almost certainly in relation to audio records rather than laserdisc, as records were the common higher quality source of audio prior to CDs.
The Laserdisc Player cartoon (Sorry, Google Translate) shows a digital CD Player. But on the Laserdisc there is an analog CVBS signal. In Hastings all host families had Betamax (language trip 1984), in Winchester all host families had VHS (class trip 1985). TV technician from Hamburg (Germany)
Laser albums are the future of home entertainment
1970s : 8 track tapes are the future of music
8 track never took off in UK (or, I think, most of western Europe).
V2000 , Betamax, U Matic had the better picture but VHS still won
Because VHS had more manufacturers (I think they gave out licences free) whereas the others were tightly controlled by their development companies so never gained enough traction.
V2000 and Betamax 3 MHz bandwidth, VHS 2½ (broadcasts were 5½ or 6 MHz, so all formats were less than live). V2000 was the only one with dynamic track following, hence could do noise-free different speeds and stills (and was the one with 4-hour tapes you could turn over, hence the 8 hours - IIRR that was at standard speed, so 8 [16!] in LP). I think VHS won due to wider selection of pre-recorded material being available.
That was one of the reasons why VHS won: the slower tape speed reduced quality but easily achieved 2 hours on a normal tape. U-Matic was way to big and expensive for home use.
@@straightpipediesel I don't think the discussion is including U-Matic: that was always a professional or semi-professional format. The real battle was between VHS and Betamax (and V2000, though that didn't have much following in UK, sadly).
Bring back the old days
Put the year in the title ....it will help .....
1996 in the UK. 😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
It’s in the description.
1980
@@4879daniel we know that, thank you
Funny how video discs and laserdiscs were around several years before CDs.
Yes, laserdiscs basically begat CDs.
Laserdiscs are analogue, which made things easier.
My uncle had one of them massive laserdisc machines
We had one as well, but we had only two discs for it. 🤣😂
I remember getting a free cd with a magazine, hearing that the discs were almost unbreakable....I then got out my hammer. 😂
Wow I cant wait
The good old days.
No social media.
No woke.
No snowflake.
No virtue signalling.
Just two genders.
No email.
No smartphones.
Bliss...
Who else remembers "Screen Test"?
Yes. Now you are showing your age. 🤣😂
Hmm. Yeah, good to see that Tomorrow's World didn't always get it right. All the competing video cassette formats apart from VHS were pretty much dead by 1985. Laserdisc got a niche as a "videophile" format, but its limitations and cost precluded mass adoption. And that RCA machine he mentions? Well, the CED was such a massive failure it brought down the whole RCA company.
Note to TW's set guys - make sure you clean the fingerprints off the Laserdisc before the talent holds it up to the studio lights.
What's funny is they didn't mention the VHD by name, as that wasn't just being developed by "the Japanese companies" the UK's very own Thorn EMI were behind that one as well!
There's a pretty good argument even that it was over well before 1985, Techmoan mentioned on his Video 2000 retrospective that VHS won the war early on by essentially winning over those early adopters which basically made VHS' momentum unstoppable.
I remember when the VCR was at the store on display for $798..... on sale,
The weight of them was legendry
insofar as digital encoding of home entertainment HAS become mainstream the video-disc -> DVD -> mpeg this was very prescient.
what happened to that glass sugar cube looking storage medium they showed on TW?
I believe they ARE the future. Where can I buy them ?
Michael here is giving me real Alan Partridge vibes.
Should've gone to Specsavers, because I can't see it myself! 👎🤣
I saw one old vcd player, size of computer desktop cpu. Very big. Then newer one fits on palm like discman. In 2010s a usb could hold few movies, and can watch in few players including computers. In 2020s, just an internet connection on phone, i could watch any movie i want.
A VHS was the first thing i learned to "program". Had to set all the channels and times manually, and then when the programme was delayed you'd miss the end! Set me up for a good career in IT though!
IT is slightly more complex than setting a timer for Coronation Street at 7:30 pm on ITV! 🤣
Can't believe the studio team didn't clean the fingerprints off that disc. Now we know why the format failed.
That’s the first thing I thought 😂 All those fingerprints and light scratches 🙈 I wanted to clean it with my t-shirt as I was watching lol
I was looking for this comment. Thank you
Wasn't the ability to "finger" it, with no issues. One of the selling points?
Wow! They look great, I'm gonna get one as soon as they come out!
I guess we aren't worried about quality too much with all those fingerprints and scratches on that disc.
At 01:55 he clearly puts the disc upside down, as the laser and lens were on the bottom of the machine, and the recorded material on the disc is facing upwards. The shiny side. I have dozens of those discs with the original Star Trek on them. They make nice wall clocks by adding a clock movement and some self stick numbers.
The irony is about this is that according to Techmoan on his Video 2000 episode was make a compelling case that by 1980, the format war was essentially already over due to VHS establishing clear momentum over the competitors. What we're watching essentially here is the time before the market competitors to VHS realised just how much game over it was for them.
I need an electronic home movie camera...... wait I got a phone in my pocket !!!!!
My Aunt had the laser disc way back and on of the best films on it was raise the titanic! it looked amazing even back then but my god the noise it made spinning and the size of them were huge! not to mention the cost .....it was way to much.
Ha, the RCA CED wasn't the same device. It's what bankrupted them.
all my discs now have got disk rot😢
can't wait till these come out, 8 hrs on a tape , thr future is here
V2000!
Where can I get me some of these marvellous, futuristically shiny discs? Seems a lot better than paying corporations to stream films for a monthly fee. Whaddya mean I can't get them?
Video Disc: I am the future of home entertainment!!
DVD: Hold my beer, Video Disc
Blu-ray: Hold my beer, DVD
Hard drives: Hold my beer
Streaming: Hold my beer
dvd and blu ray are video discs too.
@@svin7987 I know, I was referring to what names they were known by, and it's really Laserdisc, isn't it? Not "Video Disc".
I wonder how much data a Blu-ray disk that size cold hold?
All the data in the entire Universe! ... Probably! 👍🤣
And everything is digitally downloaded, I remember having this big silver VCR back in the 80s and a ZX spectrum, with rubber keys, technology has certainly advanced way past my expectations, and now quantum computers are on the horizon.
Don't be silly.
@@Foebane72 Don't be a knobhead.
I had a Sinclair Spectrum too, loved it. Remember having to sit there for what seemed ages to load the cassettes before you could play the game.
@@davidmccann9811 elite and jet set willy, hungry horris, attick attack, chucky egg, I moved onto the Amiga 500 later and made the biggest mistake of all time and bought the CD32, you can laugh it's ok.
Philips were great innovators
I like that when he mentions ‘American RCA’, of course, of course, of course, the device has fake wood panels.
Yes, the RCA Selectavision Capacitance Electronic Disc. It played vinyl records with a stylus, you know. For VIDEO. Took 17 years and $600 million to develop. Sold here in the UK for 6 months before the plug was pulled.
@@matthewlawrenson3628 Dare not bump it while it had a disc in it. S-C-R-A-T-C-H
The people from Philips must have been cringing, seeing all those finger prints on the disc.
I was cringing 😆
All I can see are the fingerprints on that disc... 😱
these cassettes of tape will never catch on
Wish I had a portable VCR....
The future is Betamax. Mark my words
Good evening and... ahaaaaa!
Vcd have disk 1 & 2 per movie. Who remember that?
I do. And unless the mastering is not done right picture quality is worse than VHS.
I never learned how to set the timer on a VHS machine, and now I'll never have to!
You're one of the "thickies" who couldn't set the video? 👎🤣
I still can't wrap my head around how a signal can assemble itself into a moving picture
You'll have to get a bigger head, so it wraps around how a signal can assemble itself into a moving picture! 🤣
Yes, the basics of how television works (still, including computer output) is much less covered now (scanning). WIWAL, it was the sort of thing any lad (lasses were rare as hens' teeth) with technical aspirations - or just curiosity - learnt very early.
(Not really moving pictures of course - just a series of stills; if changed fast enough the brain sees them as moving.)