Throwback Thursday – Video Cassette Recorder (VCR)

Hop back in the Whale Time Machine won't you? It's time to go back to a time where the VCR was king. Today is National VCR Day.

According to the National Day Calendar, this lovely machine came about in the mid 1950s, but didn't get into the hands of us consumers until  the early 1970s.

When the VCR first came out to the public, they were very expensive as most new electronic items are. Remember the price tag on the first compact disc player? I do. It was 1000 dollars, and was a very simple CD player.

The first VCR I laid my eyes on, was owned by a friend to somehow had one that used to be used at a television station. It had the big cassette tapes. We were in awe that it could record a TV program and play it back at our convenience.

As the Video cassette player became more widely accepted, and the price came down, I was tempted to buy one. It was around 1980 when I was living in Elmira, that I decided to take the plunge. But I had a choice to make. Should I buy one that uses VHS tapes or one that uses Betamax tapes?

I did a lot of research, so that, along with the fact that most of my friends chose VHS, I decided to drop over 400 dollars on the VHS player. Damn those first machines were huge!

I purchased a few more as the years went on. The machines came down in price and they got a bit slimmer. I still have about 100 video cassettes lying around my basement, filled with shows I will never again watch. No longer owning a machine is probably the biggest reason I'll never watch something on a VHS again. Plus the quality is so bad, now that I am so used to digital TV and blu-ray dvds.

via National Day Calendar