RWels
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Posts: 2,910
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Post by RWels on Oct 24, 2021 17:51:27 GMT
Having said that, and I agree that it’s always a good idea to think the best of people, other factors like poverty, siege mentality and economic failure can make having a moral compass an expensive luxury. (Philip Morris explanation of the disappearance of Web 3 is a possible case in point). Sanctions busting was an art form in Rhodesia in the late 60’s / 70’s as was getting around the cultural and sporting boycott in South Africa. Applying sanctions & boycotts doesn’t make the recipient countries cooperate, human nature suggests exactly the opposite. Mozambique and Zambia, were both bordering states to Rhodesia, in severe economic difficulty themselves and although strongly opposed to the governments in Pretoria and Salisbury traded quietly in the background with both countries (even at the same time as allowing the insurgents entering Rhodesia to operate out of their countries), and COULD have facilitated this sort of activity. I have absolutely no evidence that this happened, however people I have spoken to over the years certainly suggest that it did and I know other folks on the forum have had similar conversations as shown in the Evil of the Daleks thread. Remember the difference between film and video series - as I’ve previously outlined. We know that things made it to SA before TV - including “British TV” - but I’d contend this was almost always film series. Ah yes as of 01-01-1976 everyone in SA had a TV set AND a video, because all changeovers always happen instantly. I still remember the day that everyone got a DVD player. The pavements were lined with video recorders, you couldn't move for the bloody things! |
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Post by John Wall on Oct 24, 2021 18:45:13 GMT
Remember the difference between film and video series - as I’ve previously outlined. We know that things made it to SA before TV - including “British TV” - but I’d contend this was almost always film series. Ah yes as of 01-01-1976 everyone in SA had a TV set AND a video, because all changeovers always happen instantly. I still remember the day that everyone got a DVD player. The pavements were lined with video recorders, you couldn't move for the bloody things! Clearly it didn’t happen overnight but home VCRs started to proliferate in the second half of the 70s. The ability to access illicit material will often drive the uptake of technology - I have a recollection that porn helped home video take off in the US. When you’re part of the Anglosphere with a PAL TV system all sorts of things become possible. I also recall that bootleg Aussie copies of DW were making their way to the UK at about that time. |
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,910
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Post by RWels on Oct 24, 2021 19:37:54 GMT
But "porn helped VHS win the format war" - is that a fact, or an urban myth that is retold because it sounds so juicy?
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Post by John Wall on Oct 25, 2021 19:54:40 GMT
But "porn helped VHS win the format war" - is that a fact, or an urban myth that is retold because it sounds so juicy? I didn’t say that. |
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,910
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Post by RWels on Oct 26, 2021 7:40:07 GMT
But "porn helped VHS win the format war" - is that a fact, or an urban myth that is retold because it sounds so juicy? I didn’t say that. People say that, though. |
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Post by petercheck on Oct 26, 2021 7:50:21 GMT
My first job was in Currys, from 1979 to 1981. When I started there, Betamax (which we called Betacord) and Phillips 1700 formats were both far more popular than VHS, but by the time I left Beta was lagging behind VHS and Phillips 1700 had pretty much stopped selling. The reason? All of the videotape hire shops had far greater stocks of VHS than anything else! Why exactly that was remains unclear, presumably VHS got the movie industry behind them quicker.
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Post by John Wall on Oct 26, 2021 8:05:35 GMT
My first job was in Currys, from 1979 to 1981. When I started there, Betamax (which we called Betacord) and Phillips 1700 formats were both far more popular than VHS, but by the time I left Beta was lagging behind VHS and Phillips 1700 had pretty much stopped selling. The reason? All of the videotape hire shops had far greater stocks of VHS than anything else! Why exactly that was remains unclear, presumably VHS got the movie industry behind them quicker. Yep. More content on VHS - which was a technically inferior system. |
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Post by petercheck on Oct 26, 2021 9:14:10 GMT
My first job was in Currys, from 1979 to 1981. When I started there, Betamax (which we called Betacord) and Phillips 1700 formats were both far more popular than VHS, but by the time I left Beta was lagging behind VHS and Phillips 1700 had pretty much stopped selling. The reason? All of the videotape hire shops had far greater stocks of VHS than anything else! Why exactly that was remains unclear, presumably VHS got the movie industry behind them quicker. Yep. More content on VHS - which was a technically inferior system. It certainly was. Beta and even Phillips 1700 was better quality. When I left in 1981, Video 2000 was mooted as the next big thing, but of course never took off. |
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Post by richardwoods on Oct 26, 2021 11:09:24 GMT
Video 2000 was two sided wasn’t it?
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Post by petercheck on Oct 26, 2021 12:16:54 GMT
Video 2000 was two sided wasn’t it? They did indeed. I stopped working at Currys within a few months of the company stocking them, but they seemed to have a lot of teething troubles while I was there. Whether they became more reliable later I don't know. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_2000 |
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Post by alunmagister on Oct 26, 2021 17:49:44 GMT
Another interesting thread. Mind if I ask what pre recorded tapes available to hire circa 1979-81 ? I do think you were able hire movies but they were probably confined to Halloween and The Wild Geese
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Post by petercheck on Oct 26, 2021 18:21:00 GMT
Another interesting thread. Mind if I ask what pre recorded tapes available to hire circa 1979-81 ? I do think you were able hire movies but they were probably confined to Halloween and The Wild Geese When I started working in October 1979, we gave those who purchased machines a mail order address to hire videotapes, as that was the only way; by the time I left in April 1981, pretty much everywhere had videotape hire sections (W.H. Smiths, Woolworths, etc). Can't recall what was or wasn't available though. One point worth making: pre-recorded tapes were very expensive. I remember when The Rolling Stones' 'Let's Spend The Night Together' movie was released on VHS in 1982: the price in local shops was £44.95, so I travelled up to London's Oxford Street, as I'd heard they were selling them for £39.95! Within a few months, the price everywhere had dropped to £19.95, and by around 1984 it was £9.95, as were most music videotapes. |
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Post by Richard Marple on Oct 26, 2021 21:01:46 GMT
I heard that VHS was more popular because JVC licenced the technology at a cheaper rate than Sony did with Betamax.
In the UK it helped that JVC had a tie-up with Thorn-EMI so many of the major rental companies owned by them (Radio Rentals, DER etc) could stock VHS machines easily, as did Rumbelows on the retail front, along with existing Ferguson dealerships.
Also VHS tended to have longer blank tapes compared to Betamax, an important factor when blank tapes were expensive.
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Post by richardwoods on Oct 27, 2021 7:31:50 GMT
Despite being a lower quality playback, the other advantage VHS had was that the engineering design was simpler and so was potentially more reliable (although you wouldn’t have always believed it at the time) and cheaper to produce. Having said that some Betamax recorders just kept on running. The Mem-Sahib’s parents Betamax was still running in the 90’s.
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Post by brianfretwell on Oct 30, 2021 12:10:25 GMT
My first job was in Currys, from 1979 to 1981. When I started there, Betamax (which we called Betacord) I suspect you called it Bteacord because you sold Sanyo VCRs and Sanyo's Beta machines were branded as Betacord, I bought one from Dixons |
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