Flash Memory

[susandennis]

meowmensteen inadvertently triggered a now vivid memory of TV recording. Way way back in the very early 80's, I heard about VCR's but didn't 'get' it. Until one day I stopped to pick up something after work from a friend of my husband's. It was 6 pm and she was watching Ryan's Hope which came on at noon.

That flipped the old switch for me in one second.

That weekend I bought a BetaMax. It was top o' the line. It even had a remote. Remotes were rare in the olden days. The remote, however, was not wireless.

Yes, kids, there was a wire from the TV 'MIND THE CABLE!' the couch.

I moved to all manner of different better, recorders over the years and recorded everything. I rarely watched any video movies. Just my own TV recordings. I had a huge number of videotapes with a complicated numbering system so that I never recorded over something I had not watched yet.

I remember when they came out with 8 hour tapes. OH the joy!

Along the way, I doubled and tripled my VCR-ness with a rats nests of splitters and cables. In January of 2000, we had an earthquake and shit fell all over the place in here. My two TV's and 5 VCR's (3 on the living room TV and 2 on the bedroom TV) fell to the ground. Only one was killed which was impressive (also both TV's survived). But, shortly thereafter sometime that year, I got my first TiVo and gradually retired the VCRs one by one.

Comments

[meowmensteen]

My uncle Rick was always the one to get things first. He had a VCR before anyone else. Then he decided he wanted a better one so he sold his old one to my dad along with a few VHS tapes. One was a dubbed copy of Mary Poppins. I watched that movie so many times that I had the whole script memorized.

He also was the first to get a microwave. I remember my cousins and I sitting around the thing being amazed as we boiled water. My older cousin Gabe played the part of the magician. "Behold as I place this ordinary cup of water into this MAGIC box! Magically after I turn this dial and wait 99 seconds THE WATER BOILS!!" We all begged him to do it again, and also heat up other things until my uncle complained about us using too much electricity.

[onelargecat.livejournal.com]

When we got cable TV (early 80s) it came with a "remote" with a cable. LOL.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Wow.

[roasted-beets.livejournal.com]

We were Betamax snobs. "Just because you can record 8 hours on one tape doesn't make it better." 🤣

[susandennis]

yes, yes, yes, actually it does — hahahahah but I do remember the wars

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I don't think we ever had a VCR whose remote had a cable.

What I do remember is a common saying from when VCRs became popular, which applies just as well to today's DVRs: It watches programs so that you don't have to.

[mollywheezy.livejournal.com]

I think it was 1983 when my family bought our first VCR. IT was not Betamax and we never had a remote. We actually had the exact same VCR they show on "The Goldbergs" LOL. :D