The First VCR + Cassettes Go Hi-Fi

[jaws3dfan]

Vinegar Syndrome has revealed these 2 new documentaries from it's partner label releases.

Description:
THE FIRST VCR: This is a documentary about the 1956 invention of the first VCR (video cassette recorder), which launched the home video revolution.

Description:
CASSETTES GO HI FI - The story about the past, present and remarkable future of the compact audio-cassette tape.

Special Features and Technical Specs:
25-30 minutes of associated trailers, commercials & promotional videos
English SDH subtitles
REGION-FREE

[meremortal]

For many, vhs is still the pinnacle of nostalgia for home movie formats. It's tough to rival that experience of video stores in the 80s and 90s. As a kid, they were hang out spots just as much as they were rental stores. It was fun talking with other shoppers and store employees back then. In those days, most of the mom and pop owners were often fellow movie enthusiasts. People weren't quite as rushed back then and life seemed slower paced without modern internet and cell phones. And I'd say people were generally more approachable as well. Going to the local video stores was a fun adventure to discover movies by primitive means such as the box art, taglines and marketing synopsis. Those were simpler times and perhaps the overabundance of resources can kind of spoil the fun now. Many times I'll see a movie after seeing a trailer, reading reviews, opinions, etc. The more 'blank slate' way of going into films was a fun one. Also, trailers weren't quite as revealing of major spoilers compared to now; teaser trailers are kind of a lost art.

[Member-222782]

Today someone shoves a phone in your face and posts the video on yt if you look at them funny. Yeah, we've come a LONG way

I could be interested in this documentary IF it covers the technology (lol) through the early DVD years and its eventual demise. If it's just a doc about the early years of the VCR it's a pass.

[deltatauhobbit]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

Today someone shoves a phone in your face and posts the video on yt if you look at them funny. Yeah, we've come a LONG way

I could be interested in this documentary IF it covers the technology (lol) through the early DVD years and its eventual demise. If it's just a doc about the early years of the VCR it's a pass.

Both docs can be watched on Tubi for free. I have to say they are rough to watch, very dry, I was dozing off several times. Love the slipcover though but I’m passing because I will never want to watch them again.

They pretty much only cover the early beginnings of each format. The one interesting thing I learned was how Bing Crosby was big in developing magnetic tape recording in the US.

[Mushi Minion]

Originally Posted by meremortal

Also, trailers weren't quite as revealing of major spoilers compared to now; teaser trailers are kind of a lost art.

Hard disagree there. You’re less likely to see trailers including clips of how the main villain gets killed anymore.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by meremortal

Going to the local video stores was a fun adventure to discover movies by primitive means such as the box art, taglines and marketing synopsis.

Man, I remember that. Squinting at the covers and trying to think how the movie might live up. Roger Corman and Cannon certainly knew how to sell a movie by the poster/VHS art.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Man, I remember that. Squinting at the covers and trying to think how the movie might live up. Roger Corman and Cannon certainly knew how to sell a movie by the poster/VHS art.

That was the best part of video rental stores. We had two Coast to Coast Videos where I grew up and all of their VHS and game cases were velcroed to the walls. It was actually quite soothing to go in there and here constant rips as people read the backs of titles.

[jmilo61]

Originally Posted by Mushi Minion

Hard disagree there. You’re less likely to see trailers including clips of how the main villain gets killed anymore.

Yeah, old trailers definitely had no problems spoiling an entire movie. Sometimes even having a voiceover lay out the entire plot. People say this all the time, and probably it is worse now (I stopped watching trailers a long, long time ago, so I don't really know). But it's definitely not true that trailers were spoiler-free in the 70's/80's. It was common then too.

The original Carrie trailer is the one of the best (worst) examples.

[meremortal]

I was thinking more in regards to comedies. It seems over the last several years studios want people to viral market all the quoteable lines before the movie hits theaters. It's weird when you see a movie and hardly anyone laughs during those moments because nearly everyone's probably seen the trailer multiple times. And there's even been a trend for red band trailers as well online.

[jmilo61]

Originally Posted by meremortal

I was thinking more in regards to comedies. It seems over the last several years studios want people to viral market all the quoteable lines before the movie hits theaters. It's weird when you see a movie and hardly anyone laughs during those moments because nearly everyone's probably seen the trailer multiple times. And there's even been a trend for red band trailers as well online.

I'll never forget going to see American Wedding in the theater, and throughout the entire movie they spread the seeds for the eventual payoff of

[Show spoiler]Stifler getting it on with Jim's grandmother.

So much time and effort is spent setting up that eventual punchline... and they gave it away in the trailer.

This might be the funniest thing in the movie. Not the joke itself, but the fact that they spoiled it.

[Animatic33]

Originally Posted by deltatauhobbit

Both docs can be watched on Tubi for free. I have to say they are rough to watch, very dry, I was dozing off several times. Love the slipcover though but I’m passing because I will never want to watch them again.

They pretty much only cover the early beginnings of each format. The one interesting thing I learned was how Bing Crosby was big in developing magnetic tape recording in the US.

Glad I'm not alone in these feelings. Not only are they dry but they're amateur in production, with the overall quality being no better than someone's high school multimedia report. Don't get me started on the hard-panned audio during that one history of magnetic audio section. Yeesh, someone's grandma could do a better job.

Sorry, I think these two should have been tossed in the "reject" bin at ETR, not given a pass to be printed onto disc. At least people will get a nice slipcover out of it... even that has more production value than the contents of the disc.

[erikstoryteller]

I just watched The First VCR yesterday and I agree with most people here that the production value of the documentary was pretty low, and there were several spots where the narrator just repeats the same things a couple of times. I'm still glad I watched it though since I had no idea about the early recording onto wires which lead to recording onto tape, and how the Germans had figured out audio recording onto tape back in the 1930s. I rated it a 6 out of 10. If there had been an interview with a person discussing the first VCR instead of just the narrator talking over the same 3 pictures it would have elevated the material greatly.

[Katatonia]

I have to agree with the other comments also... these were often fairly poor as far as documentaries go. There's still some good viable information within both, but the way they skip around and repeat things became annoying. Most of the images and video clips (if not all) obviously came from the Internet + YouTube. Even the "Hitler" clips they showed have far better sources on numerous generic WWII DVD's out there — it's almost as if they just blindly grabbed whatever was found first on YouTube, etc. The budgets for each doc must have been very miniscule, and I doubt I'd rank them above college or high school level.

That's not to say they're worthless to watch, since there are good tidbits of information at times. But you just got the feeling that they could have been so much better. Just watch them on Tubi and skip the Blu-ray.

[HD Goofnut]

Watched an old Price Is Right episode from 1984 a couple days ago and one of the features prizes was a 19" RCA TV with a Laserdisc player. They kept calling it a disc player though. Still, I thought it was a cool blast from the past. Retail for both was almost $700.

[klauswhereareyou]

Are there actually "25-30 minutes of associated trailers, commercials & promotional videos" on this disc. I watched the VCR documentary yesterday and looked for these and couldn't find them.