When Did Everyone Get Their First VHS/Betamax Player?

[zenith2134]

Well, my parents first got VHS in 1986, when they were first married. My dad bought a Hitachi home video camera that also played back VHS. Then, in 1993 I remember him buying a Sony VHS out of a catalog which was hi-fi stereo and 4 head with flying erase head....I remember my mother and him having an argument because he paid a LOT for it (might have been near the top of the line for its time).

As for me, the first VHS recorder of my own was in 1996, a 2-head Sears "LXI"...I was extremely happy to have it.

Then, in '98 I got a Panasonic TV/VCR of my own and gave the Sears to my grandparents.

Now, I use a circa 2002 Sony "19 micron head" whatever that means, that my mother bought new...of course, no one else has any use for "tape" anymore except me.

[ChrisW6ATV]

19 micron head(s) are the ones sized for the EP/SLP speed. It is probably just a way of saying it is a 2-head machine. Four-head VHS VCRs have two 19-micron heads and two 57-micron ones (for SP).

[zenith2134]

Well I just looked it up and it said "4 Dual Azimuth Crystal Heads"... but the front panel says 19 micron head.

[Aussie Bloke]

I am not sure when a VHS VCR entered our household as I was only a child but I would say my parents would of invested in one sometime back in the 80s as I recall we had one back then as I use to watch cartoons on it and Neverending Story movie.

In the early/mid 90s we were donated some unusual early 80s top loader VHS machine, it worked okay to begin with but went completely dodgy by the mid 90s to the point of being unusable, so it was eventually ditched.

I got my first very own VHS machine when I was 18 in 1999, it is a Panasonic NV-SD230, it was a pretty good machine when recording in SP but did a dodgy job recording on TDK tapes in LP in which on playback the sound is muffled. Anyways I still own this deck and still use it sometimes for certain applications.

Since 2002 I have been collecting pre-VHS video recorders because of my interest in recovering lost Aussie programs wiped from TV station archives, particularly our legendary pop show Countdown and have accumulated a variety of video machines such as Philips N1500/N1700 and Grundig SVR-4004 formats, Sony EIAJ format reel-reel VTR, Sony CV format reel-reel VTR, Betamax VCR, U-Matic VCR and more, all can be seen on my vintage video page http://www.troysvintagevideo.741.com/ .

[Eric H]

I bought a Sylvania branded top loader in 1983, electronic controls but a wired remote with only a pause function, it was priced at $500, the acceptable price point at the time for a 22 year old still living with his parents with a little surplus cash.

This was at a time when rental tapes (from the only place in our small town who had them) was $5, $7 or $9 a night, depending on how fresh they were.

Blank tapes were outrageous, maybe $12 or $15 each?

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by Eric H

I bought a Sylvania branded top loader in 1983, electronic controls but a wired remote with only a pause function, it was priced at $500, the acceptable price point at the time for a 22 year old still living with his parents with a little surplus cash.

Sounds like mine - the pause-only remote is long gone though...

[JoeNewberry]

My father bought our first VCR about 1986 or so. I believe it was an Emerson. It was huge, heavy, and had what seemed like a hundred little adjustment pots on the front of it. As a five year old, I was constantly getting yelled at for playing with those and the color adjustments on our TV.

I watched the final battle from Godzilla vs Megalon on it so many times that the tape wore out. That was a good VCR, a battle horse that lasted until 1996.

[GeorgeJetson]

Bob Crane was ahead of everyone,he had a vtr for home use back in the 60's!

He was really into home movies!

[KentTeffeteller]

In 1982, I got my first VCR. It was a 1971 Sony U-Matic. Excellent deck and still reliable. In 1983, I got a top loader Panasonic which needed heads given to me which I replaced the heads on and still runs.

[Dan Starnes]

Interesting thread! I could not afford one till 1984. Beta and had it for about 3 years.

[shstrang]

1984 I was 17 and my dad had just died. I bought my first VCR after his passing and had saved for a few months for it. He always wanted one but I didn't have the $'s saved up until then.

It was a Mitsubishi all direct drive (mostly silver in color) that I paid about $700 for it at a local mom/pop audio/video store when they still existed. Come to think of it I bought a lot of stuff from that store.

AFter the first year that vcr started to suck bad.

[doogie812]

My first VCR was the Quasar Great Time Machine (VT-1000 I believe) purchased in ’79 for $100.00. At that time a 2 hour tape was $27.00. Later that year a bought a Sony AV-3600 VTR for $40.00. I did sell the Quasar for $200.00 with a B/W camera in ’81. I did not get my first Beta until ’84 a Sony SLO-260 for $20.00 new belts, clean the switches and pots it was good to go. That Sony lasted me 10 years. My first VHS was a Panasonic NV-8200. It was a good machine as VHS goes. Over the years I have had many VTRs from ¼” to 1” machines. I don’t have much use for recording machines anymore so my Sony GCS-50 works great with my HDTV tuner and plays all the tapes I made back in the hay day of MTV. Doogie

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I gave it to my church in '84 or '85, they still have it, but I doubt they use it anymore. Oughta go rescue it....

You should rescue it, before the church gives it to the e-waste dump.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by shstrang

It was a Mitsubishi all direct drive (mostly silver in color) that I paid about $700 for it at a local mom/pop audio/video store when they still existed. Come to think of it I bought a lot of stuff from that store.

AFter the first year that vcr started to suck bad.

Did you mean to say that your 1984 Mitsubishi VCR stopped working in 1 year? How shocking, but no surprise.

[Vidiot]

I got my first Sony SL-7200 Betamax in late February of 1976, the day the machine shipped to dealers (at least where I lived at the time in Florida). Within a month, I modified it to have a video input, since the original machines only could record off the tuner. That was back in the day when a K-60 (later L-500) blank tape was $12... in 1976 dollars.

The 2-speed SL-8200 came out about 18 months later, partly as a response to the 2-speed RCA VBT-200. This was pretty much the beginning of the Speed Wars.