|
Let me think. We got our first VCR, a lower end Magnavox that was actually built by Panasonic, in late '85. It was my birthday and when I came home from school, my Mother told me to go turn off the TV before doing my homework. When I went in the den to turn off the set, I noticed a VCR sitting on the bottom shelf of the TV cart. The sight of that VCR excited me to the point that I couldn't speak. For several months prior to that, I had been dropping hints on my Dad; but, they appeared to be going in one ear and out the other. My Dad was not the type to go out and buy something expensive just because his kids wanted one. I taped my fair share of "MacGyver", various Saturday morning cartoons, and various other programs and my Dad also recorded a bunch of stuff. We also rented a great deal of movies. After several years, that VCR developed a problem in that anything recorded on it had a great deal of static and popping in the audio. My Dad tried to have it fixed; but, kept getting the runaround. He finally got PO'ed and bought a Thomson era GE and that one didn't hold up nearly as long as the Magnavox. Around '94, I bought a Magnavox (built by Funai) two head VCR for around $150. That VCR lasted for about 10 years and I've gone through many BPC models since then. My current model is a late '90's Sharp. I also have an '84 Panasonic top loader and an early '80's Hitachi top loader (both need new rubber), an '86 GE (rebadged Panasonic), and a few BPC models in various stages of condition. The last VCR I bought was one of those $39 Silver Emerson Junk-Mart specials. After about a month, it started stopping on it's own and eating tapes. It's hard to believe that something that cost $1000+ when it first hit the market ended up costing less than $40 by the end of the VCR era.
In the summer of '86, we went to visit some relatives in Ohio and it seems that Beta was popular up there at the time. Down here in MS, VHS seemed to be the most popular format.
|