The VCR: The DVD Player of the Early 1980’s
The rate at which technology advances, even by today’s standards, continues to amaze and astonish people. Even the simplest of daily tasks are influenced and molded by the increasingly original inventions that continue to explode into the public’s eye. One’s everyday life is constantly updated, reinvented, and (if you will) reprogrammed in order to adapt to the new ways of technology. Yet this phenomenon is not unique to this decade alone. As modern and as fast-paced as things may seem now, people in 1984 were going through very similar circumstances. The invention of the VCR was quickly becoming an obviously important product, while advertisers, media executives, and the average consumer
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“Rentals, driven by popular theatrical releases, accounted for 80% of the home video market…while sales, also dominated by popular films, such as Paramount’s ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ accounted for the remaining 20%” (Broadcasting 43). With the increase in demand for VCR’s, the price for consumers has gone down significantly. While the average price of a VCR was $1,200 in 1978, it dropped to around $500 in 1984. The necessary component of the VCR, the VHS cassette tape, was priced anywhere between $60 and $80 (“VCR’s” 43). The VCR was an obvious advance for the film industry, but how would the world of cable and broadcasting react to such an invention? There arose VCR enthusiasts, skeptics, and (as always) undecided as the VCR’s growth become quite apparent.
Although the benefits of a VCR are apparent to today’s society, the device had its opponents in 1984. Advertisers saw the VCR as a threat to their industry due to the capability of commercial “zapping”. Because programs were able to be recorded, commercials were capable of being edited or deleted (zapped). While many advertisers saw the VCR as a hindrance, others saw it as a creative challenge for the industry. According to Robert E. Buchanan, executive vice president, U.S. media director, J. Walter Thompson USA, the solution was in the hands of the advertisers. Commercials should attract the viewer and be “those that tell a story, the vignette type that you can get
Technology is great to an extent, the limit ending at when it takes over someone’s life, or even their kids. Now when technology is mentioned, it’s not a new Keurig that kids just won’t stop using, I mean an entire nursery built to recreate a scenario in your child’s head instead of them using their imagination, or an entire house that does all your housework for you, where you and your family rely on it more than you. In “The Veldt,” Ray Bradbury show shows the importance of self-care.
According to Robert Scholes, author of On Reading a Video Text, commercials aired on television hold a dynamic power over human beings on a subconscious level. He believes that through the use of specific tools, commercials can hold the minds of an audience captive, and can control their abilities to think rationally. Visual fascination, one of the tools Scholes believes captures the minds of viewers, can take a simple video, and through the use of editing and special effects, turn it into a powerful scene which one simply cannot take his or her eyes from. Narrativity is yet another way Scholes feels commercials can take control of the thoughts of a person sitting in front of the television. Through the use of specific words, sounds,
2. Pirogi, Jeanine. (2013). Titled: The Rise & Fall of Blockbuster: The very Long & Rewinding Road" (The Street). N.p., 23 Sept. 2010. Wide-Web. 11-Dec.
According to Robert Scholes, author of On Reading a Video Text, commercials aired on television hold a dynamic power over human beings on a subconscious level. He believes that through the use of specific tools, commercials can hold the minds of an audience captive, and can control their abilities to think rationally. Visual fascination, one of the tools Scholes believes captures the minds of viewers, can take a simple video, and through the use of editing and special effects, turn it into a powerful scene which one simply cannot take his or her eyes from. Narrativity is yet another way Scholes feels commercials can take control of the thoughts of a person sitting in front of the television. Through the use of specific words, sounds,
years ago, people all over the world take for granted what it is today. Starting in 1927, the television
The VCR was introduced In 1971 by Philips. VCR stands for video cassette recorder and it revolutionized home movies. It was so revolutionary in fact, that you can still buy them today, though they are packed along with DVD players. The DVD player, even though packaged with the VCR now-a-days, was the downfall of the long reign of the VCR.
With the advancements in home entertainment systems, consumers are investing thousands of dollars into their own home viewing systems. They have several options to stream video content into the comfort of their own homes. Home entertainment systems have also made a large impact on the theater industry. In 2005, this technological advancement was the most sought after electronic system for new homes. It seems that consumers have finally said no to the rising price of movie tickets and concession stand snacks and beverages.
Television is so popular that it is almost a vital part of life to most people. According to the article “The Real Golden Age of Television”, the first successful demonstration of electronic television was introduced on September 7, 1927. (Handy & William). It was designed by Philo Taylor Farnsworth. Charles Jenkins is also an important person to the creation of television because he created the first mechanical TV on June 23, 1925. (D’Addiro). These two men are responsible for what we have today; good quality television. Since then television has brought tears, laughter, joy, and many other memorable moments to the lives of people. Television came to its own in the 1940’s and 1950’s. During this time period television began to emerge into the households many families. This was something new to people. Never would they have thought of being able to sit in watch entertainment out of a TV screen. Then in the 1964 was the beginning of the “old” golden age of television. The reason for this claim is for the invention of color television made it more popular (Clapp). All television programs were in black and white before this unbelievable creation. This gave television viewers a better experience than the past because they were able to see things differently. Though the era was magnificent there was more to come. Time advanced into the 2000’s and so did television. Many
Most of us assume emerging economic, political and climate changes will be remodeled by the emerging technology we have today. We are sure YouTube, streaming, and video on-demand will be the wave of the future and change our lives for the better; giving us more money, free time, and control of our lives. Our well-oiled lives in the Tech Age are incompatible with our grandfather's blue collar days scratching out a living turning wrenches at the local garage. We’re at the top of our technological game.
Television is one of the most popular ways to consume media. However, television wasn’t always the way it is today. Many changes took place in the television industry during the 1980s. Some of the important changes that took place in the 1980s were the new types of programming, the increase in the popularity of cable television, and new technology that was invented such as the remote control. Television had a huge effect on society through the way if affected the ways children could be educated and what people watched. It impacted technology through changes in how people watched television and what people could record and watch on television. It also had an enormous effect on the economy through changes in competition in the television industry and how musicians and their music could be made popular. Television in America in the 1980s affected society, technology, and the economy.
For what many think were largely idiosyncratic reasons, VHS won out over Betamax, despite there being little inherent advantage of one over the other. As a result, VHS technology kept on advancing, while Betamax did not. But imagine that society later discovered that VHS, but not Betamax, produced a big negative externality. This is essentially the story of energy technology: fossil fuels have benefited from decades of innovation, which largely explains why they are cheaper than clean energy. Unless the VHS externality were catastrophic, the best way to switch from VHS to Betamax would not be to suddenly apply a large tax on VHS—that would inefficiently lead to a surge in consumer prices for videos. Rather, as we show below, the solution would be to subsidize innovation (in concert with a modest tax) so that the stock of Betamax innovation could catch up with the stock of VHS innovation—resulting in companies eventually choosing to invest in the Betamax technology by virtue of both the price signal and the stock of innovation that enables it to be made cheaply and with high
Since the 1950’s the use of new technologies in the Film and Television industry has increased dramatically. From the equipment used to create the moving pictures, the technology we use to view these scenes and the techniques used to capture or produce the animated films and live shots, technology is forever expanding and growing. The Film and Television industry is a major contributor to the Australian economy, directly contributing $5.8 billion to Australia’s GPD (Gross Domestic Product). In this essay I will discuss the positive and negative effects of paid television and streaming services on the industry and whether those effects will be positive for the industry’s future. The key features I will be looking at are;
Ever since the first motion picture was introduced, the world has grown a humongous appetite for more movies. Through technology, humans have made incredible advancements in the motion picture field. Today, there are only two standards when it comes to recording and replaying a motion picture for the common person: Digital Video Disc (DVD) and Video Cassette Recorder (VCR). Each allows for easy access to both movies as well as the necessary players. The two types of media have both subtle and obvious differences, ranging from picture quality to ease of use. The differences and similarities can bewilder a person with little knowledge of the two medias. Though it may not be number one for recording and can be more
Before the advent of movie rental stores, to watch a new movie, people had to go to theatres or cinemas spending a lot of money. Video rental was the answer to the new needs. Since the 90s, video rental industry has become a very big business; in those years, rental prices rose as more and more people began renting movies. At the same time, new players entered the market creating strong competition inside the industry. In the last years, the field of home entertainment has changed dramatically because of the presence of Internet and new technologies (Recorded DVD & Video in the United States, 2009).
The utmost, overriding facet of our society has been placed in our hands, perched on a stand, and then plugged into a socket: modern technology. Today, individuals without up to date technology are christened anomalies that are late to the ‘smart era’ of smartphones, smartwatches, and smart televisions. In Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr, and Be a Gamer, Save the World by Jane McGonigal, it is made comprehensible that, as a society, we have begun to intertwine ourselves in the tangles of our electronics, which we cannot seem to relinquish. Our generation has been advancing with technology nonstop to the point where a new gadget is practically released daily. Recently, the latest technological fixation that has rapidly spread like wildfire is video streaming: whether it be video-on-demand or live, it has concurrently seized and fashioned jobs, as well as intermixed communities and individuals alike.