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Friday, July 29, 2016

Keeping it Taped: The Golden Age of Video



My new piece, on the golden age of video, from the Daily Express.



According to reports, Funai Electric of Japan, thought to be the last company in the world still making video cassette recorders (VCRs), is to cease production.
Does this mark the end of the video age? If so, what a shame that would be. The VCR changed the way we lived our lives and its impact can’t really be understated. Today we take it for granted that we don’t have to be at home to watch our favourite programmes at the time when they’re being broadcast.
We’ve got the likes of BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and catch-up TV and we can probably see the programme on YouTube too at some point – that’s if we haven’t set our sleek and slimline DVD to record it. 
So it’s hard for the 21st-century generation, brought up on smartphones and smart TVs, to appreciate how revolutionary VCRs were when they first appeared in Britain in the 1970s...

You can read the whole article here.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ha ha ha the Baird top loader!!! That brought a smile to my face as we had the very same model!!! I think every which way but loose was the first film we watched on it..(along with the admittedly poor American fraternity house films when my dad wasn't in) ha ha even bringing memories back of Kenny Everett in what I think was a video recorder space ship!!!! A great distraction thank you for that!