The Doomed Effort to Make Videos Go Vinyl

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-doomed-effort-to-make-videos-go-vinyl

by Hjugo • 11 years ago

40 11 11 years ago

Didn't even know these things existed, even though our family had the first vhs and cd players in our neighborhood. Amazing that they actually got this to somewhat work, persistent fellows :)

brudgers2• 11 years ago

In the summer of 1982, I remember watching a movie from one in the dorm commons building. I don't remember the movie, but my bias is toward 2001. Anyway, I suspect they lost out because the \R in VCR is for "recording". There's a bit of compact cassette versus 8-track in the way things worked out.

hga2• 11 years ago

Eh, I think the success of the DVD and now Blu-ray formats show recording isn't essential. As the article notes, this format, and I'll note another format in Japan using a stylus over a bunch of holes, failed in the face of VHS and Laserdiscs.

Cassettes won in part because they were a lot smaller and could eventually play stereo, and 8-track tapes are a terrible, fragile kludge (my family used to make them back when pirating them was legal, as long as you paid ASCAP ... or tried to pay them, they never accepted the money my father set aside).

joblessjunkie• 11 years ago

We used to rent these discs when I was a teenager. They were terribly unreliable. Skipping, stopping, starting over, my god it was a miracle to reach the end.

And that's just side one; halfway through you gotta get up off the couch and flip it over and do the whole gauntlet again.

Gracana• 11 years ago

One of my favorite youtubers has a big collection of CEDs, and he made a video about them and their issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7UH9QfcIi0

davydka• 11 years ago

That's a great video. Also, the rugged tablet running Windows XP made me smile.

Somasis• 11 years ago

I always thought CEDs looked so cool. What I really want to see is how they're created though, and what they'd sound like on a turntable...

tiredwired• 11 years ago

Video on audio tapes was a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PXL-2000

The Doomed Effort to Make Videos Go Vinyl

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