First Home Video System

[Captain Bacardi]

I came upon a trivia question recently and found this little interesting tidbit: The very first home video system for consumers was offered in the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog in 1963 for a mere $30,000. It was the Ampex Signature V system that came in a cabinet that was 9 feet long and weighed 900 pounds! It included a black-and-white reel-to-reel video recorder with a TV tuner and automatic timer, a complete audio system, and a color TV. The price included installation by an engineer.

I wonder how many of these were actually sold back then?

I found a website that has photos of the system at
http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ampex-signature-v.html



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I thought the thread was going to be about YOUR first home video system!

 

[Captain Bacardi]

No, mine was considerably cheaper!


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mr Bill]

...and thus the first home-made (albeit B&W) porn videos -- as opposed to 'homemade' 8mm, Super-8 or 16mm films -- were probably made... I wonder if any survive as historical relics of classic 1963 porn? A 20 year-old couple in 1963 would be 75 years old now! "Hey, Marge, remember when we made this as newlyweds? Heck you couldn't do that with your legs now without breaking a hip!" "Yes, I remember... That reminds me; I have to defrost the bratwurst for dinner tonight."

--Mr Bill

 

[Dave]

It sure doesn't surprise me that the tape recorder/player unit was a reel-to-reel design... --With the way technology was back then vs. today...!



Dave

 

[Harry]

I thought the thread was going to be about YOUR first home video system!

Me too.

My first video home system was, of course, the Video Home System, which was commonly abbreviated as VHS:

It was one of those Magnavox top loaders from about 1978 with the piano-key-style mechanical controls that you had to really press to get it going. It had an LCD clock built in, one of the earlier models to actually do so, and it had two speeds, SP and LP, giving me 4 full hours of recording time on one of those 25 dollar cassettes!

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

In a fit of extreme extravagance, when I was living at home with almost zero expenses, I bought my parents a Zenith Betamax when it first came out. 900 bucks, and it had the controls like Harry describes but its timer (analog type with rotating number wheels!) was externally mounted. It was a Zenith machine but was made by Sony. I'm not even sure how many "video players" of various formats I've had since then!

 

[Captain Bacardi]

...and thus the first home-made (albeit B&W) porn videos -- as opposed to 'homemade' 8mm, Super-8 or 16mm films -- were probably made... I wonder if any survive as historical relics of classic 1963 porn?

Well, I know of a couple of websites....



Capt. "Dirty" Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

Our school had one of those reel-to-reel video recorders, made by Sony. I forget the name of the system though. I do recall Ampex was among the first to develop videotape; the system was basically the same as what VHS used, with a large rotating drum to get the high frequencies onto the tape. (You wrapped the tape around the drum while threading it for playback.)