Remember How Annoying People Were Before We Had Betamax?

Don't deny it: you love TV. In case you've forgotten how much, take a peek at this clip from a 1975 Sony promotional video for the very first Betamax, the LV-1901 (apparently, it came with the system). It will remind you how home video recording not only freed us from "the restrictions of time" but from houseguests that wouldn't leave—and allowed us to one-up our tennis partners. And listen to the sorrow in the voices of the couple at the end who discuss how they just don't make shows like that anymore. Mannix, we hardly knew ye.

4:00 PM on Tue Mar 18 2008
By Lynn Peril
1,390 views
12 comments

Comments

Dillenger69 at 04:23 PM on 03/18/08
Reply by Email
*

Gotta love that sweet orchestral music in the background.
Zantor at 05:50 PM on 03/18/08
Reply by Email
*

Oh my God, I had one of those. If "Home Porn" had used Beta instead of the VHS format, you all would have had one too. It was a better format.
se7a7n7 at 07:26 PM on 03/18/08
Reply by Email
*

That commercial is awful. They never show the TV being on or show how it works.

And those stupid neon silhouettes...
Lynn Peril at 08:11 PM on 03/18/08
Reply by Email
*

@se7a7n7: Check out the full, seven-minute version (linked to above) to learn how it worked. And I bet those neon silhouettes looked supercool in 1975.
SeeingI at 09:49 PM on 03/18/08
Reply by Email
*

"You know, they just don't make shows like that anymore. Think they'll ever bring it back?"

"I doubt it."

(Conversation between forlorn Doctor Who fans, circa 2003.)

The guy in that exchange sounds just like the Ketchup guy from A Prairie Home Companion.
strider_mt2k at 05:31 AM on 03/19/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 717

Videos don't play smoothly for me lately when I view them here.

Poor Beta. Poor poor beta.

Well at least it gave us something to slap Sony around with, and we got some mileage out of it too didn't we?
ashadowcastinred at 05:57 AM on 03/19/08
Reply by Email
*

Jesus Christmas, I've been attempting to break the time barrier for years!
firesign at 06:40 AM on 03/19/08
Reply by Email
*

many eons ago when i worked in a lafayette radio store i actually sold one of the early betamax units, although it didn't have the built in trinitron.. about a year or so before that i sold a sony u-matic deck which, if i remember right, went for about $3500 in 1974 dollars.
Justin K. Rivers at 09:27 AM on 03/19/08
Reply by Email
*

Betamax was great, but I'm holding out for the return of the video disc!
ashadowcastinred at 04:00 PM on 03/19/08
Reply by Email
*

@Justin K. Rivers: A friend of mine bought a video disk player and a handful of discs for something like 30 dollars on eBay a few years back. I remain jealous.
Justin K. Rivers at 05:38 PM on 03/19/08
Reply by Email
*

@ashadowcastinred: I knew a guy who found one, but the only disc he had was Death Wish 3. But then, who really needs any others?
jmb8504 at 10:04 PM on 03/19/08
Reply by Email
*

Holy hell, the guy who owns the house my friends and I rent has one of these bad boys sitting in the front room. Right now it serves as a great place to put things on and subsequently forget about them!

The funny thing is, thanks to my dad being a huge beta fan until the day he died, I have the Star Wars Trilogy, Dune, Indiana Jones and a lot of other awesome things on Beta