Boy, is that guy gonna be pissed when people start putting an old VHS tape of "You've Got Mail" in there, laughing at how clever they are, and that poor guy ends up having like twenty copies of You've Got Mail. #vcrmailslot
I cant say about other places, but where I live, the letter carrier will not deliver to anything but a postal service approved box that is good repair (though you can mod AROUND it, the actual box as to be approved) and you dont want those guys going postal on you.... #vcrmailslot
I like the idea, but I'm not so sure how much I like the execution. Maybe it's just me, but some subjects don't have the flair they could when everything is rippled at the edges with stitching.
Bela Lugosi died in 1956, so I call shenanigans on him shilling for Sony video recorders. Anyway...
One of the things that killed Betamax was content. Sony saw Betamax as a recording system, and they worded hard on recording quality. But VHS was about watching stuff. Sony was really caught unawares by the movie rental and sales. VHS providers were much more savvy about getting video content, and worked hard to get budding video chains to be VHS-only. Sony responded with the Super Beta Hi-fi, which recorded beautifully and sounded good, too. Making a nicer machine wasn't an answer to the content question. The nail in the coffin for Beta was when Blockbuster--a VHS-only chain--became the dominant chain and drove out little mom&pop Beta-friendly chains.
@philibuster: I dunno, Minidisc was a huge hit in Japan and there are enough Sony devices out there that use the Memory Stick that they've kind of created their own market for the format.
@philibuster: Mini disk was an awesome format. I loved it. The players were cheaper than an ipod *by ALOT* and the disks were like $20 for 4. and you could fit 4-5 albums on one of those discs. Not only that but you could use the MD player to record from a microphone or an audio in or an optical in. they were awesome. and i'm still sad they died out. Altho now with flash memory being so cheap, if they hadnt died out then, they'd be dead by now certainly.
@92BuickLeSabre: It's a cleverly disguised analogy to the current Blu-Ray / not Blu-Ray discussion. Sony doesn't want their format used for adult entertainment, so they make it hard for producers of such entertainment to use Blu-Ray to put it on.
The crazy thing about 3/4" UMatics are they became the de-facto format in the post-production world for 'screener' copies of everything from features, tv shows, to commercials. One of the key features being remote control (RS 422) and fairly accurate timecode. They would stay strong even for producers, editors, directors, etc to keep their historical reels and back-ups of favorite works until DVD finally became recordable in such a way that it was reliable to play back on most players.
It was a very, very satisfying day when I got to remove the 3/4" decks from a machine room at a post house. To make room for G5's. Now those G5's can't play back youtube... sadtrombone.
@bens09: Well, right, of course there's betacam and digibeta, but betacam is really only used for SD commercial dubs for local station playback and Digitbeta is being shot on less and less and less these days. I give Digi another 5 years before it shits the bed. Even HDcam won't stick around for long, as tape sees it's way out the door.
I'm not saying I agree or disagree with it, I'm just saying this is how I see things going.
We had Beta in my house for a long time growing up. And of course being younger and just generally happy about life, I didn't notice a difference and couldn't care less. I just, you know, wanted to watch movies.
It's all just so fickle, it really is. To care so much about this stuff, and for what.
@Matt0505: Well hey there. You're looking for what now? Oh, um, you know the information superhighway can be tricky, and I think maybe you missed your exit. You wanted to get off about three signs back for www.dontsweatthesmallstuff.com
IIRC it came up again in the HD DVD/BD war of 2008 with HD DVD getting the porn industry to back it originally. However they too switched to BD when they started seeing more sales on the BD discs they did sell.
@RandySurfingSince87: That would be Betacam, not Betamax, which this article details. There are some similarities and some differences between the two formats. And now there's digital Betacam.
You may know this, but I thought I'd point it out for general consumption.
92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment
Edited by Ellipsis marks are ... my friends at 07/17/09 12:27 PM
Ellipsis marks are ... my friends was starred
Ellipsis marks are ... my friends was unstarred
@Ellipsis marks are ... my friends: And now digitbeta's the next dying breed. That was a big move in the 90's for post to use. I'll bet in 5 years it'll be used as infrequently as Betacam.
My dad, notorious for buying quality technology that was doomed for obsolescence, bought us a Betamax after it was clear to everyone else that it was dying/dead. Because it was better and because it was Sony, which also generally meant better at the time.
I remember going to our local Sound Warehouse to rent videos and slowly watching the Betamax section shrink and shrink and shrink, until one day it was gone, subsumed by the VHS cassettes everywhere.
(This was about the same time that he decided it was time for a home computer and bought us the Apple IIGS.)
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Almost as good as the Tardis front door. #vcrmailslot
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One of the things that killed Betamax was content. Sony saw Betamax as a recording system, and they worded hard on recording quality. But VHS was about watching stuff. Sony was really caught unawares by the movie rental and sales. VHS providers were much more savvy about getting video content, and worked hard to get budding video chains to be VHS-only. Sony responded with the Super Beta Hi-fi, which recorded beautifully and sounded good, too. Making a nicer machine wasn't an answer to the content question. The nail in the coffin for Beta was when Blockbuster--a VHS-only chain--became the dominant chain and drove out little mom&pop Beta-friendly chains.
07/17/09
Minidisc
ATRAC audio codec
Betamax
Memorystick
At least they're trying new things. New things that are proprietary and expensive.
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Memory Stick is very far from failing, especially with the success of the PSP... I have 5 devices that take memory sticks at home.
I'd say UMD video was a total bust, but the disc itself is still doing ok for games...
Other than that, carry on! lol
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Of course, my family owned a Beta system...
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It was a very, very satisfying day when I got to remove the 3/4" decks from a machine room at a post house. To make room for G5's. Now those G5's can't play back youtube... sadtrombone.
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07/17/09
I'm not saying I agree or disagree with it, I'm just saying this is how I see things going.
07/17/09
It's all just so fickle, it really is. To care so much about this stuff, and for what.
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IIRC it came up again in the HD DVD/BD war of 2008 with HD DVD getting the porn industry to back it originally. However they too switched to BD when they started seeing more sales on the BD discs they did sell.
07/17/09
Doesn't look like Sony has changed much in the last 30 years. Hopefully they start waking up.
07/17/09
i work at an ad agency and we send out beta tapes daily of our tv spots. we also do digital transmission, but it's still primarily tape.
07/17/09
You may know this, but I thought I'd point it out for general consumption.
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I remember going to our local Sound Warehouse to rent videos and slowly watching the Betamax section shrink and shrink and shrink, until one day it was gone, subsumed by the VHS cassettes everywhere.
(This was about the same time that he decided it was time for a home computer and bought us the Apple IIGS.)
Edit: Great piece by the way. Thanks Wilson.
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Same experience here. My folks still have some home videos on Betamax. Of what I have no recollection, and hope to keep it that way.
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