One of the things that I really enjoy (and I might be the only one) is a look back at the past. Specifically, past reports on future technology. For example, take a gander at this great video of the Consumer Electronics Show, circa 1979, dug from the vaults of ABC News. It’s mind-boggling for someone like myself, who won’t even be born until three years after this particular news report was filed.
The biggest thing for me was the fact that video cassettes cost a staggering $75 dollars compared to $15 for a laserdisc. There’s no way that can be true; can it? Was he talking about a rental VHS tape or something? Can anyone familiar with antique technology explain this for me?
Surely the more space-age technology had to be the more expensive one. I know VHS was expensive to master and produce (not to mention ship and store), but that big of a price difference in 1979 is just astounding. Maybe they made laserdiscs on old vinyl record presses or something. Was the prohibitive cost of the players the reason why the cheaper laserdiscs never took off?
Technorati Tags: 1979 technology, abc news, CES 1979, Consumer Electronics Show, retro videosAdd to:
When I worked at a video store in the 1990′s, it cost consumers about $100 to replace a lost or damaged video, at least until Batman came out.
Things sort of changed after that.
Posted by: Lynda | January 11th, 2010 11:47 pm |
They lowered the cost to consumers and ate the cost of the rental copies after that. I worked at a video store circa 2000.
Posted by: Ron Hogan | January 15th, 2010 2:24 pm |