Rob Compton

I bought a Ferguson VHS "piano key" VCR in around 1979, and if I recall correctly it cost about £600. The tapes were £12.95 for a 3 hour one - and that really was 3 hours, no long or extended play in those days. I still have the Ferguson, in the garage, along with other VCR's I've bought since.

Are these old VCR's worth anything? Don't know if they still work....

As I've mentioned before, I have a big cupboard full of tapes, several thousands of them, mostly uncatalogued (retirement project!) and I'm sure there are some gems on them, though the quality is probably pretty poor. What's really fun is pulling a tape out at random and seeing what's on it!

The last one I tried this with had two absolutely wonderful short programmes: firstly Sir Hugh Casson at Brantwood, John Ruskin's house at Coniston in the Lake District - an unhurried amd extremely knowledgable look at the treasures contained in the house, with NO background music at all: not even at the start and end of the programme, just the sound of the wind in the trees - sublime!

The second programme was Robert Robinson at Lyme Regis (one of my favourite places) looking around and interviewing John Fowles. Again, the pace was unhurried and with lots of interesting information and debate.

Makes one realise how much we have lost in recent years - not a "celebrity" in sight....

By the by, the very first film I recorded was Philip Friend in Wendy Toye's "The Teckman Mystery"

rgds
Rob

cletus awreetus

It was unplayable by modern machine standards and was *ahem* disposed of

aphra

I have been trying to find out the original price of the Philips 1500 and came across a fascinating site which you can reach by Googling Rewind Museum. I quote from it:

Sony claim the 1st ever video cassette recorder, was the VP 1100, (invented by Sony in 1971)
however, this was a playback machine (as was the VR-1000) and actually the first record / playback
machine was the Sony VO 1600. The Umatic system used the 3/4 inch tape UMATIC video system.
UMATIC was the very first video cassette system.
This site is mainly about milestone "firsts".

There were three Umatic units released, we believe, by Sony in 1971. They were the
VP-1100, the VP-1000 and the VO-1600. The VO-1600 having more features including record.
It was Sony's intentions that this would be the worlds first domestic video cassette recorder.
It was a "VCR" that is to say record and playback, not just playback. It was a full VCR.
Before 1771 all video recorders were reel to reel machines.
Let us consider the criteria for a consumer domestic VCR.
The VO-1600 was in a wood "domestic" cabinet.
It had UHF and VHF TV tuners. TV tuners would generally only go into domestic equipment as recording
studios would normally only require AV in and out for cameras, or copying, not recording from TV.
It had a crude counter but crucially it did not have a timer and it was very expensive.
It was therefore left to Philips with the n1500 in 1972 to claim the title "first ever domestic VCR"
for four main reasons,
1. The N1500 included an analogue timer,
2. At about £650 it was affordable.
3. The N1500 used smaller cassettes with 1/2 inch tape. The VO 1600 used large cassettes with 3/4 inch tape.
This meant that the Sony was capable of higher quality but even in the earlier days of reel to reel video,
3/4 inch tape was associated with professional formats and not domestic formats.
4. Most importantly the VO-1600 was bought by professionals and not by consumers,
the Philips was bought by consumers and used in the home.
It therefore follows that no matter what a manufacturers intentions might be, the consumer decides for
themselves. There are therefore strong arguments for agreeing that the Philips N1500 was the first domestic
VCR in 1972, but the Sony VO-1600 takes the accolade as the worlds first video cassette recorder in 1971.

julian_craster

<< Before 1771 all video recorders were reel to reel machines.>>

Hand cranked models I would think.....did they record on to string ? .......


<< At about £650 it was affordable>>

Would be £1,500 or more in today's money ...... !

Harbottle

I recall gazing at wonder to an episode of Columbo (mid 70's?) where the use of a home video recorder was key to the plot.

Sam Webster

Earliest VHS recording I still have is from November 1981 which is a recording of the Third man from the Granada TV region complete with period adverts. This survived because it was "lost" and I did not find where it was until we moved house 5 years later!

Next oldest is BBC Sight and Sound Concert. Sat Jan 15th 1983. Pete Drummond Introduces Mari Wilson and the Wilsations at the Regal Hitchin.

I had a rented VCR since about 1978 and made many recordings, the ones I regret losing the most are of Kenny Everett's shows, especially the 79/80 (IIRC) New Year show which had among others Phil Lynott, performing on this episode.

Trouble was back in the 70s VHS cassettes were very expensive, I remember paying £8 for a 3 hour tape and a little later £12 for one of the new 4 hour ones, that must be equivalent to around £100 now! So the tapes were used over and over again

Lots of stuff recorded later through the 80's to the present day, all seems to play just as well as it ever did, I wonder if DVD's will last as well?

Merton Park

My first machine was a Philips, I think it was an N 1500 or 1700, bought in September 1973 for around £350 when 60 minute tapes were around £20 each, from a shop called REW in Tottenham Court Road. They were supposed to be for educational use only, but we got friendly with the manager and he let some friends and myself buy one each.

I still have a load of tapes stored away for the last 25 years, I often wonder if they would still play. Switched to VHS around 1977/78, probably for the World Cup in Argentina.

For me, that first video was the greatest invention ever. As a child I had always dreamed of having a "television tape recorder", to watch what I wanted to see, whenever I fancied. It was incredible to be able to actually have one. Seems like yesterday!

Merton Park

Just looked at the link above and it reminded me I had the N1500, N1502 and the N1700, great machines, except when they chewed up the tape during rewind. Had a lot of problems with that.

cletus awreetus

1971 I think. The one with William Shatner.

image45

What happened to it please if you don’t mind telling!
Its always a shame to here about people having old recordings then loosing them!

"Seya next time!"

image45

Sadly the expence of video tape is used on a large scale by the BBC to cover the reasons behind bulk wipping and re-using of 2" Quad VT over the 1960's,1970's and early 1980's.

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I think the earliest BBC colour VT still existing is the men's final from Wimbledon 1967. There are a couple of others from 1967, including episode 3 of "Vanity Fair" (all 5 episodes exist in colour but 1-2 and 4-5 are edited NTSC, ep.3 is the original version with outtakes on the end! The last 10 minutes of ep.1 also exist in PAL on the end of a Blue Peter tape). There are a few from 1968 and 1969 as well, though of course mostly BBC2 (though the 1968 Sherlock Holmes series was shown on BBC1 in b/w, it was made in colour and 6 episodes survive).
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as posted by Andrew Martin at the BBC with reference to the earliest remaining 625 PAL colour recordings still held at the BBC, due to all the tapes been re-used.

"Seya next time!"

Maralyn

My first recordings were of the first series of "Yes Minister". I loved this programme and even went to a recording of it at BBC Centre. I have always been a fan of Nigel Hawthorne and it was a particular thrill to be able at last to record his performances as Humphrey Appleby and keep it forever.

Wasn't it so exciting in those early days of VHS!

Maralyn

Steve Crook

Almost. Some early audio recorders were "wire recorders"

The early video recorders had to run the tape at a VERY high speed to be able to record the video signal. They were very dangerous if the tape jammed or broke. Bits were liable to fly off in all directions at great speed. The helical scan adopted by home recorders let them run the tape at a lower speed.

Steve

Steve Crook

My first recording was The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). But that was probably in the mid to late 1980s.

I think I've probably still got the tape, somewhere in the "video mountain"

Steve

orpheum

I dont think that the reel to reel machines were ever commercially available.

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