Quote: zooo @ September 15 2013, 12:38 PM BSTI agree it makes sense logically. It's just the concept of one video tape with just one film on it costing 80 fecking quid. Seems utterly insane!
It was insane, considering 80 quid then would be about 300 now. 
The film companies, Warner Bros, Columbia etc. quite honestly ran it all like a mafia cartel, that's what it was!
The mm majority of poeople buying the tapes were rental shops renting out £2 a go
So for a while no one really owned any videos, they just rented?
I remember the first video I owned. Tom & Jerry. It definitely wasn't expensive, because my dad bought it, and he is tight.
Quote: zooo @ September 15 2013, 1:17 PM BSTSo for a while no one really owned any videos, they just rented?
Yes.
The tapes themselves were expensive in themselves the BBC kept wiping stuff didn't they?
Quote: zooo @ September 15 2013, 1:17 PM BSTSo for a while no one really owned any videos, they just rented?
It seems strange to us because there isn't really a desirable consumer electronics product that people want that isn't 'relatively' affordable today but a video recorder would have cost the equivalent of around £1500 back then.
People rented them in the way that they had also previously rented other expensive electronic products like colour TVs and even radios before WWII - hence: Radio Rentals.
The first videotapes were expensive but were over engineered for home-use and didn't stretch or break or suffer dropouts like modern ones. They were effectively the same tapes as those sold to video rental stores, designed to withstand thousands of plays. Subsequently they became cheaper, consumer-grade products with a shorter life.
I think the late 70s and early 80s are difficult periods to conceptualise for people who didn't live through them. Even home telephone ownership was not universal. People would ask you 'are you on the phone?' when taking your details.
It sounds weirdly appealing.
"Now you can keep your favourites Disney moments forever with Disney Home Video" *crackle pop* *warm feeling*
Quote: zooo @ September 15 2013, 5:10 PM BSTIt sounds weirdly appealing.
It was. The concept of society as just a container full of individuals relentlessly pursuing money, status and cheeseburgers at the expense of any or all living things around them was still someway off.
I remember having a Radio Rentals TV and VCR in 1997.
Didn't Bob Monkhouse have the world's biggest collection of video tapes in his house?
Not another beloved 70s star 
Eh??
Didn't every family in the 80s have one uncle with a video camera, who was going to make money filming weddings and stuff?
Quote: sootyj @ September 15 2013, 9:27 PM BSTDidn't every family in the 80s have one uncle with a video camera, who was going to make money filming weddings and snuff films
Not round our way
