https://www.comedy.co.uk/shop/news/6026/rob-kemp-elvis-dead-on-vhs/
One can only wonder why - how many people still have a VCR?..................... I do, but that's because I'm a nut.
Rob Kemp's Elvis Dead live show to be released on VHS
At the back of my garage I have a Sony U matic recorder. Eh you say.
A huge thing from the 80's that was used by the TV stations for recording broadcasts.
The picture quality was virtually lossless
I got it before video recorders even came on sale.
I remember telling my father that I had a machine that could record off the telly.
He was sceptical but came round to see this mythical contraption.
I showed him the massive cassette and then played him a recording from the day before.
Him being a cine camera fanatic asked me how much it was to develop the film.
Oh yes, I know what a U-Matic is as we had the odd one to service when I was in the photographic trade in the 70s. F**king great thing, with studio quality.
Also, in the early 70s I had one of the first Philips N1500 machines, which I bought off a Philips rep who won it in his firm's raffle and didn't want it. I seem to remember the cassettes were effin' expensive - some thing like £25 (then!) for a half hour tape and the only other one available was three quarters of an hour, but that was thinner tape and made for grainy recordings.
Then got one of the first VHS machines (an Akai) and never looked back.
Funny your father saying about developing a video film, as there was a joke going around Photokina (massive photographic trade show in Cologne) when I was there when Polaroid brought out the first instant cine camera (died a death of course as video was then emerging) and you had to be very nimble with your fingers to peel the backing paper off each frame as it whizzed through at 16fps.
Well, it was funny then, and you had to be there. 