Oddity Archive: Episode 7 - Format Wars (REUPLOAD)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 19 авг 2024
- NOTE: At one point, there was a Content ID claim on this episode (which was resolved). Unfortunately, several (unrelated) minutes of the video’s audio somehow got corrupted in the process. So, after numerous viewer complaints, here is a reupload (complete with the reinstatement of a certain small slice of 80’s frommage)!
ANOTHER NOTE: This episode always had a rather poor audio mix. Unfortunately, the “multitracks” for this particular episode are lost to time, so an overhaul of the audio track is impossible.
ORIGINAL TAGLINE: VHS or Beta? Laserdisc or CED? What the hell is a CED anyway? These burning questions (amongst others) answered in this episode!
Stats from original posting:
Views: 32,703
Likes: 357
Dislikes: 5
Visit our website at www.oddityarchi...
Social Media:
Facebook: / oddityarchive
Twitter: @oddityarchive
I have a U-Matic "liberated" from an unnamed Hollywood studio in the late 80s when they went to digital mastering. If you own a VHS, CED or Beta movie manufactured in the early 80s that came from a company that uses a mountaintop for a logo, the master was probably created on this U-Matic.
T James Paramount Pictures?
T James In the same way that a printer was liberated from Initech in _Office Space_ ?
Sorry my last comment was so long, but just wanted to say thank you. Really enjoyed this trip down memory lane. The format wars ended up being a somewhat important thing in my childhood.
(When we got VHS, we were at the video store so much, that one day they wrote our family's name on a paper star and put it up with a bunch of others as part of their video renter Hall of Fame. We came a long way from a video rentals being an exciting birthday treat. Of course, the fact that we didn't have cable until 1994 probably had something to do with it.)
I remember personally watching a side-by-side display in a video store's front window in the early 80s. There was two identical TVs, configured with the same picture settings, both showing Superman II. One was on Beta, one was on VHS. The kick was that you didn't know which was which until you walked in the store.
We looked at them and unanimously agreed that the one on the right had better color depth and less scan lines. We went in the store and lifted the box off the player and were stunned to see that it was the Betamax that looked better. My dad, being the smart fiscal player that he was, opted for the cheaper VHS because he knew that Beta was losing the format war. We had that JVC deck for around ten years before one of the heads went bad.
We also had a CED Videodisc player and later a Pioneer laserdisc player. My dad was what you would an early adopter. We also had a high resolution "widescreen" Zenith model in the mid-80s (which isn't as impressive as it sounds- it was over 1,000 bucks in 1985 money, weighed about as much, and was closer to a 5:3 ratio than a 16:9.
You could say Eraser....got ERASED.
I'll see myself out.
JJ Davis -Hey! You stole my bad joke! 😜
That's the plan mwhahaha
I thought it was a BFDI reference for a second
🥁🥁
Whats funny is that a guy driving a cab would not have been able to afford a VCR back then particularly a betamax.
awesome line
" in a digital world I want a analog girl "
the song he used is analog man by joe walsh. it is a good song.
One unspoken advantage that Laserdisc STILL has over DVD is...No Copy Protection AND No Region Barriers! In theory, I could have bought a Laserdisc from Asia or Europe as desired. Although there are more language options with DVD, you need a "Region Less/Free" player to play an Indie European/Asian film that hasn't been officially imported. (As with CD, there are some media that hasn't gotten encoded--and some "regional appeal-only never will!) Plus, my (very few) "Northern Exposure" Laserdiscs haven't been "edited for more commercials" AND have the original soundtrack! Oh well, digital media of this sort is headed for the "K/T boundary" with streaming video and Cloud services. And now back to "Seoul Mates," where Maurice Minnifield finds he has a Korean family, Holling sings a killer "Ave Maria" acapella, and Dr. Fleischman tries to trim a Christmas tree.;)
Not really, if you was american your whole set was set to ntsc doamin, few if any ld player in the usa were multistandard. that was backin that time a way of regional locking. If you was a PAL guy, same thing, Only few and expensive top of the line models were multistandard an the tv should be multistandard too….
The Japanese VHD really blows my mind. Similar to the CED, though slightly better, AND had 3D support with a special pair of plug in glasses with existing CRT TVs. Crazy no?
I have good number of those 3D Films on DVD and the shutter glasses that you use with a CRT TV
It seems like CEDs were an idea that should have worked if only they'd taken an extra year or so to work out the kinks in the technology (like finding a way to coat the discs so they'd at least be scratch resistant. I can't believe it took until Blu Ray for that to happen).
The CEDs were coated ,but the records did not scratch because they were protected in the caddy , unless someone fooled with the caddy(not easy) and took the record out.The whole problem was the skipping and that had nothing to due to scratching.And the funny thing was that RCA had Laserdisc Payers for sale under the RCA label, CED killed RCA and was sold to GE and GE sold off the various department off.
Actually, CEDs died because it was supposed to have been out at least three years before it was. By the time it did get introduced, VCRs were cheap enough to be an alternative.
I was born in 1979. I only have the fuzziest memories of buying our Betamax around 1984. But I do remember being excited about recording things. And then being very frustrated about finding pre-recorded movies.
Then I have lots more frustrating "when I was your age" memories about going to video stores and not being able to find Betamax. Especially in kids titles.
In fact, I remember what I think was my sixth birthday. (1985) We had some family friends come over for my birthday party. After all the cake and gifts and stuff, my parents showed me another surprise. They had rented Disney's Robin Hood. Finding the format was hard enough that renting a movie for our beta was a special treat, rather than a regular thing.
I think it was Christmas 1986, or possibly 1987, when our family finally got VHS. We even rented a couple of movies from the video store in VHS before mom had opened her gift. I remember dad telling me to tell my mom that they had all the movies in Beta now. I think she picked out her own movie. ( this was back when you gave the box to the clerk, and then they gave you the tape from behind the counter.) I don't know if she didn't noticed the difference and tape size, or played dumb.
Seeing the Oddity Archive makes me regret getting rid of all the Betamax tapes. I'm not sure if I was in high school or college when my parents finally bit the bullet and did it. They hung onto them for a long time, after the Betamax itself had broken. We didn't have any pre-recorded tapes. Only stuff we have recorded. We gave them to the Goodwill. They said they didn't have any use for the tapes, but they would recycle them free of charge.
My dad defends his decision to buy a Betamax to this day. He says he did lots of research, it's better quality and it is the same format used in TV studios. I'm wondering what you think? If you had been in the market for a VCR in 1984, which do you think you would have bought? Would you have seen the writing on the wall for the format wars by that time?
Sally Villarreal I would've bought VHS because it would've been cheaper.
Recording time would have made the decision for me relatively quick. By 1984 it was obvious which format was on top. I'm a huge Sony fan but telling me that I can only have a 4% increase in resolution by using the slower Beta/1 speed at 1 hour per tape is a bit of a losing argument. And let's be real here, you had to have a decent sized Trinitron, composite hookup, and a fresh tape to get those measly extra 10 lines of picture. 10 lines that you wouldn't have noticed anyways.
Now in terms of old Sony video formats I was a fan of Video8 and Hi8. Small tapes with good resolution and great sound. It would've been great to collect movies on those small little tapes. VHS-C was always a joke to me.
11:53. (whiny voice) "I don't want to get up to flip the disc!"
XD.
Ohhhhh I LOVE SEEING THOSE BANDS OF COLOR ON THOSE DISCS.
In Europe there was also Video 2000. Lost the war, because they didn't work properly and there were few prerecorded tapes.
10:52 I know, that before DVD, it was hard to establish prerecorded media without recording option. When records were introduced, there were no recordable media, but in the time, they introduced Disco Vision & co, there was the video tape recorder. CD didn't fail, for this was a better, more versatile replacement for records and also for prerecorded MusiCassettes and DVD didn't fail, because it was also introduced as computer storage media, so much computers were equipped with a DVD drive and so one had the opportunity to watch movies on the computer.
Another factor, that Disco Vision failed: You couldn't rent media, had to buy, was very, very expensive. DVDs were mend to replace prerecorded VHS, so they were available to rent.
I had a U Matic and A black & white video camera in the 80s! Amazing how now I can record HD videos with my $200 phone today!
Can confirm that Stonycreek Farm is still going strong and the pumpkin patch has evolved into a yearly festival. Tower Oldsmobile of Chicago was latterly a Cadillac dealer up to c.2011, working out of the same 1233 N Wells premises - an art deco style garage. Building is still there as of writing, though is now a high end supermarket. That whole area has been progressively gentrified.
I worked at my county's Department of Education television station in the late 90s and they were still using umatic (though slowly transitioning to BetaCam, Betamax's pro-grade sibling). Umatic was popular at the time with television station engineering departments because the large VCRs were easy to service and get parts for.
An acoustic guitar version of john williams star wars theme
Now without muffled audio and the quality change that would make you jump a bit
Thank goodness.
What's with Sony and their habit of creating proprietary formats that just annoy and anger the consumer? First Betamax, then the Memory Stick, and then the Infamous PS Vita memory cards. I bet the one reason why the Blu-Ray format was successful was because they finally caved in and shared the tech with other companies like how JVC did with VHS.
Here in the UK I think VHS won over Beta, because we could rent a VHS machine, while Beta could only be bought. This was early 80s and these things were expensive.
you can actually put an blame of the increased costs of VHS and Betamax during the late 70's and early 80's onto Phillips V-2000 system as an last ditch attempt to allow this format to become more successful by convincing Europe to increase prices of Japanese's VCRs to try to gain market share, it didn't work.
Format War between cylinder and flat record or between vertical and horizontal cut or between the 33 rpm album disc and the small 45 rpm with changer or between tape and wire or record and Tefifon phono tape...
Thanks for showing a commercial I faintly af remember from when I was a toddler. The Wrapples commercial. I recall this creepy commercial with clowns making carmel apples somehow.
Thanks for putting this back in your list, I know I was one of the complainers but I am glad you listened. :)
Strange I grew up in the 90s and I strictly recall VHS being the standard home video format, with Laserdisc being significantly more niche. (I mean my local Library had laserdisk but it also had _Zork Grand Inquisitor_ in the mid 2000s and probably still has it today) ... Great game btw, sadly the only Zork title I ever played though.
You should claim fair use on these copyright claims!
+André Campana Merétika Seconded.
#WTFU
BetaMax were a professional format, it was used by TV until the mid 2000.
I've got mine from a TV studio where they through them in the bin.
Nope, that's Betacam, a related but completely different format. Betamax did see brief prosumer/semi-pro usage as ED-Beta though.
adrienfourniercom Betacam was the broadcast format Betamax was purely domestic. At a resolution of 250 lines it could not handle the bandwidth required to record broadcast quality , which required 3 times the 250 lines resolution for Standard Def.
at least in Europe, there was also the VCR- and later the Video 2000-format.
thinking back to all the programing reruns of 70s programing off of vhs I watched as a kid I have to know, "What the hell was the obsession with carpeting in the 70s?"
Can't resist pointing out that we were shooting home movies in our city in 1888
Better Episode 7 than the one that was in cinemas.
Got 'em.
I always heard VHS won out in part to the adult industry deciding on VHS over Beta.
That was part of it, but not the only part. Sony insisted on a hardware monopoly. The only betamax players you could get were Sony-manufactured. Victor Company of Japan (JVC), which fronted most of the money and manpower for VHS development, did not enforce such a hardware monopoly. Lots of manufacturers were able to make VHS machines. An apt comparison is the difference between Macintosh computers (an Apple-enforced hardware monopoly) and IBM-compatible PCs (no hardware monopoly enforced by IBM or Microsoft).
Format War between 45 rpm and 33 rpm
Ive touched a umatic when watching my introduction video for mcdonalds employees in 2005 ... it was still in use...
It won for 2 reasons - due to being able to be protected, the movie industry allowed movies to be used on VHS. The second was the porn industry adopted it
I'm pretty sure Macrovision works on Beta as well.
Just one thing about laserdisc, it's not laser rot because the laser is not rotting, its disc rot because the disk glue is rotting
YOU RESTORED THE MUSIC IN THE CREDITS! :D
Strangely enough, I was thinking about this episode earlier today for some reason. Huh.
Also, as I may have noted in the CED episode, the early machines practically grinded the disc to a halt, which didn't help matters much with the quality. The later ones, like the one you have, brought the disc to a complete stop before moving the disc up to be allowed to be removed.
There was a tV station here in town that would use old 20 min umatic cassettes over and over for ENG. It made their footage look terrible.
Barely related, but does anyone remember the "Joe Walsh for President" shirt that came with some CD copies of "Analog Man"? I still have mine but my dad found it and took it back.
Brands marketing Beta: Sony, Sanyo, Toshiba(Japan's subsidiary of EMI)Brands marketing VHS: Panasonic, JVC-Nivico, AWA/Thorn(Australian/British), Philips(shit quality even after their N1500 & N1700 were abandoned).
If you want the "filmic" look that you mentioned at 10:58, you're not going to get it from ancient home video formats. You need Blu-ray and an HD display, preferably a good HD projector, which is practically indistinguishable from watching a 35mm film print in a theater (assuming it is a good transfer of a shot-on-film movie). The 35mm film that nearly all movies were shot on until recently, is an extremely high-quality format, light years beyond LaserDisc, and as such, LaserDisc can only capture a very small percentage of the film's information. 35mm negatives are about equivalent to 4K digital resolution, and 35mm film prints which were shown in theaters are about equivalent to 2K / 1080p (the prints have less information than the negative due to a couple/few generations of loss, but they are still very high quality).
Even a good DVD transfer has far more of a filmic look than LaserDisc. At least with the DVD transfer you can actually clearly see the film grain, assuming you're using a high quality connection (at least component) and a high quality display (at least a 31 kHz CRT combined with a progressive-scan DVD player).
I can understand someone liking the look of analog NTSC video, but it is not even remotely filmic looking.
@@GoogleDoesEvil What ails you? Anyway?
I get what you mean. Had a 1000+ lds collection, and watch a good ntsc laserdis was a joy to your eyes
I just checked Google Maps and Stonycreek Farm is still around lol
13:11 "Around $25". Immediately thought you had to see the Sunsetter commercial with the dub-in price. I never could read his lips to figure-out the previous price.
CED had more chances than TED but couldn't win.
I love Bing Crosby.
I have the same pioneer DVD player !
Divx was the original DRM
Carefully thinking about some tones
OA, you've made the same mistake! Beta format VCRs first appeared in 1972! I remember seeing a stand-alone Beta VCR on display(but not for sale) at a Hi-Fi shop in Newcastle, NSW Australia in 1972. It was pointless to sell them as the official launch of colour TV here was still a few years away at that time and colour TV sets, though in production, hadn't been released onto the public market until mid-1974 in time for first test broadcasts
2:17 is it me or can you guys detect wow
At 2:20
What source did you use for the 2 music videos, "We Built this City" and "The Salt In My Tears"?
I remember DIVX was only in pan and scan and Bill from the Digital Bits hated Divx a lot
what did that beatles maxwells silber hammer footage you used during the ced bit come from
A CED copy of the Beatles' 1970 film Let It Be.
Cataxx ah, its been awhile since I viewed that film, they should re release it sometime
all of these are great, shame about the DMCAs though
Max Headroom but it's a low-budget episode. (16:11)
What's this? What's this!? Christ nowhere to be found. The holiday is Christ-mas, but Christ nowhere around.
you ever heard of Muse LD?? it was a HD Laserdisc released in Japan
been looking for one but it is impossible to get one
fucking A
also there was another format called V2000(or VCC) it was a tape format made by Philips that had more quality than Betamax and more recording time than VHS but it was only released in Europe and Brazil and it is also impossible to find
the likes and dislikes are now the same as the original upload
thE BeＡＴＬＥＳ
CEDs look alot like bigger versions Sony's UMDs... maybe Sony got the idea for UMDs from CEDs?
15:28 your player reacts like a baby, what doesn't like the food.
Oh Ben, I also hate Alanis Morissette. She thinks herself some great musical poet, really all of her music sounds like some teenage girl garage band.
I feel like I've already seen this...
hmmm, quite the mystery that is XP
12:48 taking movie's title literal?
9:45 SNL!
thumbs up for joe walsh
10:36 song name?
Archive Wars
1. The Phantom Headroom
2. Attack of the EAS
3. Revenge of the Signoffs
4. A New Local TV Special
5. The EXXXtasy Strikes Back
6. Return of the Republicans
7. The Formats Awaken
8. The Last Hotline
9. The Rise of Halloween
Hahaha. Star Wars theme
2:11 Noobs: GTA V!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111111
You forgot a major reason VHS won over Beta: porn. Adult companies released titles on VHS but not Beta (Sony wouldn't allow it) and that alone sold a huge number of VCRs. VHS probably would've won anyhow due to its price BUT if porn manufacturers favored Beta and Sony allowed it? Beta would've taken huge leap over VHS. I think the most likely outcome afterward would've been both formats surviving until DVD, with VHS gaining ground over the years as the cheaper alternative and probably surpassing Beta by the late 80s or early 90s.
not true, at least here in europe, hardcorefilms were releasesd in beta
@@honestguy7764 It's the U.S. market that makes or breaks a format. The porn industry is in Van Nuys, CA and they all released their titles exclusively on VHS. Bootlegs though can be found on any format.
Wrong again! Philips had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with VHS! Matsushita(with their National, Panasonic, Technics and their JVC-Nivico brands) were the prime developers of VHS in 1975/6(market release in 1976). Philips had its woefully crappy VCR N1500 and N1700 formats which mangled their tapes because of one reel being on top of the other - TOTAL SHIT!
Correct. JVC was in charge and supervised development of VHS in the early 1970s. And your right, Philips SUCKS horribly. Awful,Awful poor quality shit.
I have a long-standing bias against Philips because, growing up, our family TV set(in the black & white days before 1975) was a Philips and it was ALWAYS malfunctioning. Rarely did a week go by when one thing or another would fail in the set. Initially we had a choice of brands to evaluate, a PYE, Healing(one of EMI's brands) and the Philips. I'd have hoped my parents would've chosen the Healing set, it would've given trouble-free viewing for at least into the age of colour. When colour TV did arrive, I'd saved up and bought the family colour set, a HMV Braddon(18" screen and had UHF tuning though the UHF band wasn't yet being used). I was determined NEVER to buy a Philips set because of the bad memories of that old set we had.
#WTFU?
😁👏
vhs won becouse the porn industry supported it
I want the original unaltered versions of some of your videos too as the Star Wars films too