Could they have made VHS tapes with 2 sides like cassette tapes?

fmradiotuner1 · 14-03-2016, 17:37

If so do you think videos would have been better or worse?
How come cassette tapes have sides a & b but not VHS?
just wondering

skinj · 14-03-2016, 18:01

Was tried, but failed. VHS became more popular.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_2000

Chris Frost · 14-03-2016, 18:13

Damn, you beat me to it

Nigel Goodwin · 14-03-2016, 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by skinj

Was tried, but failed. VHS became more popular.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_2000

To be fair VHS was out LONG before Video2000, so there was no way it was ever going to be a serious contender. However, the Grundig ones generally absolutely thrashed the performance of VHS with much better picture quality, and perfect pause, slow motion, and fast searching (due to their dynamic track following technology).

I had one for a number of years, great machines.

fmradiotuner1 · 14-03-2016, 18:28

I wonder how the quality is on them tapes?

Nigel Goodwin · 14-03-2016, 19:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1

I wonder how the quality is on them tapes?

As I said, it was considerably better than VHS

However, reliability wise they fell far short of the Japanese - almost all VHS/Betamax faults were mechanical, V2000 introduced plenty of electronic faults as well, something almost totally unknown on VHS/Beta.

We even sold a Grundig 2x4 Super to a large Japanese manufacturer, who shipped it back to Japan for examination, as it was stuffed so full of features they couldn't believe it

Winston_1 · 14-03-2016, 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

We even sold a Grundig 2x4 Super to a large Japanese manufacturer, who shipped it back to Japan for examination, as it was stuffed so full of features they couldn't believe it

Interesting. However none of those features later appeared on Japanese machines. I wonder why.

Chris Frost · 15-03-2016, 07:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winston_1

Interesting. However none of those features later appeared on Japanese machines. I wonder why.

At the time it was the limitation of the VHS drum design versus the cost of overcoming that and all weighed up against the likely return on investment. IOW would people buying an already expensive piece of kit (a month or mores wage at the time) fork out even more money just for noiseless still and slow-mo. V2000 was designed from the ground up to achieve this whereas VHS and Beta weren't.

By the time VHS and Beta cracked the noiseless still/slow-mo issue V2000 had long since shuffled off this mortal coil, due in some small part no doubt to the higher cost of the machines versus VHS becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous as the battle for market domination raged on.

Nigel Goodwin · 15-03-2016, 08:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winston_1

Interesting. However none of those features later appeared on Japanese machines. I wonder why.

Because VHS wasn't capable of it - and it would have been utterly pointless trying to introduce yet another incompatible format.

Dan Sette · 15-03-2016, 13:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

To be fair VHS was out LONG before Video2000, so there was no way it was ever going to be a serious contender. However, the Grundig ones generally absolutely thrashed the performance of VHS with much better picture quality, and perfect pause, slow motion, and fast searching (due to their dynamic track following technology).

I had one for a number of years, great machines.

In the UK not long beore. VHS was around 1978 and the V2000 in 1979.

There were loads of the Philips machines "stored" under the sound proof floor in studio one at Pebble Mill. I wonder if they were just destroyed when it was demolished?

oilman · 15-03-2016, 17:34

To make tape double sided, you need two parallel tracks, and reader chooses upper (say) track to play back, so when you turn tape over it plays other track.

So simply, the volume of data was just too great to fit on narrower tapes (would have to run twice as fast and twice as long if a parallel track was on tape which would also have meant tape would need to be half the thickness and hence more prone to snapping.

Steffan_Leach · 15-03-2016, 17:35

Videos are gone now, but could they also make DVD's and Blurays double sided?

Also I'm wondering:

Why hasn't any computer been made where you can play a video on it?
Why can't you play dvd's/blurays on tablets?
Why can't you record tv programmes onto blank dvd's?

dearmrman · 15-03-2016, 17:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffan_Leach

Videos are gone now, but could they also make DVD's and Blurays double sided?

Also I'm wondering:

Why hasn't any computer been made where you can play a video on it?
Why can't you play dvd's/blurays on tablets?
Why can't you record tv programmes onto blank dvd's?

I'm sure I have had a double sided DVD in the past.

fmradiotuner1 · 15-03-2016, 17:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffan_Leach

Videos are gone now, but could they also make DVD's and Blurays double sided?

Also I'm wondering:

Why hasn't any computer been made where you can play a video on it?
Why can't you play dvd's/blurays on tablets?
Why can't you record tv programmes onto blank dvd's?

I have seen double sided sided dvd and laser discs there some roots dvds I have that are double sided sided dvds.
if they did this to blu ray I bet it could be 100 GB.
I think blu rays might be up to 50gb?

gds1972 · 15-03-2016, 18:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by dearmrman

I'm sure I have had a double sided DVD in the past.

I remember picking up Superman on DVD and it being a double sided dual layer disc.

mooghead · 15-03-2016, 19:03

I have a Bruce Lee DVD which has a different Aspect Ratio on each side

anthony david · 15-03-2016, 20:07

My copy of Dr Zhivago is double sided, you have to look at the small text near the centre quite closely to see the small A and B side markings. It was released by WB and has the code Z1 65571 on the box. It says that side 1 is dual layer which may trigger a pause. There is also a bonus disc of extras in the pack.

Chris Frost · 15-03-2016, 20:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by dearmrman

I'm sure I have had a double sided DVD in the past.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1

I have seen double sided sided dvd and laser discs there some roots dvds I have that are double sided sided dvds.
if they did this to blu ray I bet it could be 100 GB.
I think blu rays might be up to 50gb?

Quote:

Originally Posted by gds1972

I remember picking up Superman on DVD and it being a double sided dual layer disc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mooghead

I have a Bruce Lee DVD which has a different Aspect Ratio on each side

In the early days of DVD "flippers" were quite common. The discs only supported a single layer so it was common for films over a certain length to be split so that half way through the film required the draw to opened and the disc turned over. Later on dual layer discs (and the players capable of reading the second layer) started to come out. Now they're the norm.

I still have some DVDs that are flippers and some that have two versions of the film for 4:3 and 2.35:1 aspect ratios.

Laser Discs are double-sided. Basic players required the disc to be flipped. Better players had a head that could turn through a U and read either side. It was sill quite common though for extended editions to run across two discs.

Blu-rays are dual layer (2x25Gb) for movies. There are higher capacity discs for data (100Gb up to 250Gb/10 layer in theory) but these are not so widely available at the higher capacities over 100Gb.

If we don't all go streaming then the future beyond UHD is probably going to rely more and more on smarter compression algorithms as much as it is on hardware

diablo · 15-03-2016, 21:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

To be fair VHS was out LONG before Video2000, so there was no way it was ever going to be a serious contender. However, the Grundig ones generally absolutely thrashed the performance of VHS with much better picture quality, and perfect pause, slow motion, and fast searching (due to their dynamic track following technology).

I had one for a number of years, great machines.

I had the Grundig V2000 machine for many years. I only stopped using it because it the audio wasn't stereo, everything else was brilliant.

Markynotts · 16-03-2016, 05:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

In the early days of DVD "flippers" were quite common. The discs only supported a single layer so it was common for films over a certain length to be split so that half way through the film required the draw to opened and the disc turned over. Later on dual layer discs (and the players capable of reading the second layer) started to come out. Now they're the norm.

I still have some DVDs that are flippers and some that have two versions of the film for 4:3 and 2.35:1 aspect ratios.

Laser Discs are double-sided. Basic players required the disc to be flipped. Better players had a head that could turn through a U and read either side. It was sill quite common though for extended editions to run across two discs.

Blu-rays are dual layer (2x25Gb) for movies. There are higher capacity discs for data (100Gb up to 250Gb/10 layer in theory) but these are not so widely available at the higher capacities over 100Gb.

If we don't all go streaming then the future beyond UHD is probably going to rely more and more on smarter compression algorithms as much as it is on hardware

I have the first season of the remastered Star Trek series on a flipper disc. It was DVD on one side and HD-DVD on the other. It was just after Blu Ray was pretty much signposted as the winning format and Amazon were offloading all their HD-DVD stuff. I only had a DVD player so it made sense for me to buy the cheaper option at the time.

unique · 16-03-2016, 06:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffan_Leach

Videos are gone now, but could they also make DVD's and Blurays double sided?

Also I'm wondering:

Why hasn't any computer been made where you can play a video on it?
Why can't you play dvd's/blurays on tablets?
Why can't you record tv programmes onto blank dvd's?

you can get double sided discs and they've been available for years. there are even discs with dvd on one side and bluray on the others

most modern home and office pc's can play videos and many tablets, in particular windows tablets can play dvd/bluray discs by connecting to a USB external drive. as you can simply rip the contents to a file and put on the disc and thats simple and easy and does away with the extra cost and weight and inconvenience of having a built in drive which most people don't need - even laptops are coming without optical drives now, that's why they aren't included. you can even get wifi optical drives so you can operate wire free

you can also record tv shows on blank dvds. that's been around for so long that it's pretty much obsolete due to PVR's with built in HDD's so people don't need to fart around with discs

Nigel Goodwin · 16-03-2016, 08:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by diablo

I had the Grundig V2000 machine for many years. I only stopped using it because it the audio wasn't stereo, everything else was brilliant.

They did stereo ones as well

AlanO · 16-03-2016, 13:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

At the time it was the limitation of the VHS drum design versus the cost of overcoming that and all weighed up against the likely return on investment. IOW would people buying an already expensive piece of kit (a month or mores wage at the time) fork out even more money just for noiseless still and slow-mo. V2000 was designed from the ground up to achieve this whereas VHS and Beta weren't.

By the time VHS and Beta cracked the noiseless still/slow-mo issue V2000 had long since shuffled off this mortal coil, due in some small part no doubt to the higher cost of the machines versus VHS becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous as the battle for market domination raged on.

There were also a couple of other factors which helped VHS secure the market:

- firstly it was the format the film studios liked because of the 3 hour tape as standard, which meant a film would usually fit on it and that helped the video rental market.

- JVC weren't averse to licensing their technology, something both Sony and Philips were much more reluctant to do with VCRs. So whilst Betamax essentially had a choice of Sony or Sanyo and V2000 was effectively limited to Grundig & Philips whereas VHS had JVC, Panasonic, Ferguson (and the rest of the Thorn brands), Hitachi, Toshiba as well as the OEMs. And for younger readers who might not be aware, back in the early 80s Ferguson TVs and VCRs were well regarded and widely bought, particularly by people who wanted something British.

Nigel Goodwin · 16-03-2016, 14:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlanO

whereas VHS had JVC, Panasonic, Ferguson (and the rest of the Thorn brands), Hitachi, Toshiba as well as the OEMs.

A little misleading, as Ferguson (and all the Thorn VCR's) were simply bought from JVC anyway, at least in the early years - some other makes did the same as well, with badged JVC machines..

Quote:

And for younger readers who might not be aware, back in the early 80s Ferguson TVs and VCRs were well regarded and widely bought, particularly by people who wanted something British.

Ferguson were a good make, and made some very good TV's - and had many 'firsts' to their name - such as first all transistor colour TV, first domestic use of a switch-mode PSU, and first music centre.

Steffan_Leach · 16-03-2016, 17:56

Quote:

most modern home and office pc's can play videos

Ummm... I've never seen a computer that you've just been able to pop in a video cassette and watch a film.. Have you?

Quote:

and many tablets, in particular windows tablets can play dvd/bluray discs by connecting to a USB external drive. as you can simply rip the contents to a file and put on the disc and thats simple and easy and does away with the extra cost and weight and inconvenience of having a built in drive which most people don't need

Not sure quite what you mean by "USB external drive". Anyway, I'd love to have to DVD/Bluray Player on my tablet. Why should I have to go to the trouble of downloading/streaming another version when I already have it on DVD? And it needn't add a lot of weight or thickness.. It wouldn't be like a disk tray like on a computer, it would just be a little slot like they have in consoles now. With tablets becoming lighter and thinner, I can't see it being an issue.

And alough many people stream films now, people still buy DVD's and Bluray's, and won't want to buy an online version as well as, just to watch it on their portable devices, so I think it's foolish that laptops are coming in without disk drives imo.

Quote:

you can also record tv shows on blank dvds. that's been around for so long that it's pretty much obsolete due to PVR's with built in HDD's so people don't need to fart around with discs

Since DVD Players typically don't come with a "Record" Button, I fail to see how that is possible. I've never seen nor heard of a DVD Recorder either.

14-03-2016, 17:37	#1
fmradiotuner1 Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: TheEssexSunshineCoast Clacton Posts: 15,220	Could they have made VHS tapes with 2 sides like cassette tapes? If so do you think videos would have been better or worse? How come cassette tapes have sides a & b but not VHS? just wondering

14-03-2016, 18:01	#2
skinj Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 3,206	Was tried, but failed. VHS became more popular. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_2000

14-03-2016, 18:13	#3
Chris Frost Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Cheshire Posts: 6,462	Damn, you beat me to it

14-03-2016, 18:27	#4
Nigel Goodwin Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: North Derbyshire Posts: 41,789	Quote: Originally Posted by skinj Was tried, but failed. VHS became more popular. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_2000 To be fair VHS was out LONG before Video2000, so there was no way it was ever going to be a serious contender. However, the Grundig ones generally absolutely thrashed the performance of VHS with much better picture quality, and perfect pause, slow motion, and fast searching (due to their dynamic track following technology). I had one for a number of years, great machines.

14-03-2016, 18:28	#5
fmradiotuner1 Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: TheEssexSunshineCoast Clacton Posts: 15,220	I wonder how the quality is on them tapes?

14-03-2016, 19:16	#6
Nigel Goodwin Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: North Derbyshire Posts: 41,789	Quote: Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1 I wonder how the quality is on them tapes? As I said, it was considerably better than VHS However, reliability wise they fell far short of the Japanese - almost all VHS/Betamax faults were mechanical, V2000 introduced plenty of electronic faults as well, something almost totally unknown on VHS/Beta. We even sold a Grundig 2x4 Super to a large Japanese manufacturer, who shipped it back to Japan for examination, as it was stuffed so full of features they couldn't believe it

14-03-2016, 22:41	#7
Winston_1 Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 5,008	Quote: Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin We even sold a Grundig 2x4 Super to a large Japanese manufacturer, who shipped it back to Japan for examination, as it was stuffed so full of features they couldn't believe it Interesting. However none of those features later appeared on Japanese machines. I wonder why.

15-03-2016, 07:55	#8
Chris Frost Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Cheshire Posts: 6,462	Quote: Originally Posted by Winston_1 Interesting. However none of those features later appeared on Japanese machines. I wonder why. At the time it was the limitation of the VHS drum design versus the cost of overcoming that and all weighed up against the likely return on investment. IOW would people buying an already expensive piece of kit (a month or mores wage at the time) fork out even more money just for noiseless still and slow-mo. V2000 was designed from the ground up to achieve this whereas VHS and Beta weren't. By the time VHS and Beta cracked the noiseless still/slow-mo issue V2000 had long since shuffled off this mortal coil, due in some small part no doubt to the higher cost of the machines versus VHS becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous as the battle for market domination raged on.

15-03-2016, 08:54	#9
Nigel Goodwin Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: North Derbyshire Posts: 41,789	Quote: Originally Posted by Winston_1 Interesting. However none of those features later appeared on Japanese machines. I wonder why. Because VHS wasn't capable of it - and it would have been utterly pointless trying to introduce yet another incompatible format.

15-03-2016, 13:03	#10
Dan Sette Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Cornwall (at last!) Posts: 5,641	Quote: Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin To be fair VHS was out LONG before Video2000, so there was no way it was ever going to be a serious contender. However, the Grundig ones generally absolutely thrashed the performance of VHS with much better picture quality, and perfect pause, slow motion, and fast searching (due to their dynamic track following technology). I had one for a number of years, great machines. In the UK not long beore. VHS was around 1978 and the V2000 in 1979. There were loads of the Philips machines "stored" under the sound proof floor in studio one at Pebble Mill. I wonder if they were just destroyed when it was demolished?

15-03-2016, 17:34	#11
oilman Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 3,854	To make tape double sided, you need two parallel tracks, and reader chooses upper (say) track to play back, so when you turn tape over it plays other track. So simply, the volume of data was just too great to fit on narrower tapes (would have to run twice as fast and twice as long if a parallel track was on tape which would also have meant tape would need to be half the thickness and hence more prone to snapping.

15-03-2016, 17:35	#12
Steffan_Leach Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: North West England Posts: 1,821	Videos are gone now, but could they also make DVD's and Blurays double sided? Also I'm wondering: Why hasn't any computer been made where you can play a video on it? Why can't you play dvd's/blurays on tablets? Why can't you record tv programmes onto blank dvd's?

15-03-2016, 17:51	#13
dearmrman Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Utopia Posts: 10,186	Quote: Originally Posted by Steffan_Leach Videos are gone now, but could they also make DVD's and Blurays double sided? Also I'm wondering: Why hasn't any computer been made where you can play a video on it? Why can't you play dvd's/blurays on tablets? Why can't you record tv programmes onto blank dvd's? I'm sure I have had a double sided DVD in the past.

15-03-2016, 18:45	#15
gds1972 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 5,515	Quote: Originally Posted by dearmrman I'm sure I have had a double sided DVD in the past. I remember picking up Superman on DVD and it being a double sided dual layer disc.

15-03-2016, 19:03	#16
mooghead Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 572	I have a Bruce Lee DVD which has a different Aspect Ratio on each side

15-03-2016, 20:07	#17
anthony david Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 3,469	My copy of Dr Zhivago is double sided, you have to look at the small text near the centre quite closely to see the small A and B side markings. It was released by WB and has the code Z1 65571 on the box. It says that side 1 is dual layer which may trigger a pause. There is also a bonus disc of extras in the pack.

15-03-2016, 20:19	#18
Chris Frost Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Cheshire Posts: 6,462	Quote: Originally Posted by dearmrman I'm sure I have had a double sided DVD in the past. Quote: Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1 I have seen double sided sided dvd and laser discs there some roots dvds I have that are double sided sided dvds. if they did this to blu ray I bet it could be 100 GB. I think blu rays might be up to 50gb? Quote: Originally Posted by gds1972 I remember picking up Superman on DVD and it being a double sided dual layer disc. Quote: Originally Posted by mooghead I have a Bruce Lee DVD which has a different Aspect Ratio on each side In the early days of DVD "flippers" were quite common. The discs only supported a single layer so it was common for films over a certain length to be split so that half way through the film required the draw to opened and the disc turned over. Later on dual layer discs (and the players capable of reading the second layer) started to come out. Now they're the norm. I still have some DVDs that are flippers and some that have two versions of the film for 4:3 and 2.35:1 aspect ratios. Laser Discs are double-sided. Basic players required the disc to be flipped. Better players had a head that could turn through a U and read either side. It was sill quite common though for extended editions to run across two discs. Blu-rays are dual layer (2x25Gb) for movies. There are higher capacity discs for data (100Gb up to 250Gb/10 layer in theory) but these are not so widely available at the higher capacities over 100Gb. If we don't all go streaming then the future beyond UHD is probably going to rely more and more on smarter compression algorithms as much as it is on hardware

15-03-2016, 21:41	#19
diablo Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Fylde Coast Posts: 8,103	Quote: Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin To be fair VHS was out LONG before Video2000, so there was no way it was ever going to be a serious contender. However, the Grundig ones generally absolutely thrashed the performance of VHS with much better picture quality, and perfect pause, slow motion, and fast searching (due to their dynamic track following technology). I had one for a number of years, great machines. I had the Grundig V2000 machine for many years. I only stopped using it because it the audio wasn't stereo, everything else was brilliant.

16-03-2016, 05:38	#20
Markynotts Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 3,645	Quote: Originally Posted by Chris Frost In the early days of DVD "flippers" were quite common. The discs only supported a single layer so it was common for films over a certain length to be split so that half way through the film required the draw to opened and the disc turned over. Later on dual layer discs (and the players capable of reading the second layer) started to come out. Now they're the norm. I still have some DVDs that are flippers and some that have two versions of the film for 4:3 and 2.35:1 aspect ratios. Laser Discs are double-sided. Basic players required the disc to be flipped. Better players had a head that could turn through a U and read either side. It was sill quite common though for extended editions to run across two discs. Blu-rays are dual layer (2x25Gb) for movies. There are higher capacity discs for data (100Gb up to 250Gb/10 layer in theory) but these are not so widely available at the higher capacities over 100Gb. If we don't all go streaming then the future beyond UHD is probably going to rely more and more on smarter compression algorithms as much as it is on hardware I have the first season of the remastered Star Trek series on a flipper disc. It was DVD on one side and HD-DVD on the other. It was just after Blu Ray was pretty much signposted as the winning format and Amazon were offloading all their HD-DVD stuff. I only had a DVD player so it made sense for me to buy the cheaper option at the time.

16-03-2016, 06:58	#21
unique Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 8,034	Quote: Originally Posted by Steffan_Leach Videos are gone now, but could they also make DVD's and Blurays double sided? Also I'm wondering: Why hasn't any computer been made where you can play a video on it? Why can't you play dvd's/blurays on tablets? Why can't you record tv programmes onto blank dvd's? you can get double sided discs and they've been available for years. there are even discs with dvd on one side and bluray on the others most modern home and office pc's can play videos and many tablets, in particular windows tablets can play dvd/bluray discs by connecting to a USB external drive. as you can simply rip the contents to a file and put on the disc and thats simple and easy and does away with the extra cost and weight and inconvenience of having a built in drive which most people don't need - even laptops are coming without optical drives now, that's why they aren't included. you can even get wifi optical drives so you can operate wire free you can also record tv shows on blank dvds. that's been around for so long that it's pretty much obsolete due to PVR's with built in HDD's so people don't need to fart around with discs

16-03-2016, 08:43	#22
Nigel Goodwin Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: North Derbyshire Posts: 41,789	Quote: Originally Posted by diablo I had the Grundig V2000 machine for many years. I only stopped using it because it the audio wasn't stereo, everything else was brilliant. They did stereo ones as well

DS Forums

Could they have made VHS tapes with 2 sides like cassette tapes?

16-03-2016, 13:53	#23
AlanO Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 1,902	Quote: Originally Posted by Chris Frost At the time it was the limitation of the VHS drum design versus the cost of overcoming that and all weighed up against the likely return on investment. IOW would people buying an already expensive piece of kit (a month or mores wage at the time) fork out even more money just for noiseless still and slow-mo. V2000 was designed from the ground up to achieve this whereas VHS and Beta weren't. By the time VHS and Beta cracked the noiseless still/slow-mo issue V2000 had long since shuffled off this mortal coil, due in some small part no doubt to the higher cost of the machines versus VHS becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous as the battle for market domination raged on. There were also a couple of other factors which helped VHS secure the market: - firstly it was the format the film studios liked because of the 3 hour tape as standard, which meant a film would usually fit on it and that helped the video rental market. - JVC weren't averse to licensing their technology, something both Sony and Philips were much more reluctant to do with VCRs. So whilst Betamax essentially had a choice of Sony or Sanyo and V2000 was effectively limited to Grundig & Philips whereas VHS had JVC, Panasonic, Ferguson (and the rest of the Thorn brands), Hitachi, Toshiba as well as the OEMs. And for younger readers who might not be aware, back in the early 80s Ferguson TVs and VCRs were well regarded and widely bought, particularly by people who wanted something British.

16-03-2016, 14:36	#24
Nigel Goodwin Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: North Derbyshire Posts: 41,789	Quote: Originally Posted by AlanO whereas VHS had JVC, Panasonic, Ferguson (and the rest of the Thorn brands), Hitachi, Toshiba as well as the OEMs. A little misleading, as Ferguson (and all the Thorn VCR's) were simply bought from JVC anyway, at least in the early years - some other makes did the same as well, with badged JVC machines.. Quote: And for younger readers who might not be aware, back in the early 80s Ferguson TVs and VCRs were well regarded and widely bought, particularly by people who wanted something British. Ferguson were a good make, and made some very good TV's - and had many 'firsts' to their name - such as first all transistor colour TV, first domestic use of a switch-mode PSU, and first music centre.

16-03-2016, 17:56	#25
Steffan_Leach Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: North West England Posts: 1,821	Quote: most modern home and office pc's can play videos Ummm... I've never seen a computer that you've just been able to pop in a video cassette and watch a film.. Have you? Quote: and many tablets, in particular windows tablets can play dvd/bluray discs by connecting to a USB external drive. as you can simply rip the contents to a file and put on the disc and thats simple and easy and does away with the extra cost and weight and inconvenience of having a built in drive which most people don't need Not sure quite what you mean by "USB external drive". Anyway, I'd love to have to DVD/Bluray Player on my tablet. Why should I have to go to the trouble of downloading/streaming another version when I already have it on DVD? And it needn't add a lot of weight or thickness.. It wouldn't be like a disk tray like on a computer, it would just be a little slot like they have in consoles now. With tablets becoming lighter and thinner, I can't see it being an issue. And alough many people stream films now, people still buy DVD's and Bluray's, and won't want to buy an online version as well as, just to watch it on their portable devices, so I think it's foolish that laptops are coming in without disk drives imo. Quote: you can also record tv shows on blank dvds. that's been around for so long that it's pretty much obsolete due to PVR's with built in HDD's so people don't need to fart around with discs Since DVD Players typically don't come with a "Record" Button, I fail to see how that is possible. I've never seen nor heard of a DVD Recorder either.