Cold and frosty in Norfolk

[Guest]

.......For what its worth, I still think the Philips V2000 system would have been the best given the chance.....

 

 

Me too Iain, but it came along so late that most people never heard about it.

 

Four hour cassettes that could be turned over to give another 4 hours on the other side, doubling the capacity of Beta and VHS.

 

It even had a better way of tracking, so that it gave better freeze frames.

[BroadScot]

Hi Strowy,

 

As I did the electrical work for the Visionhire store in Ayr, I was asked to test all three systems, and you are spot on regarding tracking, and the lack of lines on freeze frames.

 

Iain.

[Guest]

Back in the 1970's I dabbled in repairing TVs and VCRs when they had more replaceable discrete components.

 

There were a number of electronic scrapyards in London which used to sell on ex-rental TVs and VCRs, some with minor faults and some fully working.

 

The VHS went for about £40 each, but I was able to get the Video 2000 recorders @ ten for £50 !

 

They went like hot cakes in my office where friends brought them for their kids but ended up using them themselves for timeshifting.

 

They had the then very rare full year timers, which if I remember correctly were used in some of the terrorist bombings of that era, because they could be planted months before.

[ExSurveyor]

Anyone remember the Phillips Laserdisc.

I also remember watching Princess Anne's first wedding, in colour on a posh friends brand new colour television.

[Guest]

Yep, another failed, and very expensive format using 12" optical discs.

 

In the BT management training colleges we tried developing them as the first interactive training media, long before CDs and DVDs. They were the first video format that offered random access, rather than sequential access tapes.

 

They were coupled up to Research Machines 386 PCs and we had  them set up in self-training booths.

 

BT commissioned quite a few celebrities to act on the various training discs, with pre recorded multi-option questions and answers.

 

"Effective Questioning" was a great favourite with the IT department when testing. There was a few quid running on who could select the most annoying questions to get Jane Asher to walk out of the interview the quickest ... 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

I was told Betamax was a vastly superior system to VHS, but the Japanes killed it for VHS ?. I don`t know how true it is, but the reasoning behind the better Betamax was that On Beta, the recording and play back head were isolated from the tape, whereas VHS they ran on the tape, is that true, or was i lied to all those years ago?.

[BroadScot]

I was told Betamax was a vastly superior system to VHS, but the Japanes killed it for VHS ?. I don`t know how true it is, but the reasoning behind the better Betamax was that On Beta, the recording and play back head were isolated from the tape, whereas VHS they ran on the tape, is that true, or was i lied to all those years ago?.

Yes, I was told the same thing when I was testing all three systems that it was a foregone conclussion Japan wanted VHS cos i was much cheaper to produce.

 

Iain.

[Baitrunner]

Basically JVC licensed VHS to all and sundry at a low cost thus creating cost competition in the market for VHS. Allegedly some selling at less than cost to get market share.

Sony (maybe being greedy or big headed with the technically better format) kept it themselves and kept the price high. They lost.

A lesson in marketing if you have deep pockets

[Guest]

Yes, Betamax v VHS was the  Japanese versus Japanese, or more specifically Sony versus everyone else.

 

In a similar vein, the non take-up of Video 2000 was largely due to it being licensed to only Phillips and Grundig, unlike the VHS system being licensable to every electronics manufacturer in the world, as Baitrunner said.

 

That sort of closed shop marketing doesn't always fail though, as Apple has proved. They hold exclusive license for all Apple/Mac/Ipad/Iphone OS's, and all the hardware that they run on.

 

By contrast, PCs and Android tablets and phones can be made by any manufacturer and run Windows, Android or Linux.

 

Thank God the humble IBM "Personal Computer" was quickly and legally cloned back in the 1980's, or home computers would all be at Apple prices today, (or maybe even more, because of the restricted competition.)

 

Cars would be so much cheaper to repair if the electronic bits in BMWs, Audis, VWs, Fords and Vauxhalls were all interchangeable, as with PC hard drives, keyboards, memory etc..

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Strowager,

 

You are correct re the 12 inch laser discs & players made by Phillips they were incorporated in a couple of larger four player video games, one was called the Gauntlet, I have forgotten the name of the other one. They worked well, but would stick at times.

 

I remember the first video game that came out in the mid 70's was called Boot Hill, at the time it cost more than a brand new Ford Escort.

 

Regards

Alan

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Yes, Betamax v VHS was the  Japanese versus Japanese, or more specifically Sony versus everyone else.

 

In a similar vein, the non take-up of Video 2000 was largely due to it being licensed to only Phillips and Grundig, unlike the VHS system being licensable to every electronics manufacturer in the world, as Baitrunner said.

 

That sort of closed shop marketing doesn't always fail though, as Apple has proved. They hold exclusive license for all Apple/Mac/Ipad/Iphone OS's, and all the hardware that they run on.

 

By contrast, PCs and Android tablets and phones can be made by any manufacturer and run Windows, Android or Linux.

 

Thank God the humble IBM "Personal Computer" was quickly and legally cloned back in the 1980's, or home computers would all be at Apple prices today, (or maybe even more, because of the restricted competition.)

 

Cars would be so much cheaper to repair if the electronic bits in BMWs, Audis, VWs, Fords and Vauxhalls were all interchangeable, as with PC hard drives, keyboards, memory etc..

 

That last paragraph says it all strow.

 

It would need a world wide aggreement for ALL manufacturers to aggree to a standard for anything. Take a simple thing like a mobile phone charger. Karen and i both have O2 payg phones, but have 2 different charging sockets, because they are differnt manufacturers. Digital camera are the same, when it comes to downloading photo`s. Yes the USB plug is universal, but the plug to the indivdual cameras can be vastly different, or almost identical, but different by half a milimeter. I`ve always said that the most common things in life should share the most common parts, which would not only benefit the manufacturers by cutting out the need for smaller volume manufacturing, but also the customer for ease and economy of repair. However, ALL manufacturers want is to make big profits, so by keeping things individual, they can garuntee sales of spares etc.

 

It might be just buisness, but hardly ethical, well to mind anyway.

[Guest]

Quite right Neil, unfortunately, all manufacturers are focussed 100% on profit.

 

I can't see it ever changing though, there's no way to force them to co-operate with each other on standardisation with cars, unlike the very fortunate evolution of computers.

 

Even most of the servicing computer software is jealously locked to each dealer franchise, even though the "OBD" sockets are now fairly standard, hardware-wise.