They tried to ban the VCR

[televisionarchives]

I posted about 3 months ago I had video of Sid Sheinberg on Nightline about going after VCR makers. I still can't find my tape of it but I did find someone else who has it. It's very interesting . Make sure you watch all 3 parts.

 

[televisionarchives]

Also check out this interesting story from the today show. Movies cost almost one hundred bucks to own the movie on vhsYouTube - videoholic1980s's Channel

 

[dfergie]

They were expensive, you had to give all kinds of ID to rent for the first gen VHS rentals...

 

[televisionarchives]

They were expensive, you had to give all kinds of ID to rent for the first gen VHS rentals...

I got one early but I was lucky to know someone who got a beta and gave one to my dad. The Beta machine was much better then the VHS.

 

[satjay]

Wow, great footage!

 

[televisionarchives]

Make sure you check out his other stuff as well.YouTube - videoholic50sto70s's Channel

 

[DodgerKing]

They were expensive, you had to give all kinds of ID to rent for the first gen VHS rentals...

When we got our first DVR, there were no video rental places. We had to rent from the local library.

 

[satjay]

Its amazing, at one time it seemed every small business was a rental store, Mom and pop stores I guess you can call them.....Dont think there are really any left. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video-which closed many locations and a few Family videos are left.

 

[televisionarchives]

Disney and Universal really went after the VCR . It looks silly now. I met Sid Sheinberg during the opening of Universal Studios Florida back in 1990. He's married to Lorraine Gary who many of you know as the wife (Ellen Brody) in JAWS. It really looks silly today to think they could control the VCR. Looking at him on Nightline he almost looks like he didn't want to be on the show. He's a tough guy in person, A little scary to be honest. He and Lew Wasserman were always around the Studio in 1990 before the grand opening.

Later the studios would put Macrovision on the tapes to prevent people from making copies and the price dropped.

Now this is funny. Somebody showed me a tape of a HBO Promo when they are trying to sign up for HBO. Back from the late 1980's . The host encouraged you to record HBO with your VCR.

 

[satjay]

Disney and Universal really went after the VCR . It looks silly now. I met Sid Sheinberg during the opening of Universal Studios Florida back in 1990. He's married to Lorraine Gary who many of you know as the wife (Ellen Brody) in JAWS. It really looks silly today to think they could control the VCR. Looking at him on Nightline he almost looks like he didn't want to be on the show. He's a tough guy in person, A little scary to be honest. He and Lew Wasserman were always around the Studio in 1990 before the grand opening.

Later the studios would put Macrovision on the tapes to prevent people from making copies and the price dropped.

Now this is funny. Somebody showed me a tape of a HBO Promo when they are trying to sign up for HBO. Back from the late 1980's . The host encouraged you to record HBO with your VCR.

I thought the same on his posture on the seat, kind of looked like he didnt care

 

[televisionarchives]

I thought the same on his posture on the seat, kind of looked like he didnt care

I can only guess on what they think of what's happened today with DVDs and the internet. Yikes.

 

[televisionarchives]

This model is like the one we had .

 

[markfp-1]

Let's see. The studios fought against television in the 1950's. Then they started the "Stop Pay TV" campaign to prevent the spread of cable in the 1960's and then they tried to ban the VCR. Each time they lost and then embraced the technology that they fought and ended up making tons of money. If they hadn't fought so hard they would have saved a lot of money that went to lawyers.

 

[televisionarchives]

Let's see. The studios fought against television in the 1950's. Then they started the "Stop Pay TV" campaign to prevent the spread of cable in the 1960's and then they tried to ban the VCR. Each time they lost and then embraced the technology that they fought and ended up making tons of money. If they hadn't fought so hard they would have saved a lot of money that went to lawyers.

That's true . Sid Sheinberg is also a lawyer . He went after Nintendo over Donkey Kong but lost that case as well. They got caught because in other cases before that they had argued that King Kong was public domain. Some had said Sheinberg had seen this as a way for Universal to get into the video game business.

Don't forget that they tried many ways to stop the tapes from being copied after they knew they couldn't stop it. Macrovision etc. I can't remember if they ever got the fee they wanted from each blank VHS or Beta Tape sold . Interesting how they talk about Laserdisc being the future and those didn't have any copy protection on them unlike the dvd and Blu ray disc of today.