I could cry, this is beautiful. Thank you for writing this and putting in the research. It blew my mind learning that this model disengaged the tape from the heads during FF and RW. I like my little Gemini RW1300 VHS Rewinder a lot, but that is such an important touch. I'll always advocate for the use/acquisition of physical media, but VHS is just particularly special.
I was just talking about aspect ratios the other day with a videographer acquaintance of mine. We were both mooning over 4:3 and how movies like Jurassic Park just don't feel as groundbreaking in a widescreen world. Sometimes "dated" is synonymous with "appropriate," and it just takes a little gratitude to get that.
I don’t recall the brand of my family’s VCR, but we did manage to learn to program it to tape shows to watch later. That led to my favorite feature of the VCR era: the ability to “zap” the annoying commercials. I often long for that ability when all I can do now, in the era of streaming, is to mash the mute button.
Great write-up and congrats on finding a working model! I didn't realize that Akai was at all a premium brand. Our first VCR was a basic 2-head Fisher model. Certainly didn't have onscreen programming. Still, I loved that machine and it worked well for many years.
Akai made some beautiful machines with some newer features for the time. I bought my own first VCR for my bedroom in 1987 from Hills department store. Can't recall the brand but was around 200.00.
I still remember how expensive VCRs were. My family didn't have one when I was growing up.
So, you would rent a portable one when you rented movies. Crazy!
I remember buying my very first VCR using a Montgomery Ward's credit card that they never should have given to a college kid. It was still an expensive purchase, but that's how we would spend the weekends: Renting movies to watch with friends while eating too much popcorn.
The first home VCR experience I had was with a rental. One of my sister's boyfriends rented one and brought it over. I was so sad that we had to send it back.
My mom’s biggest success with "new" technology was when she mastered the VCR operation, programming auto recording of the shows she didn’t want to miss!
I could cry, this is beautiful. Thank you for writing this and putting in the research. It blew my mind learning that this model disengaged the tape from the heads during FF and RW. I like my little Gemini RW1300 VHS Rewinder a lot, but that is such an important touch. I'll always advocate for the use/acquisition of physical media, but VHS is just particularly special.
I was just talking about aspect ratios the other day with a videographer acquaintance of mine. We were both mooning over 4:3 and how movies like Jurassic Park just don't feel as groundbreaking in a widescreen world. Sometimes "dated" is synonymous with "appropriate," and it just takes a little gratitude to get that.
I don’t recall the brand of my family’s VCR, but we did manage to learn to program it to tape shows to watch later. That led to my favorite feature of the VCR era: the ability to “zap” the annoying commercials. I often long for that ability when all I can do now, in the era of streaming, is to mash the mute button.
So expensive!
I thought shockingly expensive when I started researching. Made me appreciate what we had even more.
Great write-up and congrats on finding a working model! I didn't realize that Akai was at all a premium brand. Our first VCR was a basic 2-head Fisher model. Certainly didn't have onscreen programming. Still, I loved that machine and it worked well for many years.
Akai made some beautiful machines with some newer features for the time. I bought my own first VCR for my bedroom in 1987 from Hills department store. Can't recall the brand but was around 200.00.
I was really struggling with trying to remember the model/brand for something that was so important to me for so many years.
I still remember how expensive VCRs were. My family didn't have one when I was growing up.
So, you would rent a portable one when you rented movies. Crazy!
I remember buying my very first VCR using a Montgomery Ward's credit card that they never should have given to a college kid. It was still an expensive purchase, but that's how we would spend the weekends: Renting movies to watch with friends while eating too much popcorn.
Simpler times…
The first home VCR experience I had was with a rental. One of my sister's boyfriends rented one and brought it over. I was so sad that we had to send it back.
My mom’s biggest success with "new" technology was when she mastered the VCR operation, programming auto recording of the shows she didn’t want to miss!