History of Home Video Technologies (war, general, 1990s, events)
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The first time consumers had a (realistic) chance of playing back pre-recorded videos and recording their own videos was with the introduction of VHS and Betamax technologies in the late 1970s.
One advantage of VCRs was that in addition to being able to playback purchased or rented movies, they could also record programs. In other words, they put recording in the hands of normal consumers. Understandably, big media corporations thought this was piracy, and Universal sued Sony over its Betamax's recording capabilities very early on. In 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the judgment that consumer recording for purposes of time-shifting constituted "fair use".
VHS won out, and VCR penetration rose slowly compared with some technologies today. It reached 1% of American households in 1980; 10% of American households in 1984; 25% of American households in 1986; 50% of American households in 1988; 75% in 1992; and peaked at just over 90% in the early 2000s, by which time basic models of VCRs were selling for under $50, and were on the verge of obsolescence.
My parents bought their first VCR in around 1987. Prior to then, they would treat themselves ("treat" being the operative word) to renting both the movies and the VCR.
Consumers who felt the audio and video quality of pre-recorded VHS tapes to be inadequate for their needs could splurge on a LaserDisc player and LaserDisc media, which resembled a CD or DVD in thinness and texture, but was more like a vinyl record in size. Like DVDs, LaserDiscs were random-access (so no rewinding or fast-forwarding), and could feature multiple audio tracks. The most fascinating thing about the LaserDisc format, however, was that the video was all-analog and completely uncompressed.
Because of the cost, LaserDisc never took off outside the specialist home theater and upscale luxury community in the U.S.
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The precursor to DVD was VCD, which was introduced in 1993. VCDs are essentially CDs with digitally-compressed video and audio. The video was of shockingly low resolution to modern eyes, but VCDs were the first mainstream consumer video format in many Asian countries, which had missed the VHS boat.
DVD players were introduced to the American market in 1997. Although they resemble CDs, DVDs have a much greater pit density, enabling them to store more data. The DVD format was standardized as all-digital MPEG-2 video with a greater resolution than LaserDiscs and other precursor formats (720x480 to be exact).
DVD players were introduced in mainstream stores (Best Buy, Sears, etc.) soon after their debut in the U.S. and initially sold for $500 to $1,000, with DVD media, initially sparse, selling for about $30 per disc for new releases. About a year after they came out, I remember knowing of only one person who had a DVD player, and he was popularly known as the “rich” kid. The high prices kept DVDs out of most households until about 1999, when a marked reduce in the price of players was observed. My soon-to-be-uncle was the first one in our family to get a DVD player that I knew of, and in 2001 my dad bought me an awesome new computer of my own configuring with a DVD-ROM drive that happened to play DVD videos. For the Christmas of 2001, we were bought a Playstation 2 with DVD playback capability, and later that year we also bought a standalone DVD player.
I was stunned by the video quality on my TV. Most DVDs had a 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio from the start, so cropping (or letterboxing, in which black bars would occupy part of the screen above and below the picture, but nobody liked that) had to be used to display it on standard TVs, which had an aspect ratio of 4:3.
By the mid-2000s, DVD players could be found for less than $100, and DVDs were cheaper than VHS tapes at equivalent points of adoption. According to Consumer Electronics Association statistics, DVD reached 50% penetration in 2003, and 75% penetration in 2005. By that time, the days of pre-recorded VHS media were numbered, and most stores mainly sold DVDs.
Despite their widespread availability beginning in about the early-mid 2000s, consumer DVD video recorders never took off as a common home video recording medium, although DVD+RW drives became mainstream and were often used to pirate discs, overcoming the DVD format's copy protection technology. Unlike pirated music, pirated DVDs were and are often of a much lower quality than the original.
DVD is still the dominant (physical) format for video distribution, and DVD players can now be found for under $50.
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Although DVDs had outstanding picture (and audio) quality for the time in which they were released, it fell visibly short of high-definition.
High-definition sets were on sale since at least 1997, but were far too expensive for common consumers, even well-heeled ones. In addition, there was little or no HD content to display on them then.
By 2002, however, prices on HD-ready sets began to fall to the point where they could be afforded by a decently-sized segment of the market. These were generally large, bulky rear-projection TVs, not flatm-screen displays. As of late 2002, the latter rarely sold for under $10,000. In around 2004, prices on flat-panel displays fell dramatically. “Plasma” became part of the average lexicon as consumers flocked in herds to their local electronics and department stores to buy a cool-looking wall-mounted display.
As for us, we bought our first high-definition capable TV, a 56” Mitsubishi rear-projection set, in December 2003. We were early adopters, though obviously not the first. The first people I know of in our family with a flat-panel TV were my grandparents, who acquired one in about 2006 or 2007; I remember walking from their house to the nearby Best Buy on a cold winter night to buy them an HDMI cable. My sister was the first in our immediate family to have a flat-panel display; she received one from my mother in about 2008 or 2009.
By 2005, there were plenty of high-definition capable sets out there, but a relative paucity of high-definition content. Many of the network shows and some cable and satellite networks broadcast in HD, but the majority of consumers were content to watch DVDs and “Stretch-o-Vision” (stretched-out standard TV) on their cool new TVs.
Pre-recorded HD media was even rarer. The only format for which such was produced was an obscure digital videotape format, “W-VHS”. Only a few movies were released for W-VHS players, which could also record, causing fears among media companies that people would record in HD as they did in SD.
The solution lie in optical media. DVDs lacked sufficient storage capacity, so a new, more storage-dense format was needed. Development of the formats and negotiation between parties began in full stride in the early 2000's, and by 2006 consumer players for two competing formats were released: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Initially, their prices were quite similar to DVD players when they first launched, though they may actually have been less when inflation is taken into account.
Blu-Ray – which used a “blue laser diode” invented by Shuji Nakamura was supported by Sony, among other electronics manufacturers, while Toshiba (and Warner Brothers) stood behind HD-DVD, which used dual-layer DVD discs. The war was reminiscent of the Betamax vs. VHS battle of the late 1970's.
In a change of events, Sony would come out victorious this time, and Toshiba discontinued HD-DVD in 2008. According to Wikipedia, the two major factors behind Blu-Ray's victory were “shifting business alliances” and perhaps more importantly, Sony's decision to include a Blu-Ray player on its new Playstation 3 video game console.
According to Home Media Magazine (source: Blu-ray Player Penetration Reaches 26 Percent), 26 percent of American homes now have a Blu-Ray player, which compares unfavorably to the 50 percent that had a DVD player in 2003, both six years after the format's consumer release in the United States. This could be due to the fact that less than two-thirds of homes have high-definition sets (from the same source), necessary to reap Blu-Ray's benefits.
I would blame the recession and a house fire which damaged our old high-definition set and led to the theft of my sister's as the reason for us not having a Blu-Ray player.
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With DVD players supplanting VHS decks, yet mostly lacking in recording capability, a need emerged for consumers to have an up-to-date video recording device. That need would be met in a very un-VHS like way: the personal or digital video recorded (PVR or DVR).
“Digital video recorder” and “personal video recorder” are used interchangably as the name of a device which records and compresses video from any source to a hard drive. Two things were needed for the development of a practical consumer DVR: hard drives to become large enough to store video; and compression chips to become cheap enough (or processors to become fast enough) to compress video real-time.
A DVR would also enable, by its very nature, the pausing of live TV, the convenient skipping of commercials, and the convenient “random-access” experience of not having to fast-forward or rewind, similar to DVDs.
These developments were sufficiently advanced in 1999 for the first consumer DVRs to be released, the ReplayTV and TiVo. Later, Dish Network came out with the DISHPlayer at the end of 1999.
For most of the early-to-mid 2000's, DVRs remained an insignificant player in the home video world. Critics and owners of the devices raved about how much they loved them, but for most people, VHS sufficed for when recording was necessary. At the time, DVRs seemed to usually be purchased up-front. DVR manufacturers provided a subscription service at a nominal price for viewing local TV schedules and selecting programs to be recorded.
One DVR manufacturer introduced a “sharing” feature some time around 2001 that was light years ahead of its time, and highly subsceptible to illegal use. Users with broadband connections could “share” their recordings with other similar devices over networks, including the largest network of all, the Internet. A lawsuit forced them to disable this feature soon after it was introduced.
The popularity of DVRs appeared to take off when cable companies began to offer and promote them as an upgrade to the standard set-top box. From the 1980s onwards, U.S. TV manufacturers sold their TVs “cable-ready”, which meant they could tune into basic cable channels without a box by simply plugging the cable from the wall into the TV (cable providers could simply cut a non-paying user off at the tap). The expansion of systems to digital, added features like electronic programming guides (EPGs), and the creation of multiple programming packages required users to have a set-top box if they wished to enjoy the expanded channel line-up and features that digital cable provided.
Cable providers already placed a surcharge on subscriber's bills for set-top boxes, so it was logical for them to offer their customers an upgrade to a digital video recorder as a luxury option. A large number of them signed up each year for the upgrade, and DVR penetration has grown steadily to over 40% (source: DVR Penetration Grows to 39.7% of Households, 42.2% of Viewers - Ratings | TVbytheNumbers ).
Although most TV is still watched live, the time-shifting features of DVRs have had major implications for advertising. A sometimes subtle, sometimes-not effect of this has been to have in-program promotions of products. For example, a small transparent banner announcing an upcoming TV show could also say “sponsored by [company]”; different items may have the brand-name ostensibly used in some programs; in others, the promotion is more blatant.
Connected with DVR's are the video-on-demand offerings of cable services. Although video-on-demand was implemented as early as 1994, it took off in the last decade.
We had a dual-tuner digital video recorder from around New Year's Day 2007 to April 2010, when we were cut off from Dish Network because of other financial priorities. In addition to the first time that I could record and pause TV shows, it was also the first time I had commercial satellite TV in my room.
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We at last get to the most recent major innovation in TV, internet video services. In reality, video over the internet predates even DVD, but only entered the commercial limelight recently. It was experimented with in the early 1990s with the development of digital video compression and higher-speed internet connections. By 1996, the computer we bought came with a software package called “VDO”, which enabled videoconferencing over the internet. Real, a company that developed products for streaming radio over the internet, included a codec for internet video in the 4.0 version of its free player; in 1997, I remember watching a very early advertisement for AT&T, followed by live coverage of the transfer of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China. This was done over a notoriously slow dial-up connection, so the video quality was miserably low and the frame rate slow. In 1998, XOOM.com, an early internet hosting service, offered a selection of classic, streaming movies. Before the same year was over, Eurodancehits.com offered a large library of partial-length eurodance music videos recorded from various TV channels across Europe, available either as streaming 80k videos or downloads.
For internet video to become practical, bandwidth available both to servers and consumers would have to increase. And that it did. Broadband became available, either by cable, DSL, or both, in most American cities by 2000. TV shows, movies, and music videos, shared without the consent of their rights-owners, proliferated on filesharing service. Legitimately-distributed video was available at sites like the Internet Archive, which made a large selection of “ephmeral” educational and instructional videos from the 1940's and 1950's available for download, and Launch.com, which streamed a voluminous library of music videos. A number of TV stations from across the world also began to stream during this period; I remember about 1,000 channels from across the world streaming in 2002. Of course, they were generally of low video quality, and “highly desirable” content rarely aired on them.
In 2005, YouTube launched. Although other sites may have offered similar services, YouTube was the first site that made it easy for users to upload and stream (rather than have to download) video. The only thing that was required was an internet browser and Flash plugin, which most users already had installed on their computer. As a result, the site was a household name within one year, spurring new “YouTube” celebrities like Brooke Bordack and Chris Crocker, as well as hosting an avalanche of unauthorized, copyrighted content such as full-length Hollywood movies and TV shows. YouTube initially received several lawsuits from content companies, but was legally protected by its “safe harbor” status. Rather than fight the inevitable, many content creators and media conglomerates eventually created channels on YouTube to promote and distribute their content. Monetization is done through pop-up ads over videos or commercials.
At roughly the same time as the launch of YouTube, Apple's iTunes music store began to offer licensed videos for paid download. These included much of what appeared on illegal filesharing services four or five years earlier: movies, TV shows, and music videos. Unlike their pirated counterparts, this material was (and continues to be) DRM-encumbered, with restrictions not only on copying but also the programs and devices able to play the content. A pirated Seinfeld episode downloaded from Kazaa (or copyleft video on the Internet Archive) in 2003 could be played in any program (or on any device, of the few available then) that supported the file format the episode was encoded in, or transcoded to a different format. As far as I know, videos purchased from iTunes can be played only on an Apple mobile device, or in iTunes.
The integration of the internet and TV took another leap forward with the introduction of streaming services whose target audience (or at least part of it) consisted of viewers watching the content through set-top boxes (or video game consoles acting as set-top boxes) connected to their TVs, as well as on their phones. A successful DVD rental company, NetFlix, and the joint venture Hulu rolled out services in 2007, and several other ventures followed. The internet as a method of watching videos on a TV set, however, was not mainstream until roughly 2010. Although it is growing in popularity, it still is limited to households with fast internet connections and tech-aware inhabitants. Nevertheless, NetFlix is responsible for the most traffic on the internet of any site.
Together, internet streaming (whether for display on a computer, mobile device, or TV), Netflix DVD rentals, and other technologies and services have been responsible for the closure of thousands of traditional video rental outlets. Among the casualties in Duluth, Hollywood Video and Blockbuster; also, many video rental outlets, even before the popularization of video over the internet, have began to sell other goods; for example, one local video store (if it still exists) combines video rentals and tanning booths under one roof.
(Based on personal knowledge / memory, cited sources, and Wikipedia articles to fill gaps)
Recording off-air at home was possible prior to all that with the 3/4" Betamax recorders, which could be purchased used. The tapes were even more expensive than the early 1/2" Betamax tapes. There was also an experimental black and white video system that used 1/4" audio tape. Ham radio operators were fooling around with slow scan before that.
The key to the whole shebang is the continuing data density increases in storage media.
We had one of the first VCRs for home use. (VHS) It weighed a ton and cost over $1,000 which, in the late 70's when we bought it, was a HUGE amount of money.
Chucked it when it broke years later.
We do still have our laser disc player complete with a selection of movies.
I had a VCR back in 1980. I distinctly remember you could rent videocassetes in a large number of shops all around. 1 percent penetration in 1980 is a wrong figure.
I had a VCR back in 1980. I distinctly remember you could rent videocassetes in a large number of shops all around. 1 percent penetration in 1980 is a wrong figure.
You also could rent the VCR, too. My parents did this before they got their own (around 1987-88).
This is an interesting thread. One thing that is often overlooked is that even before VHS & Batamax there was VTRs..Video Tape Recorders for home use and they were available as far back as the mid 1960s of course only the super rich had them. Hugh Hefner had one installed in the Playboy Mansion in 1966 I believe while Elvis Presley and Carol Burnett each would have one a year later. With Carol Burnett she and her then husband Joe Hamilton would have "video tape parties" where they would tape Carol's show as it aired from then LA's KNX-TV channel 2 and replay it a day later having the cast and crew over to their house for cocktails and food. Elvis since he tend to sleep during the day and stay up all night he would use his VTR at Graceland to tape football games that would air during the day on the Memphis stations so he could watch them late at night. Some time ago I do remember reading somewhere where Moe Howard from the Three Stooges had a VTR installed at his house in either 1969 maybe 1970 but he never could figure out how to use it. Rod Serling from TV's Twilight Zone was another early owner of a VTR. In his case he would video tape his speeches to college students and last I heard some of those tapes still exist.
..oh yes there was Bob Crane and his VTR. I will leave it at that.
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