Spinoff: Your family's first VCR.

[OrangeBirdGirl]

I'd say probably around 1985. I recall before that, we'd rent a VCR and movies for the weekend. If I recall the rental VCR was alot bigger then the one we bought.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Christmas 1981. My mother had been wanting a VCR and Dad got an unexpected Christmas bonus. I went down to the electronics store with him and he got a Mitsubishi VHS VCR. (Back then it was either VHS or Betamax--he guessed right. They had that VCR for a long time.)

 

[Simba's Mom]

Remember it-as it was the first joint purchase DH (then my boyfriend) and I made. Early 1981, it had been $1500, but on sale for $1100. We both pitched in to buy it. It was a Panasonic, even considered a remote control-it had a control attached to a cord so you could sit on the couch to watch it, as long as the couch wasn't too far away!

 

[BrianL]

I'd say probably around 1985. I recall before that, we'd rent a VCR and movies for the weekend. If I recall the rental VCR was alot bigger then the one we bought.

We used to rent out the VCP's (player only, no recording) at Blockbuster. They weren't that big, but were permanently installed into large plastic cases with a handle. They were not attractive at all, so they worked as protection, portability, and as a theft deterrent. Ours were kind of like this, but in chunky bright blue palstic:

 

[Mommb]

My father bought us a Betamax in the mid-1980s, shortly after we got cable television largely to watch The Disney Channel. He would record the shows showing old Disney cartoons (Good Morning Mickey and Donald Duck Presents), log which specific shorts were shown, and tape over the episode if it showed cartoons he already had. He didn't get all of the 1928-1956 Disney shorts, but he came very close. I was able to use his log and recordings when I wrote a college research paper about how Disney cartoons of the 1930s reflected the popular culture of the time. Dad also recorded any movies (mostly but not entirely Disney movies) that my sisters and I were interested in and might want to watch again.

After it became obvious several years later that VHS had won out over Betamax, Dad bought a VHS machine and started re-recording the movies he had taped. He was able to get back almost all of the full-length Disney movies, either by recording off the TV or purchasing them, but didn't try to reassemble his collection of shorts.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

We used to rent out the VCP's (player only, no recording) at Blockbuster. They weren't that big, but were permanently installed into large plastic cases with a handle. They were not attractive at all, so they worked as protection, portability, and as a theft deterrent. Ours were kind of like this, but in chunky bright blue palstic:

View attachment 1033019

Yes, that is what I remember. Thank you for the info. I thought my dad carried it like a briefcase when we left the store, but I figured I was wrong. We rented from our corner liquor store (it was family friendly movies there), that was the only place in town to rent as I grew up in a very small town without Blockbuster.

 

[bcla]

First in my extended family was a separate with a head unit and separate tuner/playback. The head unit had a shoulder strap and battery and could be used with a separate camera to record.