When did you get your first VCR?

[tony67]

First one was a top loading Magnavox - early 80s as I am not 100% sure the year.

In high school I worked for a department store and sold VCRs and then was recruited to a video store to sell VCRs .

So I had a ridiculous number of VCRs over the years that I got at cost.

I do remember paying like $90 for back to the future at some point - which seems totally ridiculous today - especially if you account for inflation ($253.67 in 2023). This was so the video stores paid big money for multiple copies of the latest releases and then a year or so later they were available for a more reasonable price.

The last VCR I purchased was a Multisystem Stereo model I still have but have not used in years. I paid about 1000 for it and shorty after the first DVD players became available and I bought the first Sony DVD player.

Also had Pioneer Laser Disc players very early on - the one that played both sides was a big advancement.

I also got the first HD DVD player from Toshiba and remember that format war well.
Still have a bunch of HD-DVDs I cant play at all.

 

[tazdev3225]

I got my first VCR in 1984 and it was insanely expensive. It cost almost as much as the front door that I replaced at the same time. The only reason I could afford it was because I was badly injured, as was my son who was a baby, in a hit and run accident and I sued the person who hit me. Thankfully a neighbor of his who knew him reported him to the police. I was able to get the VCR and front door with the settlement. Thankfully the prices came down because my son decided to feed it Oreo and chocolate chip cookies a few years later while I was bathing his sister. I took it apart and cleaned it out but I couldn't fix the heads. They didn't like cookies.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

1985. We got one so I could record Live Aid. It was a huge, top loading model.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Probably early 80s? My Dad ran a Radio Shack, so he brought home both kinds - VHS and Betamax, for us to test and rate. They both had their advantages.

 

[Babs Johnson]

1985. We got one so I could record Live Aid. It was a huge, top loading model.

I went to Live Aid and also asked my mother to record it for me. I asked her to set it for 6 hours so she only had to change the tape once. Unfortunately the quality wasn’t very good.

 

[dioxide45]

Our first was in the 1980s. I recall being excited because it had a remote control. Since many VCRs also had TV tuners in them, buying a VCR was a way to get a remote to change channels when you had a TV that didn't have a remote. We learned after unboxing that the remote only controlled VCR functions, no volume and no channel controls. So as the youngest of three kids, I still had to get up to change the channels.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

It had to have been 85 or 86 for us. I know my parents didn't want to invest in one until after we moved across town and I know they spent a great deal of time trying to decide between Beta and VHS. My aunt and uncle had a Betamax and had gotten a VCR before anyone else, but for whatever reason, my parents opted for VHS when they finally got one. I believe they got it more so we could watch home videos taken on their new camcorder and less to do with recording programs and renting movies.

 

[gmi3804]

Christmas, 1983. My parents were late adapters, having married and started having kids older than usual (35 and 38). We had dial phones longer than others too. I didn't remember when we finally got one, but remember that the salesman threw in a copy of the then-new Michael Jackson Thriller video, so I can date it that way.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I went to Live Aid and also asked my mother to record it for me. I asked her to set it for 6 hours so she only had to change the tape once. Unfortunately the quality wasn’t very good.

I can top that, I think. My Mom recorded a week's worth of her soap opera over my tapes a year or so later. It was the closest I have ever come to matricide.

 

[tvguy]

Maybe not in our home, but we had family who had VCRs maybe 1982 or so. One had an early Quasar VCR that came in two parts - a top-loading tape unit and a playback/tuner unit. The tape unit (which had a sling carrying case) could be battery powered and could connect to a camera.

I considered a Quasar. At first Quasar sold their own format known at Q-Format instead of VHS or Beta. It never caught on. They finally started putting their name on a VHS deck. As I recall, no matter what the brand name on the front, almost all VHS tape decks were actually made by Matsushita

 

[bcla]

I considered a Quasar. At first Quasar sold their own format known at Q-Format instead of VHS or Beta. It never caught on. They finally started putting their name on a VHS deck. As I recall, no matter what the brand name on the front, almost all VHS tape decks were actually made by Matsushita

Mine was the Magnavox brand but made in Japan. I’m pretty sure it was just a relabel. A few years later I got a Panasonic S-VHS machine as a companion and I could copy over tapes.

I took those machines apart at one time or another, including when the Magnavox one stopped working and I found the blown fuse. That was an early design and had lots of chips and maybe three boards including one that was stacked. The Panasonic machine was one board and only a few chips. A lot of that got integrated into fewer parts.

 

[RedAngie]

I got mine in 1985 when I moved into my first apartment. Until then I used my parents’ VCR while still living at home. I think they bought it soon after they got cable TV, so autumn 1981.

I bought both my first color TV and VCR at a long defunct electronics/appliances chain called Dee’s. I knew someone who worked there and he let me use his employee discount.

 

[tvguy]

Mine was the Magnavox brand but made in Japan. I’m pretty sure it was just a relabel. A few years later I got a Panasonic S-VHS machine as a companion and I could copy over tapes.

I took those machines apart at one time or another, including when the Magnavox one stopped working and I found the blown fuse. That was an early design and had lots of chips and maybe three boards including one that was stacked. The Panasonic machine was one board and only a few chips. A lot of that got integrated into fewer parts.

My brother fixed TVs and VCRs and he found a supplier that sold the cams that VCRs used. I think he got 100 cams for $50. He made a lot of money changing out cams in VCRs because they tended to get flat spots over time.

 

[Kitty 34]

Probably in the 80's; can't remember exactly.

 

[Simba's Mom]

September 1979 when I got my first job at a TV station.
Bought a VHS RCA for $725 on close out at Gemco. It was a 2 hour/4 hour recording length machine and they had just introduced the 2 hours 4 hour 6 hour models. It was still working 10 years ago when my mom passed away and I sold it at the estate sale, I had given it to my mom to use to watch tapes I recorded for her off cable as she did not have cable.

People who worked in TV rarely used anything other than the 2 hour recording speed because the 4 and 6 hour settings had lower video quality. Used to drive us all nuts when we borrowed a tape a non-TV person had recorded because all they were interested in was getting 6 hours of TV on one tape.

Bought a new VHS Player/Recorder DVD burner combo in 2015 and over the last two years transferred all our VHS and VHS-C home movies to DVD and then to a hard drive. But we still have a number of movies on VHS so it comes in handy.

Thanks for reminding me about the 2-4-6 hour part. I'd forgotten about that. But you reminded me that I always recorded at 6 hours, because I discovered the joy of recording "General Hospital" all week while I worked, then sitting down on the weekend to watch all week's shows. Until the week something screwed up, my VCR somehow reset to 2 hours, and I only recorded Monday and Tuesday. And of course, this was way before Hulu or computers.

 

[bcla]

My brother fixed TVs and VCRs and he found a supplier that sold the cams that VCRs used. I think he got 100 cams for $50. He made a lot of money changing out cams in VCRs because they tended to get flat spots over time.

I don't believe any of mine had any mechanical problems per se. When it blew a fuse, there was likely a electronic short somewhere and there was zero chance I was going to diagnose it. I was just just hoping that it was a one-off event that blew the fuse.

I had a new VCR eat a tape. But after that one disaster it never repeated it.

Certainly after a while it didn't make much sense to repair a VCR when a new one only cost about $100. However, at that point DVD players were taking over although most couldn't record.

The really crazy thing was how hard it was to program one to record. My relatives' older ones had to go through a menu on small LCD display and were incredibly hard to program. Mine all had on-screen programming displays and anywhere from 8 to 12 events programmed. However, I remember when my dad needed to record something, he would just hit record on his VCR live, but if he really needed it and wouldn't be home he would ask me to program it.

 

[Boopuff]

i remember my mom winning $500 at bingo, and she got us a vcr!!! We still have a VCR, to play the hundreds of tapes we’ve accumulated

 

[tvguy]

I don't believe any of mine had any mechanical problems per se. When it blew a fuse, there was likely a electronic short somewhere and there was zero chance I was going to diagnose it. I was just just hoping that it was a one-off event that blew the fuse.

I had a new VCR eat a tape. But after that one disaster it never repeated it.

Certainly after a while it didn't make much sense to repair a VCR when a new one only cost about $100. However, at that point DVD players were taking over although most couldn't record.

The really crazy thing was how hard it was to program one to record. My relatives' older ones had to go through a menu on small LCD display and were incredibly hard to program. Mine all had on-screen programming displays and anywhere from 8 to 12 events programmed. However, I remember when my dad needed to record something, he would just hit record on his VCR live, but if he really needed it and wouldn't be home he would ask me to program it.

There are companies across the nation that will digitize VHS and Beta tapes. Not sure how long they will continue to do so, but they also digitize Super 8 film, and home 8 mm film, the later a format that hasn't been used in 60 years.

 

[fla4fun]

It had to have been 85 or 86 for us. I know my parents didn't want to invest in one until after we moved across town and I know they spent a great deal of time trying to decide between Beta and VHS. My aunt and uncle had a Betamax and had gotten a VCR before anyone else, but for whatever reason, my parents opted for VHS when they finally got one. I believe they got it more so we could watch home videos taken on their new camcorder and less to do with recording programs and renting movies.

The camcorder was expensive too. I bought mine with an $800 holiday bonus from work and didn’t get much change back. I got the camcorder around 1990 I think.

 

[RedAngie]

There are companies across the nation that will digitize VHS and Beta tapes. Not sure how long they will continue to do so, but they also digitize Super 8 film, and home 8 mm film, the later a format that hasn't been used in 60 years.

I’m pretty sure my father was using his 8mm movie camera into the early 70s before he upgraded to Super 8.

He and I would splice those 5 minute films into longer reels of about 30-45 minutes. He had an at home device to do so and edit out crappy scenes.

His brother was also a home movie nut and there are so many scenes of him and his brother filming each other.


I had about a dozen of those longer 8 and super 8 films transferred to VCR in the early 90s.

I suppose I could look into having everything digitized.