Recording and Playback
The first playback unit I was around was a hand cranked 78 RPM record player my grandparents had in their basement. Then some time in my late teens I bought a Wilcox-Gay Recordio. This was a wooden cabinet table-top unit with a 78 RPM record player and an AM radio, but it also had a microphone and a cutting arm so you could cut (literally) your own records. The sound quality was the pits, but if you enunciated properly someone could play your recording on a 78 RPM record player and understand what you were saying.
My older brother had a wire recorder around for a while. A great big bulky thing with a little spool of wire, and you could not only record on it, you could record over previous messages.
After those days I had a small, reel to reel player/recorder, a variety of cassette player/recorders, 8 track units, multi-speed record players, and eventually graduated into the television VHS player/recorders.
Now I have one unit in the livingroom that will play 3 different speeds of vinyl records, play and record cassette tapes, has an AM - FM stereo radio and also a three disk CD playback feature. 8 track tapes have been gone for years.
I have an analog 27" television that gives me wonderful quality pictures, with a VCR player/recorder and a DVD player hooked to it. I also have a large section of one wall in the office covered with shelves of VHS tapes and DVD disks. Now they tell me if I was on antenna I wouldn't be able to receive television signals after next February, but my cable company assures me the set will continue to work fine through their system.
I'm just wondering if and when my television burns out and I have to switch to HD television, if that wall full of movies will even play on the new system. And when DVD's change to high definition will I have to then install a third playback unit just to be able to use old and new movies.
Of course I could keep up with the Jones' and have all the latest gadgets for this
sort of thing, but I have a feeling we're not too far from eliminating all of that conglomeration anyway. I can see how not too far in the future you will simply choose the movie you want to watch through the cable service, and never have to own a copy of. Like Pay Per View, but the movie starts when you want it too, and you can pause it just as if you had it in your home. Even burn a copy if you thought you might like to see it again later. About every movie ever made could be available in some giant Internet type server available at your beck and call. They system I have right now, suits me just fine. But I have a feeling I will be forced to part with more of my cash to keep up with the changes.
I may just go back to comic books and forget about the whole thing.
My older brother had a wire recorder around for a while. A great big bulky thing with a little spool of wire, and you could not only record on it, you could record over previous messages.
After those days I had a small, reel to reel player/recorder, a variety of cassette player/recorders, 8 track units, multi-speed record players, and eventually graduated into the television VHS player/recorders.
Now I have one unit in the livingroom that will play 3 different speeds of vinyl records, play and record cassette tapes, has an AM - FM stereo radio and also a three disk CD playback feature. 8 track tapes have been gone for years.
I have an analog 27" television that gives me wonderful quality pictures, with a VCR player/recorder and a DVD player hooked to it. I also have a large section of one wall in the office covered with shelves of VHS tapes and DVD disks. Now they tell me if I was on antenna I wouldn't be able to receive television signals after next February, but my cable company assures me the set will continue to work fine through their system.
I'm just wondering if and when my television burns out and I have to switch to HD television, if that wall full of movies will even play on the new system. And when DVD's change to high definition will I have to then install a third playback unit just to be able to use old and new movies.
Of course I could keep up with the Jones' and have all the latest gadgets for this
sort of thing, but I have a feeling we're not too far from eliminating all of that conglomeration anyway. I can see how not too far in the future you will simply choose the movie you want to watch through the cable service, and never have to own a copy of. Like Pay Per View, but the movie starts when you want it too, and you can pause it just as if you had it in your home. Even burn a copy if you thought you might like to see it again later. About every movie ever made could be available in some giant Internet type server available at your beck and call. They system I have right now, suits me just fine. But I have a feeling I will be forced to part with more of my cash to keep up with the changes.
I may just go back to comic books and forget about the whole thing.
posted by Fish-2 at 9:25 PM
3 Comments:
Some of those early recording devices are new to me. I can remember my brothers making "crystal" radio sets. Even hooking them up to the metal on the phone to receive.
We have 5 remotes for the TV VCR DVD and whatever else is over there. I just want to push one button. Does it have to be so complicated?
I know what you mean. I'm thinking about building a rack to hold all the remote controls. After four years I finally read the owner's manual for the cable box and learned I can control the television with the same remote as the cable. I programmed it in and retired the television remote - One down.
I feel like you do, Fish. Sometimes I long for the old days; they were far more simple!
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