created by GenGanges on 06/02/2025 at 06:26 UTC
12 upvotes, 70 top-level comments (showing 25)
What do you remember about the very early stages of home movie entertainment? Roughly what year did you and your friends start watching movies at home and do you remember the first movie you saw at home? What were some other media platforms used before VHS and were titles easy to purchase or rent?
Comment by AutoModerator at 06/02/2025 at 06:26 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See this post[1], the rules, and the sidebar for details. Thank you for your submission, GenGanges.
2: /message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople
Comment by Catcher_Thelonious at 06/02/2025 at 06:34 UTC
13 upvotes, 2 direct replies
VHS maybe around 1979-80. Local video rental store, several years before Blockbuster. Before that we just watched broadcast TV, though I knew someone who collected film and had a projector.
In the early to mid 70s, I used to audio record episodes of Star Trek to cassette tape and listen to the audio.
Comment by Irishzombieman at 06/02/2025 at 06:50 UTC
10 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Early 80s we rented a VCR encased in green plastic from the local convenience store. Had to unscrew the antenna from the tv and install a splitter, then turn to channel 3 to use it. The store maybe 30 movies on a rotating display. We rented “Tootsie” and “Mr. Mom”
Comment by randumb9999 at 06/02/2025 at 06:45 UTC
9 upvotes, 1 direct replies
My dad bought the family a VCR for Christmas in 1983. I think it was around $500. It came with a wired remote. The first movie I rented was Risky Business. Oh Rebecca De Mornay!
I remember sitting in civics/econ class in highschool and the teacher was talking about being able to pick a movie from a list ON YOUR OWN TV! That seemed insane. This was of course Pay Per View.
Comment by TransportationOk4787 at 06/02/2025 at 08:08 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Pre VCR you could buy very short versions of Abbott and Costello movies on Super 8.
Comment by Sweet_Voice_7298 at 06/02/2025 at 07:38 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Beta was before VHS. It was a big deal to go down to the video store on Friday night and pick out a couple of movies for the weekend. Had to wait sometimes if what you wanted was already checked out. It felt like going to a candy store! So many choices…
Comment by Eagle_Fang135 at 06/02/2025 at 10:23 UTC
3 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I remember a rich family friend of a friend had the first version laser disk thing where they were in a case/cartridge like a floppy disk.
My dad bought a VHS VCR in maybe 83 or so. We rented tapes at a place that had them on display like a jewelry store in glass cases. That was back when a tape cost around $100. So he had a charge slip on file for $100 to rent a tape. Essentially you bought it with free return if it was on time undamaged. Keep in mind our house payment was just over $200 so $100 a tape was A LOT. And they only had older movies then. Was it like a year or two for a movie to move from the theaters to video?
At some point the studios realized the rental and sales market. Their speed to streaming was light speed compared to it.
They started putting out their catalog and selling movies for like $20. And made it much easier for rental places to operate. At that point a VCR was still expensive. So some places also rented the player just like a movie on a per day basis.
Then it became a big promotion when big movies came out on tape. Discount prices if you ordered (prepaid) in advance to buy. Sometimes a discounted price plus extras. The movie companies saw the $s.
Mom and pop rental places got bought out of the had an area or were just run out of business by the eventual giant Blockbuster.
DVDs in the late 90s became mainstream and replaced tapes.
Then you had Netflix do the mail rentals. Redbox with the kiosk. And now just streaming.
Soon after came the Disney Vault strategy as well as direct to video movies (now they are better and made by streaming service).
Comment by TacohTuesday at 06/02/2025 at 06:47 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
We were late to the game, but I clearly remember driving with my mom to the nearest electronics store, picking out our first VCR, and renting two movies. One of them was The Goonies. Being able to watch a recent release at home whenever we wanted was game changing.
Comment by MinkieTheCat at 06/02/2025 at 06:48 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I remember in probably 1981 my best friend’s family getting a betamax VCR. I can’t remember what movie we used to watch but we saw it multiple times. I also remember she had MTV and seeing Prince for the first time.
Comment by Penguin_Life_Now at 06/02/2025 at 06:58 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
VHS and Beta were the 2 main video tape contenders in the VCR format war, VHS won out as it was the larger cartridge and so could fit more hours onto a single cassette even though technically it was the inferior format. Home VCRs for both formats came out around 1977, though did not really start to take off until 1979, and even then they were very expensive, my family got one for Christmas of 1979 from Sears, it was $899 ($100 off regular price for the holidays) inflation adjusted that works out to be just under $4,000 today. Shortly after I moved off to college in 1987 I bought a VCR for around $290, I don't remember exactly when, but maybe 1988, in 1990 a friend of mine won a VHS camcorder in a drawing, one of the big over the shoulder models, I think the value of it was $750.
As to seeing movies at home, buying movies was insanely expensive the first few years, when Star Wars first came out on video tape, I think it was the summer of 1982 it sold for $125 dollars, as to the first movie I saw at home, I think it was Smoky and the Bandit. Prices stayed high to buy movies until Beverly Hills Cop came out on tape in I think 1987, it was massively marketed on TV priced at only $29.95 This was the movie industries first time dipping their toes into the market of selling movies the masses at prices that individuals could afford, before that the $100+ per tape prices were really only for the rich, and for video rental stores. (there were lots of mom and pop video rental stores back then) That reminds me, a guy I knew in high school had an older sister that had a video rental store in town, she must have only been 22 or 23 years old, the store started off with only maybe 30-40 movies and grew from there, she sold it after a few years, and it stayed in business until probably 2000. After that it seemed $29.95 or less was the buy it price on most movies, then it dropped to $19.95 when Top Gun came out and that was the new normal.
Comment by Tasty_Plantain5948 at 06/02/2025 at 07:01 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
We had laser disks in the early 80’s. Stripes, Jaws, and Blue Thunder were some of them. VHS movies were so expensive when they first came out, so we rented from a mom and pop.
Comment by LocalLiBEARian at 06/02/2025 at 09:40 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I think we got our first VCR around 1980. It was Beta, and supposedly it was so Mom could tape her soap operas during the day and watch them later. It had a wired remote. There were a couple of local stores in the pre-Blockbuster era where one could rent movies on either Beta or VHS.
Comment by Accurate_Winner_4961 at 06/02/2025 at 15:15 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
My Dad was in wholesale electronics component distribution. One evening he came home completely giddy that one of the company reps he worked with had brought in a pre market device for him to take home and check out but under no circumstances to share it. He set up this big mysterious box and plugged it into our console tube color TV ( that you had to whack in the perfect spot to make work) inserted this cartridge, and we sat down and watched Blazing Saddles. My trajectory was forever altered..... Pre release beta max machine
Comment by peaceful_raven at 06/02/2025 at 06:36 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
VHS or the failed Betamax are the first I remember. Going to Blockbuster (Be Kind-Rewind) on Fri/Sat night to try to get the newest movie or find a hidden gem to enjoy in the comfort of my home, inexpensive and cozy.
Comment by ChrisB-oz at 06/02/2025 at 06:46 UTC
1 upvotes, 4 direct replies
In 1975 my mother’s sister and her husband had a Philips video recorder at home using a cassette that wasn’t VHS or Beta. I remember seeing a photo of a home reel to reel video recorder in *Amateur Photographer* magazine before then but I don’t think it caught on. There was a system called U-Matic I think that was professional and not sold for household use.
Comment by TravelerMSY at 06/02/2025 at 06:52 UTC*
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The first year I had a 50 inch plasma display was around 2003. I paid something like five grand for it. It was pretty magical at the time. That plus a 5.1 speaker system was really the beginning of the theater at home thing for me.
Movies at home on videotape predated that by a decade or two, but the viewing experience was shit.
Comment by LithiuMart at 06/02/2025 at 06:56 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
We bought a Betamax video recorder in 1981 with no remote control, just a pause button on the end of a long wire physically connected to the VCR. Stir Crazy was the first film we rented, from a video store which was a fifteen minute drive into the nearest town.
Comment by Remarkable_Toe_8335 at 06/02/2025 at 07:09 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I remember when VHS tapes first became a thing! Renting movies from Blockbuster was the go-to, and we’d have a blast picking out titles. The first movie I watched was probably something classic like "E.T."!
Comment by h20rabbit at 06/02/2025 at 07:39 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
TV, radio, record player and speakers. All in one!
Comment by nakedonmygoat at 06/02/2025 at 07:48 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
My parents were late adopters of just about everything, but in high school, '81-'85, I loved to babysit for anyone with HBO. I don't remember the first movie I actually saw that way, though.
I'm not much of a movie or TV person, though. That's probably why it wasn't particularly memorable. It was just more fun than studying and hoping someone's baby didn't start crying.
Comment by United-Telephone-247 at 06/02/2025 at 07:49 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The main thing I remember is not knowing how to pause any movie so I could go to the bathroom. It made movies seem so much longer.
Comment by docman6767 at 06/02/2025 at 08:06 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Yeah I remember it was good beta max then VHS the excitement of getting new videos was awesome
Comment by Chance-Business at 06/02/2025 at 08:19 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I remember when we were kids we were kind of in awe when we heard people could get relatively recent movies from the theater but at home. We of course didn't even have one of those newfangled machines but we had family friends that did, and we'd hear they would stay up til wee hours of the morning because they couldn't get enough of it.
Before that we did see movies at home because they came on tv like they still do today. That was how we saw movies. But with the VCR and being able to get anything you wanted at any time, that was interesting. Eventually we got one but to be honest I don't remember much of our own experience or what we even watched. Because by then we were more like "it's about time we got one of these!" and the idea of it being this crazy new thing had passed.
Comment by BlackCatWoman6 at 06/02/2025 at 08:43 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
For a long time when I was a child there were almost no movies on TV until less they were very old. They were usually after the 11 PM news so I wasn't allowed to stay up that late. Every Christmas one of the stations showed A Christmas Carol.
One of the TV stations made a deal with a studio and all of the sudden we at 9 PM movies on Saturday nights. That was in the mid 1960's. I remember watching The River of No Return, With A Song in My Heart. I Know there were others but those really stuck with me.
Comment by this_old_instructor at 06/02/2025 at 08:55 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Parents buying expensive cameras we couldn't afford to record tapes (1st on betamax) that no one ever watches.
