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QuadraphonicQuad

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What I find even more ironic [or MORONIC] is that DVDs continue to be manufactured in appreciable quantities. If one were to invest in a $100 blu ray player, it would not only UPSAMPLE DVDs but play most other formats as well....and the further irony, NEW DVDs are only a buck or two cheaper than their BD~V counterparts ... and sometimes EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE! Can't for the life of me figure that one out!
 
The only reason I would buy anything on DVD is if the Bluray doesn't exist. There are plenty of titles out there that for some reason aren't getting reissued or remastered for higher resolution. I even laugh at the folks shopping at thrift stores poring over the DVD racks like dere is treasures in dem dar shelves. Me, I go straight to the LPs in hopes of finding yet another Angel quad in decent shape. If I am lucky it will be a 45rpm version. I even see sealed HD-DVDs but never anything worth buying a player for them. I wonder how long it will be before Bluray players drop DVD support...
 
Let's all get up and dance to a song my Mother would know... (apologies to Macca) She told me about a video jukebox in a bar my Grandfather used to visit in the '40's. She recalled loading a dime in to see Spike Jones. Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan, Stan Kenton, Harry "the Hipster" Gibson and many others also did Soundies.

Before MTV or rear projection TV, there were Soundies. Soundies were music videos. They were played on a Panoram jukebox with 16mm film loop. They were meant for bars, diners, etc. NOT a consumer format.

Soundies & Scopitones:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundies
These films played on a machine called a Panoram This video is a Spike Jones Soundie and a Panoram is depected in the short. You'll also recognize one of the mustachioed men as Mel Blanc. He guests with Jones and his City Slickers:



Harry "the Hipster" Gibson doing "4F Ferdinand" 12 years before anyone heard Jerry Lee Lewis:



As a bonus, here's a Betty Boop video (NOT a Soundie) put to Gibson's
"Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?":

 
The only reason I would buy anything on DVD is if the Bluray doesn't exist. There are plenty of titles out there that for some reason aren't getting reissued or remastered for higher resolution. I even laugh at the folks shopping at thrift stores poring over the DVD racks like dere is treasures in dem dar shelves. Me, I go straight to the LPs in hopes of finding yet another Angel quad in decent shape. If I am lucky it will be a 45rpm version. I even see sealed HD-DVDs but never anything worth buying a player for them. I wonder how long it will be before Bluray players drop DVD support...

That movie that was never released on BD~V but is available on DVD might just be available on Amazon Prime in HD [if you have PRIME]. As for Blu ray players dropping DVD support ..... very doubtful ...... but since BD players have been around since roughly 2007 ...... isn't it time for folks to upgrade to a BD player .... which are as low as $69 new at Walmarts around the country [just don't expect OPPO or SONY quality performance].

And I really wish Warners who owns the ANGEL/EMI Classical catalogue would delegate D~V to perform their magic on those old QUADS since Warner has no interest in releasing them. Warner does on occasion release those former Angel QUADS as pricey Japanese hybrid SACD Stereo discs. I know, I have a few and should check if they've retained their SQ encoding.
 
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A salesman at my local FYE dealer [before they closed] told me in the early days of VHS movie sales, he'd have some 'well heeled' customers come in day/date of release and plop down $100 for a new VHS movie title [not widescreen/mono low~fi sound] and sometimes walk out with three .....Now you can't give them away at a tag sale and if you did, you'd be lucky to get 25 cents! Ridiculous.
There was no Netflix then. It was the only way to see some movies.
 
A salesman at my local FYE dealer [before they closed] told me in the early days of VHS movie sales, he'd have some 'well heeled' customers come in day/date of release and plop down $100 for a new VHS movie title [not widescreen/mono low~fi sound] and sometimes walk out with three .....Now you can't give them away at a tag sale and if you did, you'd be lucky to get 25 cents! Ridiculous.

I remember being in a video store and Star Wars was just released on VHS. If you wanted to buy it, it was $99. No kidding, I remember that distinctively. And you're correct, this was before VHS HiFi, it was just the cropped movie on CBS/FOX I believe, in the gray slip case. And I thought I was bad spending that on a Criterion LD a few years later. Fortunately, I was not inclined to go for the SW tape.

Hey, does anyone else remember when, after VHS sales and rentals started up, the the studios decided that they were no longer going to see movies to the public, and that they would only release them for RENTAL ONLY!! I remember this didn't last long, probably about as long as that circuit city encrypted DVD deal they did, but the tapes had graphics on them clearly stating RENTAL ONLY, and there were no versions available for sale. I think the idea was that the studios were getting a cut from the rental places on each rental, so they didn't want people buying the,m.
 
I remember being in a video store and Star Wars was just released on VHS. If you wanted to buy it, it was $99. No kidding, I remember that distinctively. And you're correct, this was before VHS HiFi, it was just the cropped movie on CBS/FOX I believe, in the gray slip case. And I thought I was bad spending that on a Criterion LD a few years later. Fortunately, I was not inclined to go for the SW tape.

Hey, does anyone else remember when, after VHS sales and rentals started up, the the studios decided that they were no longer going to sell movies to the public, and that they would only release them for RENTAL ONLY!! I remember this didn't last long, probably about as long as that circuit city encrypted DVD deal they did, but the tapes had graphics on them clearly stating RENTAL ONLY, and there were no versions available for sale. I think the idea was that the studios were getting a cut from the rental places on each rental, so they didn't want people buying the,m.

In this Covid~19 era, first run movies are once again being, so to speak, 'rented' on Pay Per View networks, usually, initially, for $19.95 which is fine for home theaters packed with viewers but not for individuals who would watch them alone. As a rule, movie theaters make their real money from their concession stands [bottled water $5...eek!] just as most restaurants and even fast food venues make their money from serving alcoholic drinks/beverages.

Wonder if post~pandemic, the studios will continue this trend as movie theaters will probably be limited for quite awhile as to how many movie goers they can 'safely' seat within a theater?

And one also wonders how many $150~200 million budgeted movies will continue to be made if this trend continues....or perhaps we may return to more modest budgeted films which actually tell a story rather than rely on uber expensive CGI effects to do the same.
 
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Yep, I clearly remember visiting one of those boutique style VHS specialty shops in an upscale shopping mall back in the day. They had those gorgeous VHS plastic cases with the exciting movie covers displayed behind glass, like jewelry! I kid you not!!

You could get Goldfinger for only $79.99. And for another $79.99 you could get Thunderball. And for another $79.99 you could get The Man with the Golden Gun. WOW!! For only $239.97 (plus tax), you could have 3 amazing Bond flicks in low grade video! What a deal!!
 
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Yep, I clearly remember visiting one of those boutique style VHS specialty shops in an upscale shopping mall back in the day. They had those gorgeous VHS plastic cases with the exciting movie covers displayed behind glass, like a jewelry! I kid you not!!

You could get Goldfinger for only $79.99. And for another $79.99 you could get Thunderball. And for another $79.99 you could get The Man with the Golden Gun. WOW!! For only $239.97 (plus tax), you could have 3 amazing Bond flicks in low grade video! What a deal!!

And Brett, if you were so inclined, you could actually wear those clunky low grade miracles around your neck as if wearing expensive jewelry and be in 007 HEAVEN!
 
And how could we EVER forget those first clunky VHS tank~like player/recorders from Japan with roughly 240 lines of resolution for $1,000!


See the source image
 
Had one!!! I loved the loooooong extension cord with the pause switch remote. A wonderfully Hi-tech way of editing out those pesky commercials. 😙💕

Don't snicker, Brett....So Did I? Used to record and meticulously label 'Classic' movies from PBS, etc. in glorious pan/scan and low fi TV sound and buy cases of highest quality blank VHS tape [TDK/MAXELL] in bulk [to save money] and then switched to BETA as it had a higher 'writing' speed, took up less space than VHS tapes and then switched to Hi8 Hi Fi as it had the same resolution as Beta/VHS and then back to SUPER VHS HiFi and then finally settled on Laserdisc as I was tired of having my 'precious' tapes destroyed by their respective gobbly~gooked machines.
 
And how could we EVER forget those first clunky VHS tank~like player/recorders from Japan with roughly 240 lines of resolution for $1,000!


See the source image
I remember something similar at school. We had a top loading U-Matic at our school, then a Sony Beta machine with one speed and its tuner was built in. The U-Matic had an outboard tuner. In the 70s the Ontario government mandated that all schools have access to recording TV Ontario educational programs for use in classrooms. The 10-15 minute long programs were broadcast daily from 7 to 8 am and the librarian had to come in early and manually record the shows. The pause button on the early machines was a joke. It would eat the oxide off the tape while you watched it on screen. If you pressed fast forward or review while in play mode, it would show weird lines of "static" instead of faster pictures.

I also remember later in school that when ET was the big movie, our school board actually bought a 16 mm print and played it in our recreation hall for the school as a special event. That same school still had a Sony 3/4" reel colour video recorder, tuner and camera set up that was relegated to the music class by that point.
 
Don't snicker, Brett....So Did I? Used to record and meticulously label 'Classic' movies from PBS, etc. in glorious pan/scan and low fi TV sound and buy cases of highest quality blank VHS tape [TDK/MAXELL] in bulk [to save money] and then switched to BETA as it had a higher 'writing' speed, took up less space than VHS tapes and then switched to Hi8 Hi Fi as it had the same resolution as Beta/VHS and then back to SUPER VHS HiFi and then finally settled on Laserdisc as I was tired of having my 'precious' tapes destroyed by their respective gobbly~gooked machines.
Who’s snickering!!?? LOL!!! :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
I would sit there with that frickin remote switch in my hand and my finger on the trigger waiting for the next commercial break. I was never fast enough. Many of my videos were full of The ABC Sunday Night Movie intro. LOL!!!

The Godfather Parts I and II were a real pain in the butt.. :love::love:

 
I was working at a small local electronic parts wholesale shop in the late '70s, when VHS first appeared. We mostly made our living selling parts to the local TV repair shops (remember those?), but we were an authorized Panasonic dealer, so we also had their consumer electronics on display out front, including the "big" 3-gun CRT projector.

Back in those days we had a lot of young guys working good-paying jobs at the local tractor factories (John Deere, Case, etc.), who had a lot of disposable income. One was a regular customer of ours, and a classic early adopter - he was always the first to buy each new thing. Turns out the guy was also quite a porn connoisseur, with a large colection of 8 and 16mm films. As soon as VHS hit, he bought our first $1200 VCR, plus a $1500 camera (remember they started out as separate items - camcorders were still a few years off), along with dozens of blank tapes at around $20 each! He then proceeded to "telecine" his film porn collection onto VHS by recording the projected images & sound with the video camera! And then...

One day, the guy shows up at the store with a brown paper bag containing about a half-dozen of his freshly-transcribed porn tapes and says, "Here, have fun, I'll be back to pick 'em up in a week or 2." Now mind you, my workmates & I were in our late teens or early 20s, and this was a time when, if you wanted to see a pornographic movie, you either had to order the films in the plain brown wrappers or visit the local movie house - neither of which any of us had any experience with. So to say this was a life-changing event would not be an exaggeration. It was like Dorothy opening the door of her crappy little black & white house and seeing OZ in Technicolor for the first time!! Talk about sensory overload - holy shit. Plus, this was back when porn was kind of fun - there was still at least an attempt at some sort of rudimentary plot, and it had an actual sense of humor (I remember an orgy scene with "Cheeseburger In Paradise" playing in the background!) - nothing like the ugly misogynistic crap produced these days. And yes, I'm sure the picture quality was terrible, but did we care? Hell, no! We were pioneers, on the cutting edge of technology, by god.

It went on like this for awhile - dude would pick up the previous batch of tapes and drop off some more every couple of weeks or so - he was like the Porno Bookmobile for chrissakes. Eventually this sweet setup evolved at the store: The big-screen TV would be aimed just right, so it could be seen at the sales counter but not from the sidewalk. Ran the loooong wired remote pause switch from the floor VCR display to the counter so we could pause when a customer came in (those first VCRs were still 2-head, no pause-with-picture - the screen would just blank). Then we would work our asses off in the morning, filling orders and doing paperwork like busy little elves, so we'd have the afternoon free to watch the continuing soap saga of Luke & Laura on ABC right after lunch, followed by porn, porn, PORN! Occasionally a well-known customer or friend would come in, and while they were standing at the counter with their back to the TV, we'd tell them to turn around, then hit the Pause switch. Wish I'd had the foresight to record some of those reactions!

Eventually this perfect storm sort of faded away - our benevolent customer/friend ran out of new material, and of course commercial video porn came along pretty quickly as we all know. But I'll never forget my summer-school education that year! Wow. :love:
 
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Hey Jim, that story is epic. It is something I'd have tried to get away with if I had been in your shoes. I hope they weren't the crudely "edited" versions from the porn theatres. I heard lots of stories from a former "projectionist" about half of most reels ending up on the "cutting room" floor due to provincial regulations.
 
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