Age of the FC Community plus a lot of nostalgia

[Mr. Me2]

Beta-what?????

I was one of those few who had a Betamax player because better quality, and movies were always available (everybody else rented the VHS tapes). I recorded every episode of Star Trek...there's a pile of tapes that never got used!

 

[Shrike]

Beta was the better format...but the masses liked VHS because you could record more on it. The problem was that the longer recording times looked like shit. But the public spoke and the rest of us were stuck. Glad we moved on in technology...

 

[Mr. Me2]

Beta was the better format...but the masses liked VHS because you could record more on it. The problem was that the longer recording times looked like shit. But the public spoke and the rest of us were stuck. Glad we moved on in technology...

I did...to laserdisc. But we haven't even talked about surround sound from the 70's. I went there too.

This thread is not making me look too good... But I had FUN!!!

 

[RUDE BOY]

I had a Quad system in the 70's which was cool but you were limited to listen to a handful of prog rock and jazz albums otherwise it was just a stereo with four speakers.

 

[Mr. Me2]

I had a Quad system in the 70's which was cool but you were limited to listen to a handful of prog rock and jazz albums otherwise it was just stereo with four speakers.

I agree, but when the stars all lined up, it was GREAT!

Did you have the Quad turntable and needle, and some Quad albums?

 

[Joel W.]

Just why do you think they suck?

Sorry, no offence meant and I really have nothing to base that on other than the reels were bulky and exposed the tape to dust. My only experience with them was recording a subliminal message to my mother on her "quit smoking" audio reel. I am sure the quality rocked.

He liked Betamax because "it has an audio-only mode which allows the entire bandwidth to be used for sound. Because the video tape machine uses a helical scanning recording head, this means higher fidelity recordings are possible compared to stationary-head audio tape recorders".

 

[Mr. Me2]

I had a Quad system in the 70's which was cool but you were limited to listen to a handful of prog rock and jazz albums otherwise it was just a stereo with four speakers.

And thanks for correcting me. It was quadraphonic sound in the 70's.

Surround sound started in the late 80's and was part of my laserdisc system. Back then it was all separate pieces of equipment. I had an early Dolby surround sound processor that had a serial number 000000003. Needed separate amplifiers for front and rear speakers (and a 3rd when center channel was added).

 

[RUDE BOY]

I agree, but when the stars all lined up, it was GREAT!

Did you have the Quad turntable and needle, and some Quad albums?

I think I still have a couple Quad Van Der Graff generator and King Crimson albums along with a Miles Davis album or two in storage with the rest of my album collection but no equipment left anymore.

(Van der graff's music in quad headphones was amazing compared to stereo, almost like a different band when you got so much separation, It was a cool fuckin' format while it lasted)

 

[flotntoke]

Plenty of other formats since then, too. The last one that got me was SACD. Great sound (both 2 channel and more), and still listen to some often, but don't know what I'll do when my SACD player craps out.

I still use separate amps for front and rear in my system. Actually the left/right fronts are bi-amped. Fortunately my obsession with such things has waned over the past few years. You think this hobby is expensive? That one can get pretty sick, pretty quickly.

Long for the days when my rig looked like the one @CarolKing posted above, and my ears didn't know any better!

 

[Joel W.]

FYI- Betamax began the home video revolution. For the first time people were able to do three things:

• Record television broadcasts for time-shifting (viewing later)
• View cinematic movies at home
• View video pornography in privacy

 

[SSVUN~YAH]

Plenty of other formats since then, too. The last one that got me was SACD. Great sound (both 2 channel and more), and still listen to some often, but don't know what I'll do when my SACD player craps out.

I still use separate amps for front and rear in my system. Actually the left/right fronts are bi-amped. Fortunately my obsession with such things has waned over the past few years. You think this hobby is expensive? That one can get pretty sick, pretty quickly.

Long for the days when my rig looked like the one @CarolKing posted above, and my ears didn't know any better!

I agree SACD rocks! Listening to dark side of the moon album now!!!

 

[grokit]

This is turning into a dead format confessional:
I not only have two laserdisc players (both fully functional last time I checked, although sometimes they need belts), but my xbox360 has an hd-dvd player; I also have a bunch of movies for these formats.

I was one of those few who had a Betamax player because better quality, and movies were always available (everybody else rented the VHS tapes). I recorded every episode of Star Trek...there's a pile of tapes that never got used!

I think you mean never got watched?
Now we have dvr's to ignore our recorded content on

 

[stressed]

I did...to laserdisc. But we haven't even talked about surround sound from the 70's. I went there too.

This thread is not making me look too good... But I had FUN!!!

quad stereo, surround sound, my teac reel to reel, such fun equipment.

being in the air force in the early 70s, i got great equipment at very good prices through the base exchange.

i had a beta max and the laser disk player too. toys, toys and more toys.

 

[FlyingLow]

I always said it was going to be sad that we had the excitement of going through all these formats and how cool it was to buy an album or movie on any of the generations... Our kids will never know what it was like, they will only need to point, click and stream.

No listening to records, mixing your first tape, etc.

 

[Socks And Sandals]

This is turning into a dead format confessional:
I not only have two laserdisc players (both fully functional last time I checked, although sometimes they need belts), but my xbox360 has an hd-dvd player; I also have a bunch of movies for these formats.

I think you mean never got watched?
Now we have dvr's to ignore our recorded content on

Hey I had that!!! But I don't support Xbox or Microsoft any longer. Then again.. I'm not much of a gamer anymore either. Never noticed the difference between HDDVD and Bluray to be honest with you and I usually have a very keen eye.

Anyhow I'll be 42 on the luckiest day of the year in March!

 

[CarolKing]

I had this ugly poster in my bedroom as a teen

This is what my first car looked like, it's not a pic of my actual car. My car looked almost like it with a few scratches, a 1964 Comet. I kept my birth control pills under the dash, didn't want my mom and dad to find them.

 

[Enchantre]

The Ren Faire was fun today. I still had my dress, of course, ... but, it was like Old Home Week....

Spent some quality time talking to a lovely young thing that really had NO IDEA WHO THE DOCTOR WAS... much less Tom Baker.

There was a patch - Would you like a jelly baby? ... yeah, she didn't get it.

 

[Amoreena]

@Enchantre - What a lovely woman you are!

 

[Havelock Vetenari]

Spent some quality time talking to a lovely young thing that really had NO IDEA WHO THE DOCTOR WAS... much less Tom Baker.

There was a patch - Would you like a jelly baby? ... yeah, she didn't get it.

For shame!

Tom Baker as Dr. Who, now that takes me back...

(Chosen just for a chronologically appropiate picture. )
I had a nightmare after watching one of my first episodes of Dr. who, while still quite small, so my parents wouldn't let me watch it with the rest of the family for a bit.
Luckily my dad was a fan and they did watch it, so i could sneak downstairs and still watch it from the stairs.

 

[little maggie]

Did any of you older folks ever use the busy signal to meet kids in other parts of the country?

 

[Joel W.]

Did any of you older folks ever use the busy signal to meet kids in other parts of the country?

I think that was something called "MySpace" back in the day.

Shit, I should saved that one for boogermans thread.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

okay, the mention of phone hacking (busy signal) brought back some memories (and also the Capt Krunch whistle - now, this is way before Jobs/Wozniak blue box) ... anyone remember when a single JK flip flop took up a pcb that was 4" on a side? saw these bad boys when i went for parts at Eli Heffron's electronic salvage behind MIT campus. (omfg ... he's still there.)

 

[RUDE BOY]

Had a couple of Phreaking friends who crossed over to the light and made a killing when beepers/pagers got big for a minute there.

They always said "it's all about the tone, know your tones" then they were a little unhappy when in the mid '80s all new phones were touch tone and they could go phreaking no longer.

 

[Joel W.]

mid '80s all new phones were touch tone and they could go phreaking no longer.

I was just getting into phreaking when it died. Then you had to learn how to hack the operators. We had one pay phone in town and everyone used it for long distance calls with the "war games" phone hack you tell operator the the phone was broken or you dialed the wrong #

 

[lwien]

This is what our stereo system looked like when we were first married back in the 70s.

This was my system in the 70's. Audio has always been a hobby of mine:

Actually, just had a DL-103. No idea what the "r" is.

Still have my record collection. Must be over 400 albums all boxed up. Lots of English imports.

This was my first system after I got out of the Air Force. Had some major upgrades over the years since then but at the time, it wasn't too shabby.

Anybody else have a laserdisc player around the house? Those discs were huge!

I still have my Pioneer 707 all boxed up. I have no idea what to do with it now.

Beta was the better format...but the masses liked VHS because you could record more on it. The problem was that the longer recording times looked like shit. But the public spoke and the rest of us were stuck. Glad we moved on in technology...

Actually, Beta's demise was because Sony was too fucking greedy and didn't license out their format like JVC did with VHS, but yea, Beta was the better format.