Flicker

My first VCR recorder/player was a top-loaded with rotary channel changer, one-wire remote for pausing and two-speeds ( I think ? ) It was an RCA and blank recording tapes were around $19.99 each.

How about yours?

orangerunner

Our family's first VHS VCR was an RCA we bought in the summer of 1984. It was one of the first few model that had front loading instead of the clunky top-loading.

We bought it at Sears for $600 and I remember it came with three blank tapes which we re-used over and over maximizing the SLP 6 hour record speed.

The blank tapes were $15 each on sale.

My parents actually still have that VCR complete with the original box, owner's manual and receipt. As far as I know it still works.

rw2516

My first was Radio Shack model got for Christmas 1983. $600. Blank tapes were close to $15. It was a top loader, mono, and the remote was connected with 20 foot wire. With the exception of being mono, it was the best built highest quality VCR ever seen.

jjcool

I think our fist one was an RCA. Top loading, but it was two pieces. You could connect the tape half to a lens and use it as a video camera. We never did that, so I am not exactly sure how it worked.

Jay G.

I was curious about this feature, so I did some digging. Some RCA Selectavision models were considered a "convertable" one that disconnected from the tuner section of the VCR and could plug a camera into it.

Here's one eBay listing that includes the camera:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-RCAV...-/121435054975

Jay G.

I can't remember prices or details as I was pretty young when we got our first VCR. I think I recall a top-loading one, but the main one I remember is a silver front loading one That we had for over a decade. It was super tricked out with features for dubbing audio tracks over video and such. My dad also got a camcorder super early, like mid-80s. It took full-sized VHS tape. My dad would plug the camcorder into the VCR and dub music over montages of some of our home video footage.

On a recent car trip I remarked that kids have it easy today with their heads buried in their individual smartphones and tablets watching videos, when my sister reminded me that when we were young in the 80s, my dad had hooked up the camcorder and a portable 7" B&W CRT TV in the car, and we had spent a long car trip watching movies too.

Pointyskull

I bought my first one in 1983. Can't remember the brand (may have been RCA) but I know it was a top-loader with a wired remote. Cost in the mid-to-upper $600 range.

Norm de Plume

We were late-adopters. 1987. It was about $400-500.

jjcool

It was a selectavision, but black instead of silver. I still don't know why my father got that particular one, as I never saw a camera for it.

Jay G.

I'm guessing he thought he'd eventually buy a camera for it, or at least wanted the option.

A little more info on these types of VCRs here:
http://blog.cyborg5.com/?p=87

andicus

My mother bought an RCA Selectavision VCR in 1979. I believe it was around $1200. It was the model with the buttons for channel selection. It had a remote with a single button for channel changing, and a slider switch to pause playback or recording.

Her main purpose for it was to record As The World Turns while she was at work.

What a behemoth that thing was! I remember recording SNL all the time, and getting Star Wars on tape so I could watch it dozens of times. Most annoying thing was trying to pause recording to skip commercials, and forgetting to unpause as soon as the show/movie came back on.

This was the one:

Norm de Plume

Holy shit, that's a monster!

Alan Smithee

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/c3Vh7E8v_0A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

andicus

It was, and it weighed almost 40 lbs.

Josh-da-man

First VCR... 1987. It was a Mitsubishi. Cost was somewhere around $200-$300. I was a kid at the time, and researched Consumer Reports at the library for the one I wanted (Magnavox?). Ended up going to "the big city" to get it at Silo since the local K-Mart and Alco stores didn't have VCRs, and ended up with a Mitsubishi because the salesman hard sold that model and they didn't have the one I wanted in stock. Told me it was the best model they had, but the bastard probably got a higher commission for that model.

First DVD player, a Toshiba 2008 bought in late '98 at Best Buy for around $270. Came with five free movies (Sphere, City of Angels, Perfect Murder, Lost in Space, US Marshalls) that I sold on eBay for about $100. $20 each... Jesus... I can't believe people would pay that much.

First Blu Player, a Sony that I bought at Walmart on Black Friday for about $100.

DVD Polizei

How about having one unit for playing...and the other for recording. I still remember the day my father came home, wiping sweat from his brow, proclaiming he had the latest tech available for miles around. I think he paid around $2500 for both units.

The family, coincidentally, went without quite a few things for several months...

JCWBobC

For my 16th birthday in 1985 I bought a Magnavox front loading stereo VCR at Crazy Eddie for around $600 plus the extended warranty for around $200. My cousin had a top loading VCR that was in 2 parts that they bought around 1984.

DVD Josh

My dad paid $800 for our first Betamax. We held onto dear life to Beta until the bitter end In fact, I'm pretty sure that *I* had a VHS player before my mom and dad did.

Alan Smithee

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vzRfpdy5b8U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Norm de Plume

Ha, I used to do that, or at least a variation of what you mean. I had two VCRs permanently hooked up to each other. I would go to one of the good independent video stores downtown, rent about 20 movies at a time (the clerks must've thought I was a bit odd, but more than likely were onto me and didn't give a damn) and stay up all night and the following night recording them to blank tapes. Then I'd return the rented tapes and I could watch the movies at my leisure. Many good memories of riding my bike or, later, driving, downtown in the middle of the night (to avoid traffic) to return tapes through the night slot, but I must say, everything is so much easier and more accessible nowadays.

danwiz

Although I'm 67 years old, believe it or not, I never owned one until 1998 and then it was just built into the TV which I bought. Then I turned around and bought a DVD player in May of 2000.

Chrisedge

I bought my first one right around that time too. $499 Fisher. Top Loader. Wired remote. It lasted way longer than it should have. I was 19 and dragged that thing around all over the place with me. Took it to friends houses, etc...My next one was a RCA HiFi model that had a separate decoder for TV stereo. It was less than the Fisher, but still up there (Probably around $400)

I still own the first SVHS (JVC that ran around $800) and it still works. That was from around 1987 or so?

The Magnavox's were built by Panasonic who generally was the highest rated VCRs out there. And you bet the salesman made WAY more on the Mitsu cause that is what paid the most money. At that time, they even offered gifts you could get from a catalog for selling Mitsu's. I got a killer remote from them, and a titanium Buck knife which I still have...

CrazyMat

First One My Family owned was around 88 or 89 which was a Slyvania 4 head I think it was around $400. I had one by 91 It was a 2 head emerson I think it cost around $150. They eventually broke down and the next new one was purchased around 98 for about $100 It lasted a good while but eventually wore out.

In between I have had some give to me or purchased very cheaply that all was needed to fix was a good cleaning (about 1 out of 4 units) that I used for a while The first blank tape I bought was a scotch brand tape that cost 5 dollars and not long after that I found the walmart tapes that were 2 for 5.

Fast forward to now I have 2, 4 head hifi units one of them being a 2 to make one frankenstein quaser/rca and the other being a Memorex factory reconditioned unit I bought about 6 or 7 years ago for $20 and for a while it saw more use than any other vcr I ever had yet still works good to this day, although I hardly use the machines any more

Norm de Plume

Chrisedge, what's the craziness going on in your avatar?

Chrisedge

8M+ views for a stupid video I posted on YouTube that I had no idea would get watched that much. Same screen name as here. (Don't judge)