While unwrapping some stuff that had been in long term storage I happened to spot this small ad next to the local papers TV listing. Sony HF cassettes at the bargain price of £3.99 for six. According to the Bank of England inflation calculator multiply by 2.5 to get today's prices so that works out at about £1.66 a tape. Cheaper than Argos back in the same year. they wanted £2.95 for three back then (£2.50 each in today's money). TDK D90s were exactly the same price. In a previous thread I was saying about independent retailers. I wonder how much of their profits came from selling blank tapes etc. It was big business back then. In a much earlier thread i recalled my Mother buying blank cassettes back in the mid 1970s in "Top Tape", a national chain of small shops that sold nothing but blank tapes.
Google is failing me today, as in the past I found an article about someone going with their bandmate to buy a top of the range tape to record their bands demo on. The closest I can find today is https://planetbotch.blogspot.com/2012/02/recalling-1980s-audio-cassette-tapes.ht Regarding Top Tape, as I recall thenone in Bristol wasn't a large shop, being similar to a Tobacconist, with a counter with the shopkeeper and stock behind it. Thinking of the era they might have also sold Reel to Reel tapes for the HiFi enthusiasts and possibly Video Tapes for the early adopters. I may have mentioned before that my school had a Reel to Reel video recorder. They must have been able to buy blank tapes somewhere, and it certainly wouldn't have been at the local TV shop.
Sounds like a Saturday Night Live sketch from the day: Scotch Boutique. Only in the sketch, all they sold was Scotch-brand adhesive tape.
I suppose it was on a tall cart, with a hulking wood-cabinet television set atop. That's cool that your school was such an early adopter... most of mine didn't get any video playback equipment until the top-loader VCR era, and VHS at that! While on the other hand, I've heard some schools went with Laserdisc. Considering how difficult laserdisc titles were to find, let alone rent, can you imagine what a pain that would've been for teachers that promise a special in-class movie day?
This only reminds me of the time a friend was all-excited to have gotten a brick of 20 Tone Master tapes for $6.99 at the local pharmacy... only to watch them all degauss within a week of initial use.
Good guess as the Junior School i went to had a TV on a Tall Cart like that. However, with no means of recording we had to watch schools programmes when they were broadcast. In contrast the Reel to Reel video recorder was in the secondary (high) schools lecture theatre. The school had about 1300 pupils so it was big enough to have that and a library. From what I remember the TV was a metal cased wall mounted monitor that wouldn't have looked out of place in a TV studio. The video recorder was on a stand below it. The person who set it up, lacing the tape etc was the school librarian. He had a monitor down in his office in the library so he could monitor the picture. This was important as after half an hour or so playback, it would inevitably start to break up. Then he would come upstairs and spray aerosol spray duster into the mechanism while it was still running restoring a clear (for the 1970s) picture. When I started college in 1978 they had at least one Philips VCR cassette recorder (which I don't think you got in the USA) which were simple enough to be used by the lecturers and were colour too. If you are interested in this sort of thing check out this site http://www.totalrewind.org/mainhall.htm Be aware that the forward and reverse icons take you through the pages.
If you're talking about Video 2000 (a.k.a.: V2000) I know what you mean... and no, we didn't get that in the 'States. We did, however, got saddled with CED (Capacitive Electronic Disc) or "Videodisc"--as it was known--but not VHD, surprisingly.
No, this one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Cassette_Recording I am also fairly familiar with U-Matic (mentioned in the article) having used that at work. They tried to market CED and Laserdisc over here, but I didn't know anyone who bought one for home use. Laserdisc was popular for Karaoke (when that was popular). I think Pioneer must have sold an entire system as all the discs were Pioneer as well as the equipment.
That looks a lot like Cartrivision... a short-lived format that was marketed here in the mid-70s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartrivision
Although we didn't get Cartivision here in Europe, Steve Wozniak mentions in his book I Woz, buying a Cartivision deck when they were being sold off cheap in the 1970s. It seems that in the 1970s every major manufacturer developed their own Videocassette format, before almost standardising on VHS and Beta, although even when they were dominant and V2000 and Technicolor CVC were released. Trying to find a picture comparing Cartrivision and VCR, I found this; Panasonics attempt at a cartridge. https://www.labguysworld.com/Panasonic_NV-5110.htm
