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The Forgotten Tale of Cartrivision's 1972 VCR

Posted by timothy on from the don't-remember-this-at-all dept.

harrymcc writes: In 1972 -- years before Betamax and VHS -- a Silicon Valley startup called Cartrivision started selling VCRs built into color TVs. They offered movies for sale and rent -- everything from blockbusters to porn -- using an analog form of DRM, and also let you record broadcast TV. There was also an optional video camera. And it was a spectacular flop. Over at Fast Company, Ross Rubin tells the fascinating story of this ambitious failure.

1 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Huh. Imagine that. by jpellino · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The equivalent of $7,172 in 2015 dollars, skip frame 1:3 recording and no rewind. And they failed you say? Early bird gets the worm, second mouse gets the cheese.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."