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The Forgotten Tale of Cartrivision's 1972 VCR
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.
using an analog form of DRM
So, that'd be "RM", then.
In case you're wondering, it was simply that only the rental store could rewind rental tapes (cartridges).
Not so much rights management as blanket functionality removal.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
In the history of technology, the first to develop a technology and attempt to bring it to market is usually not the one that is ultimately successful.
So it really is true ... all new technology must support porn.
From the first photography, to the first page-flip animations ... it's all porn, and always has been.
And yet humans still idiotically think they can curb such things, despite hundreds of thousands of years of evolution which says "humans are hardwired for sex".
All these isms which say porn bad, sex bad ... I figure they're mostly moronic because they completely ignore the fact that it's always been a part of humans, and isn't going to go away because your ism says so. In fact, if you ism wants it to go away, that's probably a sign your ism is crap.
If the first thing people do is say "in what way does this facilitate seeing boobies?", you're never going to get rid of it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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."
Sex doesn't make the world go 'round, though.
Sex makes the world move in a reciprocal motion.
Well Prima Cinema is apparently still in business where for $35000 + $500/rental you can see first-run movies at home. If you're a multi-millionaire apparently that's an ok price not to go to the cinema and hang out with the plebs. Really early adopter prices are hard to compare to "sane" price, because the whole point would be you had it first. And you did it because you had that much disposable cash.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
One thing the article forgot to mention was that rental titles could not be rewound. You could pause, but not back up (much less watch it more than once during your rental period.)
Allow me to quote the article:
Cartrivision employed analog-rights management: rented tapes, offered in red casings, could be rewound only with equipment available at retailers. That ensured that a consumer could only watch a movie once.
And, really ... nobody has any sympathy for early adopters. Sure, they buy new tech and blaze the trail, and eventually the price comes down. But caring that someone was willing to spend thousands (if not tens of thousands) on new technology now has obsolete tech? No way.
Those guys who dropped $10K on plasma screen? Or any other piece of brand new tech? Nope, sorry ... can't even begin to care that the last time I saw any in a store they were being liquidated for $400 or so.
Early adopters get first look, and in a lot of ways help to determine what the rest of us get. But the premium they pay for that privilege also comes with the risk of getting burned.
In your example, if you're a multi-millionaire, paying those prices to watch first-run movies with your friends in your own private cinema? Well, that pretty much sounds like chump change.
If you have 10 of your buddies in your private theater is $50 each, which you'll happily pay to be able to show off to your buddies or not be in the cineplex. Got a theater big enough for 20 people? Well, at $25 each you're not spending all that much money.
By the time you can afford to play on that field, the incremental cost isn't that much, because you've spent way more on building the cinema, furnishing it, lighting it, and buying all that movie stuff your decorator got for you. $500 to see a first run movie in your own cinema? If you could afford the gear, the cost of that is nothing.
And, really, on the high end of home cinema ... one component costing $35K isn't really even that exceptional. By the time you're talking a home cinema with tiered seating, a bunch of high end seats, the floor lights and all the bells and whistles that people with money put into these things, the cost of the movie is nothing.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I ordered two out of an ad in Popular Electronics. nice transformers, power supply, lots of good resistors and transistors to salvage. periodically I dip into my parts bins, and if I don't have a new resistor, I go back to the pulls from Cartrivison. often have the half-watt value, and none have tested out of tolerance. put the power supply section of my first into a cabinet, 3-voltage adjustable supply, and used that on the bench for years. had to sell it to get through my second college run and career change.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Those guys who dropped $10K on plasma screen? Or any other piece of brand new tech? Nope, sorry ... can't even begin to care that the last time I saw any in a store they were being liquidated for $400 or so.
I Spent $3K on a plasma screen ~15 years ago, and it was a great TV for 10+ years: better color than LCD ever managed, no malfunctioning pixels ever, and that price over 10 years isn't bad at all. And it the time, a 42" screen one person could lift was a miracle.
So a couple years ago I replaced it: with a 60" plasma screen, for $3K. Terrific panel, very black blacks, no artifacts even with very fast action, still better color than any LCD screen. I'm sure it will be solid for 10 years as well. And I can lift it myself, which still amazes me,
By then, OLED will finally be consumer grade, and maybe I can get an 80"+ screen in that price range with perfect color.
Not everything expensive is high quality, but many high-quality things are expensive.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Thank you, you get it...
Lots of people have "media rooms", far fewer have a real home theater...
As in, a real theater with a real movie projector that shows what the cinemas show, a THX certified sound system, and a high end screen...
You know you're in the right house when there are two employees in the home theater, one to operate the projector and one to provide food and beverage service. At that point the cost for the movie is trivial...