Weirdest beliefs about TV among the (non-geek) "laity?"

[mjlarochelle]

I'm not 100% on consumer VCRs, but I have a manual laying around somewhere for a late-70s VCR that did not have a tuner. Now that I think about it more I think it was a commercial recorder, as it used a tape format other than VHS or Beta.

That said, I thought there was a thread on this site several years ago mentioning the existance of consumer VCRs with no tuners back in the 70s.

 

[Stanislav]

About those early days of the VCR..from the 70's until the 1984 ( ? ) U.S. Supreme Court decision saying it was legal to tape TV shows...a lot of people really believed that VCRs would be illegal..illegal to the point where the owner could actually go to jail. I myself can remember ads for VCRs back in the early 80's flashing a notice on the screen saying that the home taping of TV shows and movies goes against the copyright laws. Some TV repair shows at the time had actually provided a service to those with VCRs to "disconnect" the record button so they can keep their machines after "the day of the banning".

And for a time, stations in their sign-off spiels added to their list of copyright caveats that merely "recording" their signal was a big Bozo No-No. Some of these announcements persisted well past the SCOTUS Betamax decision.

Another rumor back then which some took as fact was that by 1985 all radio and television stations, their signal will be coded where it can't be taped meaning one can't record TV shows, record music from radio or a third party making an aircheck of a dj would be a no no too.

Of course all of this is so laughable now...

Not so laughable -- in the digital age, content providers are trying to avoid the "mistakes" of the analog era and use various DRM schemes (and the oft-proposed, but yet to be implemented "broadcast flag") to prevent copying or recording of digital radio and TV. Of course, it's doomed to fail because, one, no copy protection scheme exists that isn't eventually "cracked" by computer geeks (often within days or even hours of its release). Second, sooner or later in the chain of electrons and bits and bytes, the signal has to be decoded to be heard on your speakers or viewed on your screen, so there is always some point where a "man in the middle" attack can tap into the decoded signal. Third, if you're satisfied with lower resolution or audio quality, you can always build a dongle to convert the output to an analog format for recording. (Which is exactly why everyone should get and hang onto as many DTV converters as possible -- even if they do institute a "broadcast flag" someday, a converter lacks the circuitry to implement it, and you can still feed an analog output into a VCR or DVD recorder.) And lastly, if quality is truly the least of your concerns, there is still and will never be anything that can prevent the lowest of low-tech solutions; e.g., sticking a microphone in front of a speaker, or aiming a video camera at the TV screen. Inelegant, to be sure, but it works!

 

[Stanislav]

I'm not 100% on consumer VCRs, but I have a manual laying around somewhere for a late-70s VCR that did not have a tuner. Now that I think about it more I think it was a commercial recorder, as it used a tape format other than VHS or Beta.

That said, I thought there was a thread on this site several years ago mentioning the existance of consumer VCRs with no tuners back in the 70s.

Apart from the various failed pre-Betamax home VCR formats (such as Cartivision, which someone mentioned above), the most ubiquitous "amateur" VTRs (open-reel, not cassette) of the 60s and 70s, the 1/2" Sony EIAJ machines, for the most part lacked tuners. There may have been a few semi-professional models that had them, and I have vague memories of an "add-on" screen-less tuner that you could plug into the thing, but mostly if you wanted to tape TV signals off-air, you had to also buy a monitor/receiver that could feed a line-level output into the VTR. (Which monitor Sony was more than happy to sell you at an inflated price!)

I can't imagine home VCRs without tuners unless they were initially marketing them for making your own "instant" home movies (with a camera that was, of course, not included with the VCR, but could be added at a "special" additional price) rather than taping TV shows, but I think the ability to do the latter is what made the most attractive selling point when VCRs finally broke into the marketplace for good.

 

[mleach]

I can't imagine home VCRs without tuners unless they were initially marketing them for making your own "instant" home movies (with a camera that was, of course, not included with the VCR, but could be added at a "special" additional price) rather than taping TV shows, but I think the ability to do the latter is what made the most attractive selling point when VCRs finally broke into the marketplace for good.

I totally agree with you !! It really was the ability to tape TV programs and to playback movies that really helped the VCR to take off even though with the latter,with the movies it was actually porno that helped kick off that industry and for good reason, People can watch such stuff in their homes without the risk of being seen by your neighbors and trying to explain to them why you were entering the local Pussycat Theatre. Of course after the massive amounts of money the porno folks were making it didn't take very long for the mainstream "cleaner" studios to discover that they too could make money with VCRs.

Having a camera attached to the VCR in those days was nice but not many took up the offer. Afterall how many of "Little Lisa's birthday party" tapes could one make? And the portable battery operated devices on the market at the time was WAY beyond what many 1980 consumers were willing to spend. Might as well keep on using those old Super 8 cameras.

It wasn't until the mid to late 80's when camcorders started to kill off the super 8 and such things became more commonplace.

 

[LKellerIII]

This thread has wandered off the original topic - but in an interesting direction. I ran a video-rental business in the 1980s, and I can tell you that the film studios had some misconceptions. The biggest one was - they really believed consumers would pay $40 or $50 to buy a movie on VHS or Beta. So naturally, they were outraged when video stores got popular, because they thought we were taking money out of their pockets.

For awhile in 1984, Warners and a couple of other studios instituted a program where the video stores would rent the tapes from the studio on a monthly basis, then re-rent them to consumers. I actually liked this, because it allowed my store to stock many more copies of a hot new movie than I could otherwise afford. When they weren't popular anymore, I'd just send them back. But this turned out to be an administrative nightmare for the studios, who ended up being stuck with thousands of copies of tapes they no longer had a market for. So they gave up on that.

Disney originally would not sell to video rental stores, only for sale to "authorized" Disney retailers. So we had to buy Disney movies retail, then rent them out, since it was legal to do so.

I thought of one "weird belief" that's kind of consistent with the topic. An employee of my store actually thought that the FBI warning on movies involved electronic surveillance and some kind of homing device. In other words, if you illegally copied a tape, an electronic signal would be sent out to the FBI, and they would show up at your house a few hours later to arrest you.

 

[gr8oldies]

This has been a fun thread. By the way, i really did think the Romper Room lady could see me through her magic mirror.

 

[Stanislav]

I totally agree with you !! It really was the ability to tape TV programs and to playback movies that really helped the VCR to take off even though with the latter,with the movies it was actually porno that helped kick off that industry and for good reason. People can watch such stuff in their homes without the risk of being seen by your neighbors and trying to explain to them why you were entering the local Pussycat Theatre. Of course after the massive amounts of money the porno folks were making it didn't take very long for the mainstream "cleaner" studios to discover that they too could make money with VCRs.

The porn industry has tended to get in on the ground floor of almost every technological innovation. When the Internet first started developing the capacity and bandwidth to be able to capably stream video, who took advantage of it the fastest? Hint: it wasn't the big mainstream Hollywood studios.

I remember a cartoon (I think it was in Electronics Illustrated) in the early 70's, when the first doomed attempts at home videocassette players were making headlines in such publications (though then tanking in the marketplace until Betamax). It showed a seedy Tijuana street with a tourist passing by a local. The local has his trenchcoat half open, displaying a series of small rectangular objects. He beckons to the tourist: "Pssst...hey, meester...feelthy videocassettes!" At the time, it was considered humorous and over the top, the notion of the typical furtive streetside peddler of dirty 8mm movies now offering them in the new medium. Only in hindsight do we realize how prescient that cartoon was!!

 

[Stanislav]

This thread has wandered off the original topic.....

C'mon, only naive newbies actually expect the threads in this forum to stay on-topic. We all know better. <bg>

I thought of one "weird belief" that's kind of consistent with the topic. An employee of my store actually thought that the FBI warning on movies involved electronic surveillance and some kind of homing device. In other words, if you illegally copied a tape, an electronic signal would be sent out to the FBI, and they would show up at your house a few hours later to arrest you.

Actually, in the post-9/11 era of Dick Cheney and friends, that wouldn't be so far-fetched....

 

[Stanislav]

This has been a fun thread. By the way, i really did think the Romper Room lady could see me through her magic mirror.

I did, too, but even at that tender age was defending my civil liberties. "What? This chick can see right into my living room? That's unconstitutional! Where's your warrant, lady?" <LOL>

 

[Stanislav]

My mother used to have a good friend -- a co-worker who, while a sweet soul, was a few bricks short of a load, and hopelessly gullible. (Think Rose on The Golden Girls.) Anyway, back before they had live TV on space flights (I think this was back in the Gemini era, maybe one of the rendezvous/docking missions), she once remarked how she couldn't believe how clear those pictures were from outer space. My mother patiently responded, "Um...did you by any chance notice that word simulation on your TV screen?"

 

[mleach]

This thread has wandered off the original topic - but in an interesting direction. I ran a video-rental business in the 1980s, and I can tell you that the film studios had some misconceptions. The biggest one was - they really believed consumers would pay $40 or $50 to buy a movie on VHS or Beta. So naturally, they were outraged when video stores got popular, because they thought we were taking money out of their pockets.

For awhile in 1984, Warners and a couple of other studios instituted a program where the video stores would rent the tapes from the studio on a monthly basis, then re-rent them to consumers. I actually liked this, because it allowed my store to stock many more copies of a hot new movie than I could otherwise afford. When they weren't popular anymore, I'd just send them back. But this turned out to be an administrative nightmare for the studios, who ended up being stuck with thousands of copies of tapes they no longer had a market for. So they gave up on that.

Disney originally would not sell to video rental stores, only for sale to "authorized" Disney retailers. So we had to buy Disney movies retail, then rent them out, since it was legal to do so.

My parents ran a video store from 1979 until they sold out to other family members in the mid 80's. I guess this explains why the quality of a number of the movies they had at their store had left something to be desired..like for example that Frankie Avalon ( yes..that Frankie Avalon !! ) horror flick they had available for rent. I still remember the scene where Frankie was on the hunt for a girl holding a bloody ax singing "..ohhhhhh VENUS..if you will..I want to f*cking KILL YOU..bitch !!" Talking about trying to "kill" your image LOL.

But none-the-less people still rented the stuff. My dad once told me that they actually at the time made more money from renting such flicks as the one with Frankie Avalon ( and another bad horror flick with Larry Storch called "Without Warning" ) than they did with the Hollywood blockbusters they had in their stock like "9 to 5" or "Stir Crazy" with Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor. Go figure !! LOL

 

[mjlarochelle]

Another one I thought of - it is common in Canada for networks to cherry-pick prime-time shows from American networks. For example on CTV from 9-10 you might have an ABC program, and then at 10 have an NBC show. It has long led to confusion for my mother, no matter how many times I try to explain Canadian simulcasts. For example, some ABC show also seen on CTV hosted by Tom Bergeron always ended with him promoting whatever show was coming up next on ABC. Now we'd have CTV waiting for Law & Order, but my mother could never understand why ABC was promoting some other show up next but we were on CTV.

The same goes for sim-subs. For example if we've switched to "WDIV" but it has a Global simsub for a show from 9-10, then it also confuses the heck out of my mother when Global is promoting some other show coming up but we're waiting for an NBC show at 10. Again, I've tried to explain sim-subs but she doesn't understand them.

 

[anotherguyTN]

This thread has moved so fast that I didn't get a chance to comment on the subject of VCRs without tuners until now. There actually are VCR/DVD combos and DVD recorders available now (No more standalone VCRs that I know of) that have line-in jacks but no built-in tuner, assuming that most people who buy them will plug in their cable tuners. That's about all that is available for under $100.00 now. Anything with a built in (digital) tuner runs well over $100.00 now.

 

[bpatrick]

Another one I thought of - it is common in Canada for networks to cherry-pick prime-time shows from American networks. For example on CTV from 9-10 you might have an ABC program, and then at 10 have an NBC show. It has long led to confusion for my mother, no matter how many times I try to explain Canadian simulcasts. For example, some ABC show also seen on CTV hosted by Tom Bergeron always ended with him promoting whatever show was coming up next on ABC. Now we'd have CTV waiting for Law & Order, but my mother could never understand why ABC was promoting some other show up next but we were on CTV.

The same goes for sim-subs. For example if we've switched to "WDIV" but it has a Global simsub for a show from 9-10, then it also confuses the heck out of my mother when Global is promoting some other show coming up but we're waiting for an NBC show at 10. Again, I've tried to explain sim-subs but she doesn't understand them.

Anybody remember the 1977 TV Guide article about WAGM Presque Isle, ME, an affiliate of ABC, CBS, and NBC, with a habit of cherry-picking from each network? That must have been as confusing as what your mom goes through.

It all again begs the question: do people watch programs or do they watch networks?

 

[KML0224]

Today, WAGM-DT is solely a CBS affiliate and has FOX on channel 8-2. I had read where there was supposed to be another station in that market by now, not counting PBS affiliate WMEM-DT.

 

[firepoint525]

On the subject of video rental stores, back when we first got our first VCR and started renting movies (early '80s), we rented from a video store a mile or two from us that these folks ran from their own home. (From an enclosed garage, if memory serves.) Once while we were there, either to rent or return a movie, one of them said something to the effect of "excuse me, I'm taping a movie, and I've got to pause the tape because they are going into a commercial break." We actually didn't think much of it, other than that we noticed that they rented out bootleg copies of some movies. Not long after that, they and a couple of other video rental houses were raided, and all their tapes were confiscated, both legit and bogus! After an investigation, their legit tapes were returned to them. No, we didn't report them, but even before they got raided, we thought it was highly unusual that they made no secret of the fact that they were doing home-taping, presumably from satellite feeds, since I don't think cable had come out that far yet.

 

[azumanga]

Today, WAGM-DT is solely a CBS affiliate and has FOX on channel 8-2. I had read where there was supposed to be another station in that market by now, not counting PBS affiliate WMEM-DT.

Currently the only other station in town besides WAGM and WMEM is a low-powered TBN repeater on channel 51.

 

[mleach]

Just thought of one....for many years my grandmother really believed that one must be the age 18 to be on TV and to be heard on the radio. She really believed this was "the law". When I pointed out to her the number of child stars who had appeared on TV and radio over the years ( such as Rose Marie from the Dick Van Dyke show and our own "Pam the Pixie" who at the age of 9 was on our local radio station back in the 60s )..well she just refuse to believe they were kids...perhaps in her mind they were really midgets.

On a similar note..over the years I had met many older adults ( those in their 60's and older ) who while they believe the kids they see on TV and movies are really kids....for some reason they had the idea that only adults ( 18 and over ) were allowed to be heard on the radio. Some of them even had the idea that a disc jockey was "required" to be married in order to be heard. Never did figure that one out unless its a throwback to the days they can recall with network radio from the 30s and 40s when radio broadcasters were under that strict so-called "morals clause..you must be married". I remember reading a few years ago the bio of "I Love Lucy " creator
Jess Oppenheimer written by his son Greg where this "rule" was indirectly actually brought up. Times have changed !!!

 

[bpatrick]

Today, WAGM-DT is solely a CBS affiliate and has FOX on channel 8-2. I had read where there was supposed to be another station in that market by now, not counting PBS affiliate WMEM-DT.

Currently the only other station in town besides WAGM and WMEM is a low-powered TBN repeater on channel 51.

And I think "Days Of Our Lives" was the last non-CBS program to air on WAGM. But remember,
the article was written in 1977.

 

[gr8oldies]

Until the late 60s in Dayton, Ohio, the stations cherry-picked the network schedules, with the 2 VHFs running mostly CBS and NBC. That had to get real confusing. Several markets had CBS and NBC with secondary affiliations for ABC.