VHS Cassette (1987): The Video Revolution | Analog to Digital Generation-X Tech Memoir

In this episode of our Digital to Analog series—a Generation X tech memoir—we dive into the video revolution. The VHS cassette was launched in the 1970s but it changed the entire television experience in the 1980s, revolutionising how Generation X consumed media. Join us as we explore how the beloved VHS cassette became a worldwide hit, a piece of tech that defined a new generation.

[Kylefassbinderful]

When I was a teenager in high school, my favorite used for VHS tapes was making 6-8 hour mixtapes via vhs hi-fi stereo. I would borrow a bunch of CDs from different people and put them in my five disc changer on shuffle and just let it record in real time for hours. I would repeat this process until I filled up a whole tape at EP speed. You would think an AP speed the quality would be terrible but as long as you play the tape back on the same VCR, you can get pretty good results. I actually still do this today, but I use Apple Music and YouTube Music as my source, can I get the used tapes from eBay. And the quality was\is great, because hi-fi stereo is as close to CD-quality as an analog medium could get without going into the professional arena. I remember it even sounding better than tapes and coded with Dolby S.

[RDavies]

video cassette recorders (VHS) were available in 1976 when then format came out. the original point of them to record broadcast TV not pre-recorded stuff that was a few years later especially the early 80s I had my first VHS recorded in early 1985 it came with an one hour tape