Video8 - Sony's forgotten ambitions & the crazy Walkman Compo

The small tape that was supposed to become the next big thing.
Here's a video about the forgotten history of the format and a demonstration of a rare Sony Video 8 machine called the Walkman Compo.

FAQs
Q) What's that thing at the beginning displaying the Eye of Sauron?

Q) Hey you "forgot" to mention (Insert thing I didn't forget here).
A) Nope - this is just a video about the things in the video. Anything not in the video is not there because it wasn't part of this video. e.g. Digital8 and 8mm data backup tapes are not in the video on purpose.

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[videovoidtv]

Hey. I used to be an editor for an airline inflight Entertainment company and while we didn’t get nice box art like your examples, I can guaranty that we were using Hi8 tapes until about 2017. By that point it was only for our smaller clients that used older airplanes. Mostly in Central and South America. Changing the media system on a perfectly fine airplane would cost up to $100, 000 so most airlines waited until the planes were retired and bought newer planes.

Also there was a fire during the Japanese earthquake that destroyed the last factory that still produced Hi8 tapes. I spent years chasing down the last available tapes to use for commercial purposes. Any brand any level of quality... it was insane.

Amazing video. So great to see this old tech. Well done.

[binaryguru]

MEGA BASS, most essential feature ever.

[aeonjoeyd]

being a former radio shack manager - I’ve been yelled at, screamed at, had customers try to physically attack me, throw things at me, knock over store displays, and even break a window - over the fact that there has never. ever. been an 8mm/hi8 to VHS tape adapter, it’s never existed, no matter how we explained it, no matter if we just said “oh sorry we don’t have that” no matter if we showed them a web article or a video of people explaining it - customers believed that they HAD SEEN it with their own eyes, and it was *not* VHS-C it was 8! of course - they were wrong, but it never mattered - they’d freak out no matter how calm we stayed. we had to be lying, we had to be doing this TO them (literally a woman burst into tears accusing us of trying to keep her wedding video from her for an unknown reason demanding to know why!) we were always just a bunch of idiots. *sigh*. so glad I left that life and will never deal with the frontline public again - just creative directors and art directors and maybe a product manager here and there. thank god.

[heedmywarning]

in the submarine community, we had 8mm decks for playing back movies. Every so often a company would send us new movies on 8mm format. One of the most popular movies was Highlander.

[jamesgreer]

The US Navy used Hi8 throughout the early 2000s. We got all the latest blockbuster titles sent out to the deployed fleet. They used Sony EVO-9500 and EVO-9850 decks.

[RusteyGuy]

I work for a Vacation Charter airline in Canada, and can confirm we were using Hi8 tapes in our IFE (right across most of our fleet at the time) until 2015 when the format was officially retired. At that time they swapped the tape players with a hard drive system that was designed to fit perfectly in the tape player's bay.

[RegularCars]

You rolled around in a Mk1 MR2 back in the day? BADASS!

[garyv]

Not sure if you check these old comment sections, or if this has been mentioned before, but, as a former US Navy submariner, I can attest to the fact that we were often given newest-released titles on 8mm because all of our large-screen TVs were connected to 8mm players. Not sure why that was, but I saw Euro Trip, Bulletproof Monk, and Ready to Rumble on 8mm before I saw it anywhere else.

Keep in mind, I got out of the service in 2006, so that may have changed after the mid 00s, but, back then, all of our movies were in 8mm. Thanks for the great channel, by the way!

[Petardozord]

I really like aesthetics of early 90's and 80's devices.

[Eexpers]

nothing has ever encouraged me more to push that lid than a sticker saying "never push this lid"

[Browningate]

Putting all those pieces together reminds me of connecting the Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and the 32X.

[AvocadoDiaboli]

Now I'm curious and really want to see vintage 90's Techmoan :D

[Beaula]

There is little more comforting and bright in my day than hearing Techmoan’s Muppet say “Flippin ‘eck”.

[jetjazz]

Having so many ports and plugs on one device... such a thing of beauty. This is why for the longest time Sony had such a high reputation for consumer electronics, they LOVED ports. (Well that's my perception anyways, and why I liked them). Also... it just looks cool.

[jdbarker]

MEGA BASS

Man. I miss overpowered phrases for something that just adjusts the bass levels slightly.

[dorskien]

Flying first class in the 90's ment that the stewardess would bring a box of different movies on Hi8 that one would pop into the personal Hi8 player built into one's armrest.. Those were good times, i will never forget how excited i was to see which titles they had onboard on each trip!

[shkeni]

New Techmoan! Time to put off anything else I was doing :D

[ferencgobor]

Video Compo, plug and plug and plug and plug and plug and plug and Play! :)

[fen]

I transfer old tapes for a living, and I am always amazed how well Hi8 holds up compared to VHS. It's much closer to a professional betacam tape it terms of longevity and quality.

[markuslundholm]

(Hemresa) = journey home
(Utresa) = journey out
Svensk text = Swedish subtitle
Norsk text = norwegian subtitle