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Porn Drove the VCR an VHS in the 80s

posted 3 years ago by Connie93 (826)
21 replies | jump to latest

back in the smutty 70s, people went to the porno theater to watch porn.

It was uncomfortable and weird.

When VCRs came along, people started buying them to watch porn.

Video stores, as you recall, had a very large porn selection.

This was the primary reason why a lot of video stores opened.

From there, the movie industry got into the VHS business, and a more family friendly video store business emerged.

But most still kept their porn section.

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[–] 123Guy (7323) 3 years ago

... and therefore.....

???

(Trying to help this go somewhere)

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[–] Connie93 (826) 3 years ago

draw your own conclusions mate

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[–] 123Guy (7323) 3 years ago

Oh. Just thought you were headed somewhere. :)

There was another post about this recently talking about how internet changed all that

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[–] Connie93 (826) 3 years ago

yeah, the internet killed the video industry

I still miss the feeling of visiting a video store and browsing the titles for 25 minutes or so.

Kids these days will never know how much fun that was.

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[–] 123Guy (7323) 3 years ago

I agree with kids will never know this.... BUT...

AT THAT TIME, we also would never know how awesome it would have been to live video face communications, all streaming channels, and access to the entire planet's knowledge, history, and media in the palm of our hand. :)

I think video store exploration experience is akin to the fun of going to an amusement park, or going through a candy store.

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[–] Connie93 (826) 3 years ago

live video face communications are usually not a pleasant experience

streaming is ok, but less choice; hence the cancellation rate of netflix

and people don't use their phones to access all the planet's knowledge: they use it to watch tiktok or snapchat.

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[–] 123Guy (7323) 3 years ago

gotta think retroactively about what I am saying... comparing our apples to their oranges.

AT THAT TIME, I would have taken a watch/phone/camera/video camera/TV/Movie theater/radio/calendar/stopwatch/compass/GPS/music player/video game box in my pocket, over browsing for movies any day. AT THAT TIME.

I loved diving for movies at those stores, but it was only the newest option. Or wait for HBO, or go to theater, or wait 2 years for TV

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[–] Connie93 (826) 3 years ago

and I'm saying that this new technology isn't as great as it's cracked up to be; life was better with less of it.

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[–] 123Guy (7323) 3 years ago

I agree.... for YOU it was better with less. that option is gone now. each generation is what it is.
we could say life was at its best in caveman days. there is no limit to this perspective.

maybe 300 years from now, EVERYONE will be stoned out of their gourd on SOMA and that will be normal, and they'll say they can't understand how the past ever lived without it.

EVERY generation has a "normal" life, thinks the past was lame, and the future is weird. Every. Even ours. :)

BTW I'm pretty old too, and understand where you are coming from

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[–] space1999 (725) 3 years ago

This is Connie attempt to retransition into the mainstream.

Porn coverage is where she's at now.

To quote Connie's favorite President:

“Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.”

That's why she's rambling on about VCRS and pornography.

It's so sad. I wish Maury the best in the long years ahead.

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[–] Connie93 (826) 3 years ago

lol

Reagan is my fav; but Nixon is up there too!

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[–] 123Guy (7323) 3 years ago

isn't this all just a logical step in the evolution of life and technology?

in cave man days, they actually had to have sex. its the only option there was. or draw stick figure porn on walls?
upgraded to...
in earlier generations, they paid for live peep shows/strippers, its the only consumer option that existed.
upgraded to...
later on, motion pictures allowed recorded sex you paid to watch. its the only advanced option that existed.
upgraded to...
then you could RENT a tape, there was no better possible options.
upgraded to...
then disk, best available
upgraded to...
then free online stream, easiest available
upgraded to...
sex robots, AI, wet-wired, jacked in, VR full brain experience, newest evolution of the sex action.

just normal evolution, meeting the need.

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[–] jekporkins (1973) 3 years ago

Well, with this in mind I'm very much looking forward to the next step in our evolution.

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[–] Furienna (3345) 3 years ago

Nah, I believe that the video stores still would have emerged.
But I can remember accidentally seeing the porn section once or twice. 😱

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[–] Connie93 (826) 3 years ago

would the VCR have taken off if people weren't buying it for porn?

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[–] Furienna (3345) 3 years ago

Well, it is not like my family used our VCRs just for porn.
It was really great for recording TV shows if you couldn't watch them right away or wanted to watch them again.

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[–] Connie93 (826) 3 years ago

you might have had a Betamax though; the legend is that their refusual to produce porn led people to choosing VHS

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[–] Furienna (3345) 3 years ago

Actually, I don't believe that we ever had a Betamax.
I grew up with VHS and still have our first VHS tape from the early '80s in my possession.

Now, I won't say that nobody watched porn on VHS and rented porn from video stores.
But I don't believe that porn was the only reason for most people to get a VCR.

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[–] MaximRecoil (4631) 3 years ago

That's a myth. Any company could have put porn on Betamax tapes if they'd wanted to, and indeed, some did exactly that.

VHS won out over Betamax because of longer recording times, cheaper machines, and a wide variety of brands to choose from due to JVC's favorable licensing policy.

Right from the get-go, a standard T-120 VHS tape had a 2-hour recording time at its fastest (highest quality) recording speed, and 2 hours is long enough to fit most movies onto one tape, which made it appealing to movie companies looking to release their movies on home video. On the other hand, the standard L-500 Betamax tape only had a 1-hour recording time at its fastest recording speed, which means that movie companies choosing Betamax would've had to either use two tapes for one movie, or use a slower (lower quality) recording speed.

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[–] Connie93 (826) 3 years ago

one hour tapes; wow, that's pretty dumb.

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[–] blue1981 (7787) 3 years ago

Ever heard of the media label Vinegar Syndrome? They actually restore and release a lot of the vintage porn movies from the 70s and 80s on 4k/bluray/dvd. I have bought a few of them out of curiosity and they are fun movies beyond just watching them for the sex.

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