Who remembers using VCRs? & an extended question, who actually remembers having Beta cassette tapes? Stood for Betamax & were smaller than VHS tapes. I remember my family thinking about whether we should get Beta or not. I’m glad we stuck with VHS as Beta didn’t seem to go far. Though it did have a good cult following for some people.
It was a pain though to do. You had to remember to set the recording, make sure the tape was in there, & most importantly, know how much time is on said tape. So many times I didn’t record something because the tape ran out!
I still have a lot of material on VHS and Betamax that never got transferred on to DVD. Old films, live performances of various bands I've played in and some family stuff. One day I'll get to it if I live long enough 😀
I had a collection when I was a kid. Then DVD came out and I swapped all of my movies out for discs. The power of scene selection is better than rewinding or fast forwarding.
Those things along with the 8 track and cassette tape aren't very useful these days. Nonetheless, with cassettes, you can record yourself and tape songs off the radio 😛.
One fun trick is recording yourself with the radio to make a radio station.
Going from VHS to DVD was the best tech experience in my life. Menus, chapters, etc. it was overall a bigger leap than when smartphones started coming around.
