Golden Days of The Video Cassette Recorder (VCR)

Remember the one’s days of the ’80s and early ’90s when our favorite forestall in the neighborhood marketplace was the “Video Library” that succeeded in delighting us each time we went there? The era that became ruled and ruled via a gadget cherished using all and sundry, antique or young – the Video Cassette Recorder or, extra normally, the VCR.

The 80s became a time when TVhwasa was always reaching India in any form. It becomes a time when just one tech comes to polish – the Video Cassette Recorder. As it so befell, human beings had no choice by any means in watching programs on Television as the most effective channel available turned into the Doordarshan (more popularly DD) and later the DD Metro, which was regarded as a massive bonus! It seemed a perfect setting for a Video Cassette Recorder to make its presence felt and counted.

The Video Cassette Recorder spread out to the Indian humans an entirely new international of leisure that changed into unknown previous to this. From looking at just the news or documentaries sprinkled in moderation with a pinch of weekly serials, the not-unusual man now had the luxury of playing movies in the consolation of his bedroom – from the vintage classics to the modern-day flicks of Bollywood.

Video cassette recordersremovable videocassettes (videotapes) that magnetic tapes to document films were supposed to become. Not only could one watch prerecorded cassettes for movies, but one might also document shows and broadcasts from the Television that might be played later! This turned into pure magic!!! Of path, there was one cheaper variant of the VCR, which we know as the VCP – Video Cassette Player – that may most effectively playback the cassette but not document.

The creation of VCRs in India gave a super opportunity for the enterprise in the form of “Video Libraries” to flourish! Every neighborhood market had at least two, a few libraries to boast of, all of whom may want to with ease no matter the opposition because the call for much overdid the supply via a huge margin. I nonetheless do not forget our very, very own “Micky Video Library” and the “Lords” library, which have been such warm spots in the one’s instances, the primary one ironically being positioned in a small, slender lane was just a tiny little room with a group of a few hundred videos. The latter becomes a much momore dignified place with a far larger series of Hindi and English films and an air-conditioned keep to flaunt! But to be sincere, it hardly ever mattered, as what became crucial turned into getting that contemporary launch on the primary danger – rattling if it became pirated or if you needed to shell out a few more bucks!

The early VCRs have been pinnacle-loading fashions wherein you inserted the cassette in a slot that popped out from the top of the VCR on the urgent “Eject” button. It changed into later accompanied via the more sleek. Stepped forward versions of VCRs that had been the front loading had an extra attractive and current sense to them, now not to overlook the constantly stepped forward functions being brought. One such characteristic I don’t forget turned into the provision of a “Timer” wherein you may set the time the VCR could begin recording!

It changed into not simply Video Libraries that flourished. Video Cassette Recorders furnished a brilliant opportunity for small-time technicians and engineers with many of those “Video Repair” stores that sprung up. The VCR functioned with a revolving “Head” with a small little pin that studies the cassette’s magnetic tape. As predicted, with the dust and physical contact, you’ll continually face a state of affairs in which your “Head” went grimy. Also, if you wish to have either a “head purifier” sprayed on it to get it cleaned or, in excessive instances, take it to one of those restore stores.

The VCRs also ushered in an age of many one-of-a-kind and new types of entertainment revolving around Television. Besides simple films, they also opened up doors to the Pakistani Plays, which are remembered even too. It delivered to our houses a few lovable characters from plays consisting of Dhoop Kinare and Tanhaiyan that became part of our lives and live with us even now. And then there were the ones “Film Magazines”. I am no longer speakme about the Fimfares or Star Dusts. The VCRs added to the idea of video magazines consisting of “Leheren,” which has become a household name.

They had been around one hour, which suggests that they gave you the news from the Hindi Film Industry – somewhat present-day novels are full of and have now emerged, and any such thing has been taken with no consideration factor! In such instances, such video magazines have been your handiest resupply to get live snippets into the movie stars’ lives simply or to watch a film’s shooting an excIt used to be such factor it used harking back to those times becomes the first-rate video that you obtain to look at – what changed into the commonplace language known as the “print” of the cassette. So regularly did you have to go back to a video as “the print” became so terrible! So unlike the CDs and DVDs of these days, there aren’t any issues with the excellent which you get to observe. But come what may, remembering it these days, one somewhere in his coronary heart needs those little nick-nags that the modern over-ideal world has completely removed:(

And how can one forget that “Counter” you had in the one day at the VCRs? It was a small three-digit counter with revolving dials that confirmed numbers 0-9 on each dial to represent the duration of the video that was performed:) Starting from 000, it went directly to 999 and became this easy and fantastic display of how a primary little idea could be put to such pertinent use! It was later changed via a digital counter with the advent of more improved and improved VCRs, which supplied a digital show. Again, it’s one thing that makes you wonder – will we need all this development? Why have we forgotten to keep matters simple:

How can one ever overlook that sound of a video cassette “Rewinding” and that awesome “thud” with which it stopped or while you pressed that “Stop” button? My coronary heart goes out to those times. Oops, it’s undoubtedly that this high is reliving those moments from the beyond. I recollect how the summer damage meant such a lot of movies at the VCR, daily visits to the video library – which had even commenced home transport and the telephone offerings – some even offered a published listing of movies they had in their keep! I remember that as kids, we used to get an additional VCR on hire for a few days as you can interconnect them with your VCR with a cable and make copies of the cassettes. To think of it now, how did I ever take that much hassle to document a cassette? But then, that becomes the magic of these instances.

One simply is compelled to think—why does this generation have this crab mentality where it desires to drag someone down that allows you to climb up? 🙁 Why should each new era kill its predecessor? Why cannot the antique and the new coexist? Why can’t we have the vintage with the brand new? I am most thankful and privileged to have experienced and used these winners of the past.