Technology from the 1960's to the 1990's

[Peter Picard]

Tomorrow evening BBC4 11.00pm a timeshift program Dial B For Britain is showing. It's an interesting program charting the history of the telephone network in the UK.

[Del Boy]

I've seen this one before and its well worth a look. 

[The Saint]

Jun 2, 2020 16:11:15 GMT Peter Picard said:

Tomorrow evening BBC4 11.00pm a timeshift program Dial B For Britain is showing. It's an interesting program charting the history of the telephone network in the UK.

I will record it, sounds interesting and thanks for the information PP

The Saint 

[Deleted]

Video recorders have always fascinated me and the buzz of when they all started! I remember my dad buying a Blaupunkt top loading VHS recorder in 1982’ he always had to have the latest stuff! My mates would come round and we’re envious. But they may have made good car radios back then but the VHS recorderS was absolutely crap! He had nothing but ulcers and disappointment with it lol!
I remember where we lived at the time this guy opened up a video shop! It was the only one around where we lived. Twas 82’ and he charged a one off fee life membership for £25 and must have made a fortune! a proper Arthur Daily, apparently he even had porn under the counter!
When ya joined and payed ya £25 ya got two free films! So I got Mad max & Zombies creeping flesh, and probably saw all the films over the next couple of years that were banned.
The video shop wasn’t that big but when ya walked in you had all VHS down one side of the shop with a piece of white cardboard stuck ont wall saying VHS in black pen and then on the other side of the shop same again but it was split with a smaller area saying Video 2000 and Betamax, which as we all know the latter give way to the VHS war! I suppose similar to the rivals of Blu-ray v HD when they first came up!

Any my dad eventually got sick of the Bkaupunkt breaking down and bought a complete different make! Bout 83’ my mates dad bought a Ferguson video star lol even had a wired remote control! Which is laughable to think of this now! But They were good machines and quite robust! I remember buying the the latest Ferguson video star recorder in about 84’ from Rumbelow’s for my bedroom, loved that machine because they used to have a big orange button which was a instant record’ button and the timer to record was easy to understand and on different presses of the button! The instant record button would go up in sequences of 30 minutes, what I liked about the model I had over the earlier one my mates dad had was it had a wireless remote!! Woo hoo’ ! I remember paying £550 for it. I later moved on to a much better one in 87’ Twas a Philips which was state of the art, was so slim and small compared to a lot of other models and had like a 5.1 dts button which instantly enhanced the sound, also had the Latest B & O  26’ TV’  in white plastic on a white metal swivel stand! and the screen had a flat tinted sheet of glass over the curved traditional screen, which could just barely be seen underneath. The B & O tv speakers at each side of the tv were a  truly awesome sound! at the time, But guess was a bit of a conn cos the tube internal bit was made buy Philips’! Looking back though the whole tv in white plastic was soo 80s! 


Never will forget the times of regular spending hours with my mates in the video shop at the weekend trying to decide what film to rent!
And once we spent so long like 2 outs trying to choose! We then left, laughing with our heads mashed after being unable to decide what film to pick!
But what will always stick in my mind more than anything else from this VHS era’ is not only the excitement of it all when it appeared but the complete appreciation’  Of this new found technology of being able to rent a film and have the privilege of watching it in your own home!!
And I think it’s that appreciation feeling that you simply do not get the same with young people today in regards techno! Certainly not at age 14’ like me and my mates were back in 1982!

[Del Boy]

Nice anecdote G.C. 
Lets run the wonga through this handy inflation calculator ......  Bank Of England Inflation Calculator
Now other VCRs in back in 82 would be approx £500 as that model doesn't bring up any results. See Dixons Catalogue from 1982 below.
I checked other catalogues for nearest approx prices for the same tech of similar quality brands. Then used the inflation calculator up to the latest available figures which are 2019.



 

Item	Year	Cost Then	Year	Cost Now
Video Lifetime Membership	1982	£25	2019	£88.90
Blaupunkt VCR	1982	apx £500	2019	£1777.93
Ferguson VCR	1984	£550	2019	£1781.17
26 inch telly	1987	apx £700	2019	£1983.86
Phillips VCR	1987	apx £450	2019	£1275.34

Quite a lot of dough spent on technology G.C

[Deleted]

Wow nice info Del! That’s unbelievable the prices now!
ya wonder why I bought that video star on the drip!! Lol
forgot to mention the dvds to rent from that video shop were £1.50 and a £1.00 so guess he was a wealthy chap!! 
Incidentally I watched a interesting program recently all about the 80’s and the progression of technology and they were a clip of a guy on tv in America at the time and was trying to put a stop to the rental of video tapes in video shops because he said it was an infringement of copy right and should be illegal! 

[John Steed]

Jun 3, 2020 20:49:27 GMT @getcarter said:

Wow nice info Del! That’s unbelievable the prices now!
ya wonder why I bought that video star on the drip!! Lol
forgot to mention the dvds to rent from that video shop were £1.50 and a £1.00 so guess he was a wealthy chap!! 

I bought a Hitachi 21" flatscreen TV and a JVC video recorder for my bedroom when I was about 19 or 20 years old. I had to have them on finance as they came to several hundred pounds. I can't remember the exact amount but it was about 1989 and probably came to £700 or more!


Steed

[Deleted]

Think buying stuff on the never never Twas easy back then! Maybe the API was less then, unlike Scumbags now like Bright house! Plus I suppose when one lived at home ya didn’t have to lash out much on bills’ coz ya just give ya mum  board’ money!  I remember having to pay £30 a week which included the use of her house phone, I was fuming 

[Three Litre]

Didn’t Toshiba make a big thing of building CRT televisions that had flat fronts? I seem to remember Alexi Sayle in the ads.

[Sam Tyler]

After reading this thread again last night I dug out an old photo I had of my stereo that I'd bought as a 15 year old back in '77. I used it as a reminder of the components that I put together and had set up in my bedroom.

It seemed to take forever but I'd saved my paper round money and to this day can still remember what I paid for each:

Item	Year	Cost Then	Year	Cost Now
Amplifier: Akai AM2200	1977	£85	2019	£532.09
Tuner: Akai AT2200	1977	£85	2019	£532.09
Cassette deck: Akai CS705D	1977	£105	2019	£657.29
Turntable: Hitachi PS12	1977	£60	2019	£375.59
Speakers: Wharfedale Denton 2XP	1977	£45	2019	£281.70

That's a grand total of £480 shelled out then equating to £2378.76 nowadays. Small wonder I didn't have very many albums at the time! 

Sad to think that I had that setup for only three years before upgrading further. 

Sam.