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Check out the (primitive) psychedelic visuals from this ‘trippy’ 1979 Betamax tape
04.09.2018
10:25 am
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VHS edition of “Electric Light Voyage”—the uploaded version is from a Betamax source.
 
Here’s an interesting find from the early days of home video.

This Betamax format tape, titled Ascent 1 from Astralvision, was released under the title Electric Light Voyage for its videocassette release from Media Home Entertainment. The tape consists of “trippy” computer-generated visuals set to experimental music. These visuals would have been STATE OF THE ART in 1979, but seem quite primitive by today’s standards—a lot of them look like old Windows screensavers.

Aside from some of the music sounding rather frightening, the lysergic visuals on this tape seem tailor-made as a late ‘70s “trip toy” to be enjoyed under the influence of one’s favorite hallucinogen. The liner notes on the box indicate that it’s “great for parties or individual contemplation” (emphasis added): 

“This 60-minute electronic fantasy featuring computer animation can control and change your moods of elation and tranquility. To change or enhance your mood, simply play a musical selection that accompanies your present feeling – its mesmerizing! The abstract colorized computer animated visuals are artfully paced with their complimentary soundtrack. Images explode with color while soothing with flowing shapes and rhythms, Great for parties or individual contemplation.”

 

 
Copies of Electric Light Voyage I’ve seen online are boxed in Media Home Entertainment packaging, but the logo at the beginning of this upload indicates “Meda”—which was the original name of Charles Band’s video company before the name was changed to “Media.” This was one of only a handful of titles available from Meda/Media at the time—a roster which included the first videocassette release of John Carpenter’s Halloween, which is, among collectors, one of the most sought-after and valuable videocassette releases of all-time.

As primitive as this seems today, it’s still really cool. The music, which varies from dark creepy soundscapes to proto-new age, is mostly pretty great and I imagine the visuals would still “work” under the influence of your favorite research chemical.
 

 

Posted by Christopher Bickel
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04.09.2018
10:25 am
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Effectively killed by porn in the early 80s, Sony vows to discontinue Betamax format in… 2016
11.11.2015
08:33 am
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Sony announced it is finally discontinuing popular recording format… uh… BETAMAX next year.

Sony recently issued a press release stating that they will be discontinuing production of Betamax videocassettes in March 2016. According to the same release, the company ceased production of Betamax players in 2002 and Betamax camcorders in 2005.
 

Look at this ancient artifact.
 
Upon hearing the announcement, many were shocked to learn that Beta had been in production at all since VHS won the “format wars” in the early ‘80s with Sony conceding that loss in 1988 with the production of their first VHS videocassette recorders.

The Betamax format was introduced by Sony in 1975 and went up against rival JVC’s VHS (or Video Home System) format. Despite the perceived higher quality of images on Beta cassettes, the format floundered against VHS in the United States due to the lower price of VHS players and the longer recording time available on the VHS tapes. The original Betamax tapes could only record one hour of programming—a fatal flaw.
 

 
It has been argued that the porn industry’s decision to become an early adopter of the VHS format was a deciding factor in that format’s dominance, as home-viewing of pornography was one of the primary drivers of the early videocassette industry.
 

Ad from back cover of a 1979 issue of Hustler magazine. Call the porn professionals to ask if you should choose VHS or Beta. Hint: They’re going to tell you VHS.
 
Betamax hung around past its perceived expiration date due to its continued use (as a superior tape format) in local television production, particularly ENG (electronic news gathering) purposes. As Sony’s superior professional BetaCam format and then digital video became the standard for television production, Betamax became obsolete—still its surprising to learn it has continuously been in production for 40 years past the advent of VHS, past the advent of DVD, past the advent of Blu-ray, and past the advent of hard-drive recorders and digital streaming.

RIP Betamax. We hardly knew ye.
 
Here’s a 1978 commercial when Beta was some hot shit:

 
H/T: The Guardian

Posted by Christopher Bickel
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11.11.2015
08:33 am
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