Steve Yobs wrote:
zephito wrote:Betamax / Atari / Laserdisc: Betamax was definitely on the way out, but I remember seeing beta tapes in a tiny section of the video store probably when I was 4 or 5 (video store will probably be another old-timey thing soon). Atari was pre-nintendo, with some of the worst games ever contrived by man. Laserdisc doesn't really belong here - 90's tech, too recent. It was like the DVD version of Betamax, with a CD looking thing the size of a dinner plate that you had to change maybe every 30 minutes.
There was actually a laserdisc precursor called Videodisc that was out the same time as VHS and Beta, if not slightly before. It was record-sized and had a hard plastic case. You would have to flip it half way through a movie. We would rent them from a place that later switched to VHS like a blockbuster, etc...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc
I watched Romeo and Juliet on what I'm pretty sure was LaserDisc in 9th grade English in 1986. Wikipedia says "LaserDisc was first available on the market, in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 15, 1978,[7] "