Remember those days of the ’80s and early ’90s when our favorite stop inside the nearby market was the “Video Library,” which succeeded in delighting us each time we went there? The technology that becomes dominated and dominated via a machine loved by every person, old or young—the Video Cassette Recorder or VCR.
In the 80s, cable TV was far from reaching India in any form. It was a time when simply one tech changed into polish – the Video Cassette Recorder. As it passed, humans had no choice but to look at programs on Television as the best channel to have the Doordarshan (more popularly DD) and later the DD Metro, which, in truth, appeared to be a huge bonus! It is considered a perfect setting for a Video Cassette Recorder to make its presence felt and counted.
The video cassette recorder spread to the Indian people an entirely new world of amusement unknown before this. From watching simply the news or documentaries sprinkled sparsely with a pinch of weekly serials, the not-unusual man now had the luxury of enjoying films in the comfort of his bedroom – proper from the vintage classics to the brand new flicks of Bollywood.
Video cassette recorders used removable video cassettes (videotapes), which were magnetic tapes, to report movies. This supposed was now not handiest should one watch prerecorded cassettes for film, but they could also file indicates and broadcasts from the TV that could be performed later! This becomes natural magic!!! Of course, there has been an attempt to provide an inexpensive variant of the VCR, which we knew as the VCP – Video Cassette Player – which can best playback the cassette, but it has not been reported yet.
The introduction of VCRs in India gave the enterprise a perfect opportunity in the form of “Video Libraries” to flourish! Every local marketplace had at a minimum 2 to 3 libraries to boast of, all of whom could conveniently continue to exist notwithstanding the competition because the demand lots overdid the supply with the aid of a huge margin. I nonetheless recall our very own “Micky Video Library” and the “Lords” library, which had been such hot spots in the one’s times, the primary one mockingly being located in a small slim lane becoming only a tiny little room with a set of some hundred films.
The latter becomes a more dignified area with a far larger series of Hindi and English movies and an air-conditioned save to flaunt! But to be sincere, it hardly ever mattered, as what becomes crucial turned into getting that state-of-the-art release on the first hazard – damn if it changed into pirated or if you had to shell out a few extra bucks!
The early VCRs were top-loading fashions wherein you inserted the cassette in a slot that popped out from the VCR’s pinnacle when pressing the “Eject” button. It changed into later accompanied using the extra smooth and improved variations of front-loading VCRs, had an extra appealing and cutting-edge experience to them, now not to forget the continuously stepped forward functions being brought One such function I remember to become the supply of a “Timer” where you may truly set the time at which the VCR could start recording!
It became more than just video libraries that flourished. Video cassette recorders furnished an incredible opportunity for small-time technicians and engineers, so many “Video repair” stores sprung up. The VCR functioned with a revolving “Head” with a small pin that studies the cassette’s magnetic tape. As was expected, with the dirt and bodily touch, perpetually, you would be confronted with a scenario in which your “Head” went grimy. Also, you wished both a “head cleaner” sprayed on it to get it cleaned, or in severe instances, you had to take it to 1 of these restore stores.
The VCRs additionally ushered in an age of many special and new varieties of leisure revolving around the Television. Besides simple films, they also opened doors to Pakistani Plays, which can be remembered even now; delivered to our houses a few cute characters from plays along with Dhoop Kinare and Tanhaiyan that have become part of our lives and live with us. And then there were the ones called “Film Magazines.” I am no longer speaking about the Filmfare or Star Dusts.
The VCRs added in the concept of video magazines, which include Lehren, have become a household call. They were basically one-hour indicates that gave you information from the Hindi Film Industry—something that contemporary channels are full of and has now turned out to be this type of taken-for-granted aspect! At those times, video magazines were your most effective resource for getting snippets into film stars’ lives or observing a film’s shooting film! Such an interesting aspect it was once!
A component most paying homage to those times was the satisfaction video that you acquire to watch – what changed into the not unusual language called the “print” of the cassette. You frequently need to go back to a video as “the print” changed so badly! So in contrast to the CDs and DVDs of these days wherein there are no issues with the exception that you get to observe. But some, remembering it nowadays, one somewhere in his coronary heart desires those little nick-nags that the latest over-best global has eliminated:(
And how can one neglect that “Counter” you had one day on the VCRs? It turned into a small 3-digit counter with revolving dials that showed numbers 0-9 on every dial to represent the duration of the video that was played:) Starting from 000, it went directly to 999 and became this simple and high-quality show of how a basic little idea may be placed to such pertinent use! It later changed through a virtual counter with the advent of greater superior and stepped forward VCRs that offered a virtual display. Again, it’s far one of these matters that makes you – can we need all this advancement? Why have we forgotten to hold matters easy:(
How can one ever overlook that sound of a video cassette “Rewinding” and that distinct “thud” with which it stopped or while you pressed that “Stop” button? My heart goes out to the ones instances. Oops, it surely is excessive to relive those moments from the past. I recollect how the summer season meant such a lot of films at the VCR, daily visits to the video library – which had even started home transport and the telephone services – some even went as far as imparting a published list of movies they had in their shop! I even consider that as children, we used to get an additional VCR on rent for a few days as you could interconnect them along with your VCR with a cable and, in reality, make copies of the cassettes. To consider it now, how did I ever take that lot of trouble to report a cassette? But then, that changed into the magic of those times.
One is pressured to assume – why does the era have this crab mentality where it needs to tug a person down, which will climb up:( Why does every new technology ought to kill its predecessor? Why cannot the old and the new coexist? Why can’t we’ve got the old with the latest? I am only thankful and feel privileged to have experienced and used these winners of the beyond.
