Re: S-VHS cassette recorders

On 1/6/2025 3:27 PM, bitrex wrote:

On 1/6/2025 3:00 PM, Don Y wrote:
 

Last time I saw someone walking around with a portable record player
was.... never.
>

The album art is bigger on LPs, and they have more distortion (warmth.)

>
Nostalgia.  Folks also play 80's video games.  Yet, you don't see
those industries ressurected so the demand is more of an oddity
than a financial reality.

 "80s-inspired" new-release video games is a genre, like how synthwave/80s-inspired new-release music is a genre.
 There might be more 8-bit looking and playing video games (that were built with modern software tools) on the market now via Steam and online distribution than there were 8-bit games available for sale at any point in the actual 1980s...

But that's because damn near *anyone* can create a video game, nowadays.
(e.g., Unity).
When you had to CREATE the hardware before you could create the game
software, the bar was significantly higher.  The same holds true of
pin-tables.
The fact that you can BUY such vintage products still hasn't stoked
a market for them.  Because, they take up physical space.  Just
like albums, CDs, cassettes, 8Ts, books, etc.  I can't play with
a pin-table unless I happen to be *home* with it.  Ditto, reading
a dead-tree book, listening to a cassette, etc.
The advantage the shift-to-digital brought about was it removed the
need for physical entities in favor of magnetic domains and stored
charges.  Now, you just wait for the technology to get faster (and
cheaper) enough to make the need for any non-digital implementation
a moot point.

In the latter case "that 80s sound" never really went away and popular music goes through cycles of huge reverbs and gated snares...

But, old product is still relegated to history.  "Oldies".

Only for the "look at me!" factor.  I've probably a hundred vinyl boots
"just out of shrinkwrap" stored -- along with a Beogram 8000.  None
have seen the light of day since they were ripped (the sound quality
isn't going to get any BETTER with use so whatever I captured originally
has been faithfully preserved (and repeatedly reproduced) each time
I listen to them -- regardless of WHERE I choose to do that (including
on cross country flights:  "Miss, can I plug my turntable in, somewhere?")

 Yeah I don't mess with either, I move a lot and large collections of physical media are a pain to lug about. I prefer to have books if I'm going to keep one variety of it

I keep my vintage vinyl as it isn't THAT much of a nuisance (compared
to the test equipment, development systems, etc.).
But, I ripped all of my CDs ages ago and stashed the originals under
my bed (as the "ultimate backup" for the ripped copies).
I've been scanning print media for the past two years to whittle my
dead tree collection down to something considerably more manageable
(and, easier to duplicate as well as make redundant).
When you get older, "moving" isn't the issue, anymore (my last move
was ~30 years ago).  Rather, you start seeing all your "stuff" as
clutter and liabilities.  I've been steadily gifting pin-tables
and other arcade pieces to friends-and-neighbors just to reclaim
floor space AND the time required to maintain them!  I can have ALMOST
as much fun with a PSP as with a refrigerator-sized piece.  Of
course, the bigger pieces are more of a novelty for guests and visitors
but, I'd prefer fewer of them, too!  :-/
[[OTOH, I saw a cute little "bar-top" pin-table ages ago that I would
love to have, now.  Sadly, it was a one-of-a-kind item and I've lost
the contact information for the designer/builder]]