1 00:00:00,130 --> 00:00:05,440 You might think that a VHS cassette is a pretty ordinary thing. I mean, in 2019 2 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:05,940 20 3 00:00:05,940 --> 00:00:06,440 21 4 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:06,940 22 5 00:00:06,940 --> 00:00:07,440 23 6 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:12,370 24 it’s not like we’re using these every day, but when you compare a VHS cassette to 7 00:00:12,370 --> 00:00:13,200 a Beta cassette, you’ll 8 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:18,060 --Hold on a minute, you just made this video! What sort of stunt are you trying to pull? 9 00:00:18,060 --> 00:00:22,300 I’m not pulling any sort of stunt! I just wanted to point out a very clever thing about 10 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,240 VHS cassettes when you compare them to Beta cassettes -- 11 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:28,500 No, that’s exactly the video you just made! Here... 12 00:00:28,500 --> 00:00:33,280 The VHS cassette was more clever than Beta, you just made this video. 13 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:35,840 What sort of fools do you take your audience for? 14 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:38,880 Now now, I don’t think of any of them as fools. 15 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:40,840 Except for you, Kevin. 16 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:43,120 If anything, I’m the fool. 17 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:45,020 Aren’t you gonna ask me why I’m the fool? 18 00:00:45,020 --> 00:00:47,600 Ugh, why are you the fool? 19 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:52,020 Because it was the thing I’m about to talk about that inspired the whole video comparing 20 00:00:52,020 --> 00:00:53,640 Beta and VHS cassettes, 21 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:57,300 and yet somehow I managed to completely forget to put it in the video! 22 00:00:57,300 --> 00:00:58,650 Isn’t that dumb? 23 00:00:58,650 --> 00:01:00,240 OK that was pretty dumb 24 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:01,940 Well I’m glad we agree! 25 00:01:01,940 --> 00:01:05,820 So let’s not waste any more time and get right to it! 26 00:01:05,829 --> 00:01:09,080 Have you ever noticed that some things are bigger than other things? 27 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:10,600 Like Laserdiscs. 28 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:12,500 They’re bigger than DVDs. 29 00:01:12,500 --> 00:01:14,060 Or like watermelons. 30 00:01:14,060 --> 00:01:15,430 Those are bigger than grapes. 31 00:01:15,430 --> 00:01:20,200 Or like the pockets in clothing traditionally made for men when compared to those made for women. 32 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:24,780 Ladies, I feel you. I know you don’t have a lot of options out there. Finding clothing 33 00:01:24,789 --> 00:01:28,269 with pockets you can actually use can be hard, or even impossible! 34 00:01:28,269 --> 00:01:30,180 Men don’t have to deal with that sh**! 35 00:01:30,180 --> 00:01:34,380 I can buy pretty much any pair of pants and my giant ass phone and wallet 36 00:01:34,380 --> 00:01:38,060 and keys will all fit in just one of the pockets just fine. 37 00:01:38,060 --> 00:01:43,000 There’s no reason you shouldn’t have that luxury, too, and frankly I think we, and I mean everybody, 38 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,080 should take a stand against this fashion industry nonsense. 39 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:50,670 I can’t believe I just called pockets a luxury, that’s how nonsense this situation is! 40 00:01:50,670 --> 00:01:54,364 I think It’s time to embrace a little function over form, whaddya say? 41 00:01:54,364 --> 00:01:56,680 I may not have a lot of power to change this, 42 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,960 and my audience is 95% male according to YouTube, 43 00:01:59,960 --> 00:02:01,640 but to those who will listen, 44 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:03,780 [patriotic music plays] you deserve pocket equality! 45 00:02:03,780 --> 00:02:05,420 I know next to nothing 46 00:02:05,420 --> 00:02:09,970 about what options are out there, but when you find a good one, grab it! And make sure 47 00:02:09,970 --> 00:02:14,711 you tell everyone about it! Demand for pockets needs to be sustained! It needs to grow! And 48 00:02:14,711 --> 00:02:18,750 if you can’t find something in your style with decent pockets, don’t buy it! Let it 49 00:02:18,750 --> 00:02:21,120 sit on the shelf in protest. 50 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:25,520 And if I may make a suggestion to the gatekeepers and tastemakers of the fashion world, 51 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:30,690 early '90s colors seem to be all the rage right now. I’m sure you can tell that my fashion 52 00:02:30,690 --> 00:02:36,460 sense is unparalleled so you can trust me here. How about a dark blue skirt with some 53 00:02:36,460 --> 00:02:39,100 hot pink pockets for those totally rad accents? 54 00:02:39,100 --> 00:02:39,960 Huhhhh? 55 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:41,980 Or maybe go with some pants in the 56 00:02:41,980 --> 00:02:47,700 classic teal with purple pocket highlights like a total boss? I can see it now, so nineties, 57 00:02:47,700 --> 00:02:50,620 so useful, so counter-cultural, even. 58 00:02:50,620 --> 00:02:53,120 You’ll sell millions and your buyers will have the 59 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,740 freedom to keep things on their person like they’ve never had before, 60 00:02:56,740 --> 00:03:00,260 a freedom which frankly they deserve. 61 00:03:00,260 --> 00:03:01,040 [music suddenly stops] 62 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:06,440 So VHS cassettes are a fair bit larger than Beta cassettes. And this means that while 63 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:08,560 they’ll fit just fine in the… 64 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:12,200 pocket, if you will of a VHS VCR, they’re simply 65 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:16,360 too big to fit inside the Beta machine. But. 66 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:18,840 What about the other way around? 67 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:23,280 If a Beta cassette is smaller, then it stands to reason it will fit in here. 68 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:24,490 But it won’t. 69 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:29,240 That’s weird. Is it just too thick or something? 70 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:31,400 No. It’s certainly not too wide, 71 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:33,280 or even too long! 72 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:34,520 What gives? 73 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:38,920 It’s the most cleverest little bit of cleverness that gives! Ever notice something about the 74 00:03:38,930 --> 00:03:44,560 lid of a VHS cassette? Well, aside from how excellent of a fidgeting device it is? 75 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:45,820 Do you see it? 76 00:03:45,820 --> 00:03:47,400 How about now? 77 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:50,500 There’s a little notch right in the center of the lid, and 78 00:03:50,500 --> 00:03:55,110 if you look at the underside of the tape, you’ll find an unbroken line carving a little 79 00:03:55,110 --> 00:03:58,420 path through these various holes which are themselves quite clever. 80 00:03:58,420 --> 00:04:02,180 You can learn all about how clever those holes are in the video I just made. 81 00:04:02,180 --> 00:04:03,680 And you can find a card up there. 82 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:06,030 Or a link in the description serves as backup. 83 00:04:06,030 --> 00:04:11,600 See, starting way back at the dawn of VHS, the engineers over at JVC were all like 84 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:17,200 “Hey, what a marvelous invention we have made! We shall out-do those Sony people with our amazingly 85 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:21,040 better recording time and our much less restrictive licensing policies!” 86 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:26,120 But then, some other engineer had just had a thought. This person went to the other engineers and said 87 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:30,940 “My fellow engineers! There is a problem! One of Sony’s terribly inferior cassettes will 88 00:04:30,940 --> 00:04:35,670 fit in our machine! If people try to force the lid down, the misaligned cassette could 89 00:04:35,670 --> 00:04:37,670 cause some serious damage!” 90 00:04:37,670 --> 00:04:40,280 So they gathered around and thought of a solution. 91 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:41,560 And this is it! 92 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:43,640 See this little spike here in the VCR? 93 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:45,820 JVC was really fond of spikes. 94 00:04:45,820 --> 00:04:47,880 That little guy sticks up just enough that 95 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:52,860 when you try to put in a Beta cassette, the solid lid prevents you from inserting the tape. 96 00:04:52,860 --> 00:04:57,500 You can wiggle it around and get beyond the lid, but if you manage to get that far, 97 00:04:57,500 --> 00:05:02,230 you’ll still be foiled by the body of the cassette. Once the spike is up against here, 98 00:05:02,230 --> 00:05:04,910 no amount of wiggling will let you get past it. 99 00:05:04,910 --> 00:05:09,780 And all it takes for the VHS cassette to get around this was a small notch in the lid, 100 00:05:09,780 --> 00:05:11,820 and a line down to the center. 101 00:05:11,820 --> 00:05:13,620 Isn’t that just the neatest thing? 102 00:05:13,620 --> 00:05:18,020 I love how the edges of the notch are tapered so that the cassette will self-align. 103 00:05:18,020 --> 00:05:23,300 You’ve probably never noticed any sort of resistance from that little spike and this notch in the lid. 104 00:05:23,300 --> 00:05:27,820 But, no VHS VCR will let you try and put in a Beta cassette. 105 00:05:27,820 --> 00:05:29,919 Even into the days of front-loaders, that 106 00:05:29,919 --> 00:05:35,200 spike is still there and it will foil your plans. Which is a good thing, too, as it would 107 00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:40,320 be pretty easy to get a Beta tape stuck in there if you could get it all the way in. 108 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:44,320 Of course, there’s absolutely nothing good that can come from forcing a Beta tape 109 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:46,160 into a VHS machine. 110 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:49,860 In theory you could record onto it if it were blank, but if there were 111 00:05:49,860 --> 00:05:55,090 Beta signals on there already, your VHS machine will not be able to play them. You’ll maybe 112 00:05:55,090 --> 00:05:59,640 get something from the audio, kinda, but you aren’t gonna get a picture. 113 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:00,500 Well. 114 00:06:00,500 --> 00:06:01,560 That’s it. 115 00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:03,160 That’s this video. 116 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:04,640 Yep. 117 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:08,800 So uh, don’t forget, we all deserve pockets, 118 00:06:08,810 --> 00:06:13,790 and also don’t forget that no matter how smug those Beta backers are, you had a product 119 00:06:13,790 --> 00:06:19,760 that was just as good and had way more clever tricks up its sleeve. And also, it’s 2019 120 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:20,260 20 121 00:06:20,260 --> 00:06:20,760 21 122 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:21,260 22 123 00:06:21,260 --> 00:06:21,760 23 124 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:22,800 24. 125 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:24,300 Give it up already. 126 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:28,120 ♫ foolishly smooth jazz ♫ 127 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:32,420 That’s gonna be a problem starting in 2025. 128 00:06:32,420 --> 00:06:34,720 So I would be ashamed if I forgot to mention 129 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:39,970 that while there were never any VCRs that could record onto both Beta and VHS tapes, 130 00:06:39,970 --> 00:06:43,800 you could find videocassette rewinders that worked with both! 131 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:48,960 For the youngins in the audience, these things are there just to rewind your tape for you. 132 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:51,060 Yep. It is a one trick pony. 133 00:06:51,060 --> 00:06:55,380 But, people bought these because using the rewind function of your VCR would put 134 00:06:55,380 --> 00:07:00,210 some wear on the components, and while the degree to which that wear mattered is highly 135 00:07:00,210 --> 00:07:04,630 debatable, it certainly is not debatable that a videocassette rewinder will make that wear 136 00:07:04,630 --> 00:07:09,800 go down to zero. It’s also just more convenient, especially if you’ve got a stack of Blockbuster 137 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:12,229 rentals you want to watch one after the other. 138 00:07:12,229 --> 00:07:16,180 I’ve seen some of these that have a little lever to switch between Beta and VHS. 139 00:07:16,180 --> 00:07:17,380 The little cogs 140 00:07:17,380 --> 00:07:19,980 --or splines as was pointed out to me a zillion times-- 141 00:07:19,980 --> 00:07:25,580 would simply move a little bit with the lever, allowing the rewinder to accommodate both cassette formats. 142 00:07:25,580 --> 00:07:31,700 So now you know! Who actually needed a rewinder that could handle both Beta and VHS? 143 00:07:31,700 --> 00:07:37,010 Presumably almost nobody, and I think it’s a fair bet that the universal rewinders were more expensive 144 00:07:37,010 --> 00:07:40,750 than a standalone rewinder anyway, so the fact that I’ve seen more than one of them 145 00:07:40,750 --> 00:07:42,320 in thrift stores is surprising. 146 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,780 ...the misaligned cassette could cause some serious damage. 147 00:07:49,780 --> 00:07:51,900 I’m holding this really weirdly. 148 00:07:51,900 --> 00:07:53,620 ‘Cause I forgot to grab it. 149 00:07:53,620 --> 00:07:54,540 Again. 150 00:07:56,760 --> 00:07:57,880 Alright, Kevin. 151 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:00,040 We've been over this before. 152 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,120 BETACAM IS NOT BETAMAX 153 00:08:04,820 --> 00:08:06,980 Now go apologize to your mother. 154 00:08:08,540 --> 00:08:10,740 Pockets for all!