WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.649 This is a VHS cassette. 00:00:02.649 --> 00:00:05.553 And so is this little thing! 00:00:05.553 --> 00:00:09.146 It's a variant of VHS known as VHS-C. 00:00:09.146 --> 00:00:13.497 And its main feature is that despite being a wildly different size, 00:00:13.497 --> 00:00:20.280 the tape inside this cassette stores the exact same video signals as a big boy VHS cassette. 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:26.277 This doesn't have as much tape in there, of course, only 1/4 of what's in a standard T-120. 00:00:26.277 --> 00:00:28.988 But because this is still VHS, 00:00:28.988 --> 00:00:35.823 if you want to play this tiny little tape in a standard VCR, all you need is one of these adapters. 00:00:35.823 --> 00:00:42.722 Just pop the small tape inside this thing, and with a little motorized assistance it is now a full-sized VHS cassette 00:00:42.722 --> 00:00:45.845 playable in any VCR. 00:00:45.845 --> 00:00:50.485 Now, you might wonder why anyone would want such a diminutive little videotape. 00:00:50.485 --> 00:00:54.782 If you're old enough, you know the answer but you might be surprised to learn, as I was, 00:00:54.782 --> 00:00:59.693 that this hit the market before the thing it was made for. 00:00:59.693 --> 00:01:04.881 Yep. Upon release, VHS-C was a pretty pointless product. 00:01:04.881 --> 00:01:07.685 But it was definitely impressive. 00:01:07.685 --> 00:01:13.021 See, we used to be obsessed with miniaturization, especially in the '80s. 00:01:13.021 --> 00:01:21.169 As consumer electronics were getting smaller and cheaper, we got such a kick out of shrinking stuff into tiny versions of the original thing 00:01:21.169 --> 00:01:23.901 to the point of it being a fad. 00:01:23.901 --> 00:01:26.144 We still do this to some extent, 00:01:26.144 --> 00:01:34.491 but now the actual electronics in any given thing are so small  that we're mostly free to design devices however we want. 00:01:34.491 --> 00:01:37.767 Or at least however designers think we want them - 00:01:37.767 --> 00:01:42.066 oh, we're all so thrilled you made it even thinner this time! 00:01:42.066 --> 00:01:46.796 That's definitely the thing I'm thinking about most when shopping for a phone. 00:01:46.796 --> 00:01:52.056 Hands up if you'd take an extra millimeter  of thick for an extra two or three hours of battery life. 00:01:52.056 --> 00:01:53.110 That's everyone, right? 00:01:53.110 --> 00:01:55.130 I wonder when they'll notice! 00:01:55.130 --> 00:02:01.679 Anyway, back in the 1980s, videocassette recorders were a prime target for miniaturization because they used to be 00:02:01.679 --> 00:02:03.383 this big. 00:02:03.383 --> 00:02:06.701 This VHS machine is from 1979, 00:02:06.701 --> 00:02:12.089 and it's totally fine for sticking on top of that huge console television set in the living room... 00:02:12.089 --> 00:02:14.120 but it ain't super portable. 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:21.176 Which is a bummer because one of the most exciting use cases for these things was to record home movies with sound! 00:02:21.176 --> 00:02:24.686 And without having to take your film in for processing. 00:02:24.686 --> 00:02:29.118 Thanks to the advent of consumer-grade video cameras like this thing, 00:02:29.118 --> 00:02:33.020 your VCR could not only record TV shows so you could watch them later, 00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:37.878 but could now be upgraded to record precious family memories, too. 00:02:37.878 --> 00:02:45.612 But lugging this thing around wasn't exactly fun, and it also meant you'd be tethered to a wall outlet. 00:02:45.612 --> 00:02:49.990 However, this machine contains more than just the tape transport 00:02:49.990 --> 00:02:54.917 (meaning the mechanical parts that actually interact with and record onto the tape). 00:02:54.917 --> 00:03:02.949 It's also got a power supply, a television tuner, and a timer to be a full-featured television recording device. 00:03:02.949 --> 00:03:05.748 That's what video cassette recorders were sold to do, 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:09.126 which is why they're called VCRs and not... 00:03:09.126 --> 00:03:11.578 "VHS players." [shudders] 00:03:11.578 --> 00:03:12.817 I will die on that hill. 00:03:12.817 --> 00:03:19.308 Anyway, before long, some enterprising folks thought to  remove the transport from the everything else, and we got 00:03:19.308 --> 00:03:20.680 these. 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:23.669 This is a portable VCR. 00:03:23.669 --> 00:03:28.600 The tape transport was made as a separate unit from the tuner, power supply, and all the rest 00:03:28.600 --> 00:03:34.045 so it could be detached and lugged around while powered by a rechargeable battery. 00:03:34.045 --> 00:03:39.463 And thanks to this connector on the side which delivers power from its battery to a connected camera, 00:03:39.463 --> 00:03:43.674 you've got a reasonably portable video recording setup. 00:03:43.674 --> 00:03:46.941 This is really how home video worked in the early days. 00:03:46.941 --> 00:03:48.658 It was a hassle! 00:03:48.658 --> 00:03:57.276 Clearly, recording home movies on videotape wasn't going to go mainstream until somebody figured out how to combine all this nonsense into one device. 00:03:57.276 --> 00:04:02.999 But no matter what you did, the videotape transport was still gonna be pretty bulky. 00:04:02.999 --> 00:04:11.736 That's because the signals which are recorded onto the tape get put there by magnetic tape heads riding on a quickly spinning drum. 00:04:11.736 --> 00:04:15.815 If you want to know why, you can check out this very old video of mine. 00:04:15.815 --> 00:04:21.394 But the important thing is for video signals - you need that thing, and it's pretty big. 00:04:21.394 --> 00:04:27.365 Sony was the first to figure out how to shrink it while still recording the same signals onto the tape, 00:04:27.365 --> 00:04:33.004 and they commercialized their technique with the Betamovie all-in-one camera and videotape recorder 00:04:33.004 --> 00:04:34.716 (or camcorder) 00:04:34.716 --> 00:04:37.529 which hit the market in 1983. 00:04:37.529 --> 00:04:41.224 I've also made a video about this thing because it's delightfully insane! 00:04:41.224 --> 00:04:45.208 It can't play its own tapes! 00:04:45.208 --> 00:04:51.369 Now, the reason why is incredibly fascinating  and the result of some amazing out-of-the-box thinking. 00:04:51.369 --> 00:04:55.611 This device really is a remarkable technical achievement. 00:04:55.611 --> 00:05:02.648 But since it was completely useless unless you had already bought into the Betamax ecosystem, 00:05:02.648 --> 00:05:04.971 well it didn't have very broad appeal. 00:05:04.971 --> 00:05:10.924 It might have swayed some people  who hadn't yet purchased a VCR into going with Beta. 00:05:10.924 --> 00:05:15.407 But by 1983, Betamax was already struggling quite a lot. 00:05:15.407 --> 00:05:22.453 And because every single thing Sony tried to do to make Betamax better than VHS was swiftly copied by JVC, 00:05:22.453 --> 00:05:27.959 not long after Sony pulled off their miraculous shrinkage of the Betamax tape transport... 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:30.639 the VHS manufacturers followed suit. 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:34.648 They also did it in a less technically interesting but much more reasonable way 00:05:34.648 --> 00:05:38.818 and this allowed VHS camcorders to play their own tapes! 00:05:38.818 --> 00:05:40.518 Useful! 00:05:40.518 --> 00:05:43.221 This is an example of such a camcorder. 00:05:43.221 --> 00:05:49.249 This was made in 1987, and it's a fully featured yet very compact VHS VCR 00:05:49.249 --> 00:05:52.372 which just so happens to have a camera bolted to it. 00:05:52.372 --> 00:05:57.673 And with this device, we can see the last remaining problem. 00:05:57.673 --> 00:06:03.478 You can shrink the tape transport, but you can't shrink the tape. 00:06:03.478 --> 00:06:08.740 All of the mechanical duads that actually touch the tape are in this small section. 00:06:08.740 --> 00:06:13.280 Only about one third of this thing's height is taken up by the tape recording bits. 00:06:13.280 --> 00:06:17.756 The other two thirds are just to hold on to the cassette itself. 00:06:17.756 --> 00:06:23.130 The full-size VHS cassette just wasn't really optimized for  portability. 00:06:23.130 --> 00:06:30.819 This isn't huge, of course, but you're never going to be able to shrink something down to palm sized if you have to fit one of these in there somewhere. 00:06:30.819 --> 00:06:36.681 That's why this camcorder is actually a little bit bigger than the Betamovie. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:40.777 Beta cassettes are smaller than VHS cassettes. 00:06:40.777 --> 00:06:46.830 Still, the mechanism this uses to record onto the tape is really quite tiny, so... 00:06:47.739 --> 00:06:50.673 what if you just made the cassette smaller? 00:06:50.673 --> 00:06:54.416 That's the point of VHS-C. 00:06:54.416 --> 00:06:57.981 Or at least it would be eventually. 00:06:57.981 --> 00:07:02.524 Believe it or not, VHS-C hit the market back in 1982, 00:07:02.524 --> 00:07:06.482 meaning this predates the camcorder. 00:07:06.482 --> 00:07:16.243 At first, JVC was just riding the wave of making things tiny and tried to one up their competition by selling an even portabler VCR much like this one. 00:07:16.243 --> 00:07:20.729 In fact, oddly enough, here they are together in this issue of Popular Science. 00:07:20.729 --> 00:07:24.886 And the accompanying article very astutely makes the reader ask, 00:07:24.886 --> 00:07:28.780 "Okay... but why?" 00:07:28.780 --> 00:07:39.382 See, initially VHS-C tapes only held 20 minutes, and it doesn't look like the first recorder which used them could record in the slower SLP speed so... 00:07:39.382 --> 00:07:44.021 ya got 20 minutes per tape, which was a pretty significant limitation. 00:07:44.021 --> 00:07:48.849 And remember, 1982 was still early days for the  VCR. 00:07:48.849 --> 00:07:50.725 Lots of people didn't have them yet, 00:07:50.725 --> 00:07:59.170 and one of the biggest selling points for portable VCRs like this was that the same device could be used at home for typical VCR duties 00:07:59.170 --> 00:08:03.282 and taken with you on vacations for makin' memories. 00:08:03.282 --> 00:08:08.787 JVC's new 20-minute version of that idea just didn't make any sense. 00:08:08.787 --> 00:08:14.632 As a matter of fact, JVC had created the miniaturized VHS-C cassette so early 00:08:14.632 --> 00:08:21.074 that miniaturization of the electronics and the tape transport hadn't even happened yet! 00:08:21.074 --> 00:08:29.672 Teardowns of the JVC HR-C3 reveal that it's still got the full-size VHS head drum and transport in there. 00:08:29.672 --> 00:08:32.262 Sure, the device is a triumph of packaging, 00:08:32.262 --> 00:08:37.220 but the only thing that meaningfully shrunk was the cassette itself. 00:08:37.220 --> 00:08:44.694 And since JVC's machine with its tiny, useless tapes wasn't actually that much smaller than a full-size VHS portable, 00:08:44.694 --> 00:08:50.671 it was only ever going to appeal to those who were  more concerned with looking like they were living in the future 00:08:50.671 --> 00:08:54.590 than actually making rational buying decisions. 00:08:54.590 --> 00:08:56.238 It's a good thing those people exist, though. 00:08:56.238 --> 00:08:57.874 They're very profitable. 00:08:57.874 --> 00:09:02.107 But despite being rather useless upon release, 00:09:02.107 --> 00:09:06.979 JVC knew exactly what they were doing when they came up with this idea. 00:09:06.979 --> 00:09:10.084 They saw how electronics were just getting smaller and smaller. 00:09:10.084 --> 00:09:16.400 So, it wouldn't be long until they could make a remarkably small camcorder using these new tapes. 00:09:16.400 --> 00:09:24.553 In fact, just 2 years later in 1984, JVC would release the GR-C1, also known as the VideoMovie. 00:09:24.553 --> 00:09:31.191 This camcorder has been immortalized as the portable television studio that impresses Doc Brown so much in Back to the Future. 00:09:31.191 --> 00:09:35.761 It used a similarly shrunken head drum as the Magnavox unit we looked at earlier, 00:09:35.761 --> 00:09:41.641 allowing the entire tape transport to be barely any wider than the tiny cassette. 00:09:41.641 --> 00:09:44.215 There was still much to make smaller, though. 00:09:44.215 --> 00:09:50.727 In 1984, video imaging technology largely still relied on bulky tubes like this. 00:09:50.727 --> 00:09:58.285 That's one of the reasons so many early video cameras, including the VideoMovie, have the lens offset from the rest of the machine. 00:09:58.285 --> 00:10:04.522 A tube very much like this had to be behind the lens and  you needed to put it somewhere. 00:10:04.522 --> 00:10:10.345 But before long, the solid state image sensor on a chip known as the charge coupled device would take hold, 00:10:10.345 --> 00:10:15.151 which meant the camera part of the camcorder could get much smaller, too. 00:10:15.151 --> 00:10:22.656 And with electronics continuing to shrink, before long, we had truly palm-sized video cameras like this. 00:10:22.656 --> 00:10:30.093 Okay, palm-sized might be a bit of a stretch, but Panasonic was confident enough to call this a Palmcorder. 00:10:30.093 --> 00:10:39.534 This camcorder is from 1991, and it represents the standard form factor of compact camcorders from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. 00:10:39.534 --> 00:10:43.775 Eventually, we'd get flip out LCD screens as found in this JVC unit, 00:10:43.775 --> 00:10:49.682 but you can tell that other than just rearranging a few things, it's the same basic device. 00:10:49.760 --> 00:10:54.263 Everything is built around the tiny brick-like VCR at the core of it all. 00:10:54.263 --> 00:10:57.339 And though it is tiny, it's also fully featured. 00:10:57.339 --> 00:11:03.314 These will record in SLP mode, stretching recording time to an hour on the original TC-20 cassettes 00:11:03.314 --> 00:11:07.902 or 90 minutes on the by this point common TC-30. 00:11:07.902 --> 00:11:13.921 There were also 40 minute VHS-C cassettes which could hold two hours in SLP, 00:11:13.921 --> 00:11:20.243 but they had very very thin tape which made them prone to damage and thus they were pretty rare. 00:11:20.243 --> 00:11:23.265 Now, this video isn't really about these camcorders. 00:11:23.265 --> 00:11:25.822 It's about the cassettes they use. 00:11:25.822 --> 00:11:30.749 Camcorders will come up again because VHS-C did have some notable competition, 00:11:30.749 --> 00:11:36.076 but for now, I want to focus on all the clever things JVC did with this design. 00:11:36.076 --> 00:11:39.933 The job of any video cassette is really quite simple. 00:11:39.933 --> 00:11:45.905 A VHS cassette is just a plastic box which contains two reels of half-inch wide video tape. 00:11:45.905 --> 00:11:52.460 But it's a very standardized plastic box which holds that tape in a very specific way 00:11:52.460 --> 00:11:58.242 so that machines with very specific parts can grab hold of that tape, pull it out of the cassette shell, 00:11:58.242 --> 00:12:02.394 and thread it around a very specific series of magnetic tape heads and pinch rollers and junk 00:12:02.394 --> 00:12:06.928 so it can record or play back very specific signals on the tape. 00:12:06.928 --> 00:12:14.987 Plus, of course, the reels which hold the tape need to have standardized cogs so that very specific spindles inside the machine can turn them, 00:12:14.987 --> 00:12:20.156 required for fast forwarding and rewinding as well as taking up slack during playback. 00:12:20.625 --> 00:12:26.994 But the mechanism inside a VCR which drives the spindles that turn these cogs is somewhat bulky. 00:12:26.994 --> 00:12:34.697 And the inner diameter of each spindle takes up space in the center of the tape spool that could otherwise be tape. 00:12:34.697 --> 00:12:38.126 It's not much of a problem when ya got big ol' reels like this, 00:12:38.126 --> 00:12:42.148 but the point of VHS-C is to be not big. 00:12:42.148 --> 00:12:47.913 JVC solved both of those problems by simply getting rid of one of the spindles. 00:12:47.913 --> 00:12:54.135 The supply reel of the VHS-C cassette has a standard, though tiny, tape reel with a cog in its center. 00:12:54.135 --> 00:12:57.731 But the take-up reel is driven by a simple gear. 00:12:57.731 --> 00:13:01.670 In fact, that gear is the bottom of the take-up reel. 00:13:01.670 --> 00:13:07.567 This allowed the drive components of the transport  to be made smaller, which was good for making smaller cameras. 00:13:07.567 --> 00:13:11.369 And it meant the cassette could hold more tape. 00:13:11.369 --> 00:13:15.000 That might not be so obvious until you take one of these apart. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.554 The supply reel is actually slightly larger than the take-up reel. 00:13:19.554 --> 00:13:25.211 Notice the point where the two reels meet  is quite a ways to the right of the center line. 00:13:25.211 --> 00:13:31.990 Despite being different diameters though, the smaller take-up reel is able to hold on to the same amount of tape. 00:13:31.990 --> 00:13:38.455 That's because its inner diameter is much smaller thanks to ditching the standard cog and spindle arrangement. 00:13:38.455 --> 00:13:42.282 And if you're wondering why the supply reel doesn't use the same trick, 00:13:42.282 --> 00:13:46.231 well, that will become clear once we look closlier at the adapter. 00:13:46.231 --> 00:13:52.830 Like full-size cassettes, a locking mechanism is present to prevent the tape from unspooling when it's being transported. 00:13:52.830 --> 00:13:57.931 The spools are unlocked by a pin pressing up in the  bottom left corner of the cassette's underside. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:01.373 Though apparently the earliest cassettes didn't feature that. 00:14:01.373 --> 00:14:04.534 VHS-C cassettes also have a right protect tab. 00:14:04.534 --> 00:14:09.473 But unlike the full-size cassette's break-this-bit-of-plastic-off one and done scheme, 00:14:09.473 --> 00:14:14.209 it's usually a sliding plastic tab which can be moved back and forth. 00:14:14.209 --> 00:14:18.964 This made a lot of sense considering many people would hook their camcorder up to a VCR, 00:14:18.964 --> 00:14:22.731 dub whatever they recorded on vacation onto a full-size tape, 00:14:22.731 --> 00:14:26.950 and then erase the camcorder tape to use again on the next trip. 00:14:26.950 --> 00:14:29.469 However, it should be noted not all cassettes feature that. 00:14:29.469 --> 00:14:33.261 Some older ones have the same one and done, peel it off, you know the drill. 00:14:33.261 --> 00:14:35.778 But other than these relatively minor differences 00:14:35.778 --> 00:14:43.373 and a much, much flimsier protective cover over the tape which is extremely easy to break off, 00:14:43.373 --> 00:14:44.955 these are just VHS tapes. 00:14:44.955 --> 00:14:46.575 But tiny! 00:14:46.575 --> 00:14:51.110 And that gave them quite the compelling trick up their sleeves. 00:14:51.110 --> 00:14:57.671 The tiny little VCR in this tiny little camera is in fact recording onto these tiny little tapes 00:14:57.671 --> 00:15:01.750 in the exact same way as this ancient VCR. 00:15:01.750 --> 00:15:04.520 This is still VHS. 00:15:04.520 --> 00:15:13.561 And the VHS-C cassette was made ever so slightly thinner than a full-size cassette so that it could fit inside one of these. 00:15:13.561 --> 00:15:17.412 This, as you saw in the beginning, is a VHS-C adapter. 00:15:17.412 --> 00:15:20.089 And here's a very nostalgic sound for some of you: 00:15:20.089 --> 00:15:21.503 [plastic buzzy rattling] 00:15:21.503 --> 00:15:27.627 Simply plop the camcorder cassette into here, close the door, and it will, thanks to a double-A battery, 00:15:27.627 --> 00:15:34.151 automatically move these rollers up and out to pull some of the tape from the VHS-C cassette forward 00:15:34.151 --> 00:15:38.388 and into the position it would occupy in a full-size cassette. 00:15:38.388 --> 00:15:42.839 It even features a locking mechanism to keep the moving rollers in place. 00:15:42.839 --> 00:15:46.719 And it is now playable in any ordinary VCR. 00:15:46.719 --> 00:15:49.618 You could even record onto it if you wanted to. 00:15:49.618 --> 00:15:55.705 The adapter reveals why the supply reel still has the normal VHS cog design. 00:15:55.705 --> 00:16:00.607 Without a VHS-C cassette in here, this is just a hole. 00:16:00.607 --> 00:16:07.892 But with one in place, the full-size VCR can engage with the supply reel without ever knowing a difference. 00:16:07.892 --> 00:16:13.586 And to turn the take-up reel, the adapter uses its own cog to drive this small gear. 00:16:13.586 --> 00:16:18.466 That gear then engages with the take-up spool of the VHSC cassette. 00:16:18.466 --> 00:16:25.400 This thing truly turns these little cassettes into a big cassette and it just works! 00:16:25.400 --> 00:16:30.949 It even has a little feeler which engages with the write-protect slider of the VHS-C cassette. 00:16:30.949 --> 00:16:37.676 If you don't have it protected, the cassette presses on the feeler and the plastic square here stays flush with the cassette shell, 00:16:37.676 --> 00:16:40.924 signaling to a VCR that it can be recorded onto. 00:16:40.924 --> 00:16:47.845 But if I slide the tab over to the protected position, the feeler will extend into the void space which allows this to move inward, 00:16:47.845 --> 00:16:51.689 signaling to the VCR that the tape cannot be recorded to. 00:16:51.689 --> 00:16:59.398 This thing may just seem like a small party trick, but it's really the entire reason VHS-C exists in the first place. 00:16:59.398 --> 00:17:02.823 JVC didn't want to create a new standard. 00:17:02.823 --> 00:17:09.116 They just wanted to create a new form factor for the next generation of recording devices which they knew were coming, 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:13.275 while retaining compatibility with existing hardware. 00:17:13.275 --> 00:17:19.196 In a lot of ways, you could call this an ancestor of the microSD adapters you're probably all familiar with. 00:17:19.196 --> 00:17:21.384 Though, personally, I think it's a lot cooler. 00:17:21.384 --> 00:17:28.384 It even turns the take-up reel so the tape gracefully retracts into the cassette shell as the roller guides return to their original position. 00:17:28.901 --> 00:17:35.926 And just so you know, while motorized versions of these were pretty common, there were also manually powered ones, too. 00:17:35.926 --> 00:17:39.660 If I find the one I have lying around, you'll see B-roll of that now, 00:17:39.660 --> 00:17:44.745 though, sadly, this one doesn't have the cool write-protect slider feeler tab thing. 00:17:44.745 --> 00:17:48.307 Sony knew that with the VideoMovie and VHS-C, 00:17:48.307 --> 00:17:57.085 JVC had not only one-upped the Betamovie but had completely obliterated its chances of ever making Betamax popular. 00:17:57.085 --> 00:18:04.512 The one limitation of VHS-C, its recording time, was solved by full-size VHS camcorders like this, 00:18:04.512 --> 00:18:08.018 which were themselves barely larger than the Betamovie. 00:18:08.018 --> 00:18:09.988 The writing on the wall was clear enough. 00:18:09.988 --> 00:18:13.658 So, for camcorders, Sony decided to pull a Sony 00:18:13.658 --> 00:18:17.330 and just start over with a new format called Video8. 00:18:19.471 --> 00:18:21.994 Well, okay, it wasn't just Sony. 00:18:21.994 --> 00:18:27.243 Video8 started development in 1982 and JVC was actually part of that. 00:18:27.243 --> 00:18:28.631 So was Kodak! 00:18:28.631 --> 00:18:36.387 But Sony was the first company to release a camcorder which used this new tape format and it was released in 1985. 00:18:36.387 --> 00:18:41.870 Video8 was in many ways a more properly miniaturized videotape format. 00:18:41.870 --> 00:18:46.326 The 8 references the 8mm wide tape found in a Video8 cassette, 00:18:46.326 --> 00:18:52.193 and actually the format is more properly referred to simply as 8mm videotape. 00:18:52.193 --> 00:18:56.395 Video8 is technically a brand in much the same way LaserDisc is. 00:18:56.395 --> 00:19:02.001 And the compatibility mark for the format is just this eight in a box. 00:19:02.001 --> 00:19:03.874 Creative. 00:19:03.874 --> 00:19:11.443 Anyway, the narrower tape meant that the cassette could shave off a half centimeter in thickness compared to VHS-C. 00:19:11.443 --> 00:19:16.849 But it should be noted that length and widthwise the cassettes are a very similar size. 00:19:16.849 --> 00:19:24.693 In fact, VHS-C is slightly smaller in both width and height so really the main size difference was the thickness of the cassette 00:19:24.693 --> 00:19:30.689 which was only 5 mm less than VHS-C and so hardly relevant. 00:19:30.689 --> 00:19:34.419 For example, here's a Sony Handycam from 1995 00:19:34.419 --> 00:19:40.428 and you'll notice that it's pretty much the exact same size as the Panasonic Palmcorder. 00:19:40.428 --> 00:19:49.803 It is a little less tall thanks to a clever packaging trick of the format where the cassette actually ends up surrounding the video head drum slightly, 00:19:49.803 --> 00:19:54.537 but that trick requires a much more complicated eject mechanism. 00:19:54.537 --> 00:19:56.114 I mean, look at that. 00:19:56.290 --> 00:19:58.555 That's a bit much, isn't it? 00:19:58.555 --> 00:20:02.266 I don't mean to suggest all Video8 camcorders did this. 00:20:02.266 --> 00:20:05.618 Later models were able to simplify the loading and unloading process, 00:20:05.618 --> 00:20:12.707 but the point is the size difference in both the media and the camcorders themselves is not that significant. 00:20:12.707 --> 00:20:17.548 So why did I just call Video8 more properly miniaturized? 00:20:17.548 --> 00:20:23.982 Well, since Video8 wasn't limited to the recording techniques of a nearly 10-year-old videotape format, 00:20:23.982 --> 00:20:31.476 it can record a full two hours of video onto one of these  cassettes and at its highest recording quality, 00:20:31.520 --> 00:20:35.681 which was about the same as standard play mode of VHS. 00:20:35.681 --> 00:20:42.707 And it, too, offers a slower recording speed to stretch recording time with a sacrifice in image quality, 00:20:42.707 --> 00:20:47.712 meaning just one of these could hold 4 hours of video. 00:20:47.712 --> 00:20:52.566 This literally is a properly shrunken videotape and not just 00:20:52.566 --> 00:20:55.436 "VHS, but in a smaller box." 00:20:55.436 --> 00:20:58.608 And that's where the size difference becomes relevant. 00:20:58.608 --> 00:21:10.816 These two Video8 cassettes will hold 4 hours of video at their highest quality, whereas these two VHS-C cassettes will only hold a single hour of video at full quality. 00:21:10.816 --> 00:21:13.946 They can record 3 hours in SLP, of course, 00:21:13.946 --> 00:21:19.796 but Video8 could record 8 hours in its long play mode on the same two cassettes. 00:21:19.796 --> 00:21:28.569 No matter how you slice it, the thickness of VHS-C combined with their shorter recording time means they're gonna take up more room in the camera bag. 00:21:28.569 --> 00:21:31.972 Video8 also had a few technical advantages. 00:21:31.972 --> 00:21:38.567 VHS camcorders almost always used the linear audio track from the original VHS standard. 00:21:38.567 --> 00:21:41.011 This was, at best... 00:21:41.011 --> 00:21:45.800 fine, and in the slower recording modes, it sucked. 00:21:45.800 --> 00:21:50.380 Video8 stored frequency modulated audio alongside the video signal, 00:21:50.380 --> 00:21:55.327 giving it nearly perfect audio quality and thus a huge advantage. 00:21:55.327 --> 00:21:59.795 It even offered digital audio, though it was rarely implemented. 00:21:59.795 --> 00:22:07.243 Now, it should be noted that VHS Hi-Fi, which worked in a very similar way and had excellent fidelity even at its slowest recording speeds, 00:22:07.243 --> 00:22:10.610 was starting to become common by the '90s. 00:22:10.610 --> 00:22:16.581 But because of how VHS  cobbled that feature together using extra heads on the video drum, 00:22:16.581 --> 00:22:22.856 implementing it in compact camcorders was more technically difficult so it was pretty rare to see. 00:22:22.856 --> 00:22:30.869 And thus SLP recordings on VHS-C tapes would almost universally have potato-quality sound. 00:22:30.869 --> 00:22:35.333 So Video8 is clearly superior, right? 00:22:35.333 --> 00:22:38.921 Well, and here's the moral of this story: 00:22:38.921 --> 00:22:41.715 That depends on how your brain works. 00:22:41.715 --> 00:22:48.021 Put yourself in the shoes of someone shopping for a compact camcorder in, let's say, 1990. 00:22:48.021 --> 00:22:58.560 Beta is already the butt of jokes, and like most people with the money for a camcorder, you already have a VHS VCR at home permanently hooked up to your TV. 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:04.395 If you go for a Video8 camcorder, then you'll  get yourself a remarkably small camera 00:23:04.395 --> 00:23:12.226 which can record two hours of video onto a single cassette  at its highest video quality and with excellent sound. 00:23:12.226 --> 00:23:17.704 But it's a weird cassette that only exists for your camcorder. 00:23:17.704 --> 00:23:24.293 This means when you get back from vacation, you're going to have to go through the clunky process of hooking up the camcorder to your TV 00:23:24.293 --> 00:23:29.108 and dealing with its tiny little buttons just to watch whatever you just recorded. 00:23:29.108 --> 00:23:31.640 There's no getting around that. 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:33.981 Well, that's not completely fair. 00:23:33.981 --> 00:23:40.412 For one, it did come with this remote control to make  the process of watching your tapes slightly less annoying. 00:23:40.412 --> 00:23:45.770 And standalone VCRs for Video8 tapes did exist on the market. 00:23:45.770 --> 00:23:54.757 But the trouble was they never sold in meaningful numbers because nobody was going to buy one when they already had a perfectly good VHS VCR. 00:23:54.757 --> 00:24:01.463 In the context of the home, Video8 just doesn't offer any serious advantages over VHS. 00:24:01.463 --> 00:24:04.126 It is cool that the tapes are much smaller, 00:24:04.126 --> 00:24:09.040 but outside of really specific niches like in-flight entertainment systems, 00:24:09.040 --> 00:24:13.137 that just didn't matter all that much and Video8 was always going to be 00:24:13.137 --> 00:24:15.834 "that weird camcorder tape." 00:24:15.834 --> 00:24:19.893 You could make your life easier by hooking the camcorder up to your VCR 00:24:19.893 --> 00:24:25.805 and making a VHS copy of your Video8 tapes so you wouldn't have to get the camcorder out again. 00:24:25.805 --> 00:24:33.929 But that would be a second-generation copy with reduced image quality and, depending on your VCR, reduced sound quality, too. 00:24:33.929 --> 00:24:38.198 Not everybody's going to care about that, but it is something to note. 00:24:38.198 --> 00:24:45.754 If instead you chose VHS-C, well then you will be limited to a half hour of full quality recording per cassette. 00:24:45.754 --> 00:24:47.863 But when you're back from vacation, 00:24:47.863 --> 00:24:54.989 you just pop the tapes into the adapter which came with your camcorder and you can watch them immediately on your TV with no fuss at all. 00:24:54.989 --> 00:24:57.679 At worst, you'll have to rewind them. 00:24:57.679 --> 00:25:00.247 That was not a small selling point! 00:25:00.247 --> 00:25:04.499 VHS-C was still VHS and that mattered. 00:25:04.499 --> 00:25:09.745 There was already a huge ecosystem for that format which showed no signs of going away. 00:25:09.745 --> 00:25:16.265 And everyone you knew had a VCR which could play the tapes your camcorder made so long as you brought the adapter with you. 00:25:16.265 --> 00:25:21.388 Plus, you'd be watching the original tape with no generational quality loss. 00:25:21.388 --> 00:25:24.652 And remember, you're not actually limited to 30 minutes. 00:25:24.652 --> 00:25:29.928 SLP recording mode is always an option for situations where you need more time. 00:25:29.928 --> 00:25:34.917 It just means the video will look a little worse  and the audio will probably sound like this. 00:25:34.917 --> 00:25:39.733 [muffled, with a high-pitched background noise] It turns colors when you put it in the refrigerator‽‽ 00:25:39.733 --> 00:25:43.548 That's what I find so interesting about VHS-C. 00:25:43.548 --> 00:25:46.372 It was objectively a compromised product. 00:25:46.372 --> 00:25:54.395 Literally technology from the 1970s made compact purely  through getting rid of three quarters of the tape and calling it a day. 00:25:54.395 --> 00:26:02.181 Yet the very things that make it so compromised would go on to become a huge advantage in the niche that it filled. 00:26:02.181 --> 00:26:07.344 Choosing between Video8 and VHS-C basically boiled down to this: 00:26:07.344 --> 00:26:10.001 How are you planning to use your camcorder? 00:26:10.001 --> 00:26:11.710 Because here's the thing. 00:26:11.710 --> 00:26:19.072 For a lot of people, the 30 minute recording time  of VHS-C didn't feel like much of a limitation. 00:26:19.072 --> 00:26:24.067 Home video recordings are a whole different ballgame from recording TV or renting a movie. 00:26:24.067 --> 00:26:31.084 And the vast majority of home videos, even America's Funniest, are relatively short clips of stuff. 00:26:31.084 --> 00:26:33.030 I mean, this is still true to this day. 00:26:33.030 --> 00:26:38.691 How many of you are regularly recording videos on your phones that exceed a half hour? 00:26:38.691 --> 00:26:42.341 And back when you had to handhold a camera this bulky and heavy, 00:26:42.341 --> 00:26:46.673 millions of parents desperately wanted their  kid to hurry up and unwrap the presents already! 00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:48.362 Their arm's gettin' tired! 00:26:48.362 --> 00:26:51.317 Plus, while I'm barely old enough to know this, 00:26:51.317 --> 00:26:59.192 you'd struggle to get the battery to last through a half-hour of recording in practically any compact camcorder back in the day. 00:26:59.192 --> 00:27:04.949 I looked it up and the battery this Sony  camera came with could do 80 minutes at best. 00:27:04.949 --> 00:27:11.903 But if using its flip out LCD screen instead of the black and white viewfinder and recording clips rather than non-stop, 00:27:11.903 --> 00:27:14.824 two things most people were going to do, 00:27:14.824 --> 00:27:18.682 30 minutes of recording time was all Sony expected  you to get. 00:27:18.682 --> 00:27:23.686 So if you're going to need to swap the battery out after just a half-hour of recording, 00:27:23.686 --> 00:27:29.053 just what exactly is so problematic about needing to change the tape after a half-hour? 00:27:29.053 --> 00:27:33.531 With my sensibilities, Video8 would only be the obvious choice 00:27:33.531 --> 00:27:39.990 if you absolutely knew for sure that you'd be making continuous recordings longer than 30 minutes. 00:27:40.723 --> 00:27:41.903 Actually, strike that 00:27:41.903 --> 00:27:47.868 if you absolutely knew for sure that you'd be making continuous recordings longer than 90 minutes. 00:27:49.041 --> 00:27:50.371 Actually, strike that again, 00:27:50.371 --> 00:27:56.447 if you absolutely knew for sure that you'd *regularly* be making continuous recordings longer than 30 minutes 00:27:56.447 --> 00:28:01.516 AND were also entirely unwilling to sacrifice image or audio quality to do that. 00:28:03.159 --> 00:28:04.667 Actually, strike that again, 00:28:04.667 --> 00:28:10.086 if you absolutely knew for sure that you'd *regularly* be making recordings longer than 30 minutes 00:28:10.086 --> 00:28:14.844 which you *also* insisted must have the best audio quality you can get out of a... 00:28:14.844 --> 00:28:19.920 camcorder microphone AND where you had a big enough battery to actually accomplish that. 00:28:21.277 --> 00:28:22.814 That's the real kicker. 00:28:22.814 --> 00:28:26.956 The advantages of Video8 are clear and very real! 00:28:26.956 --> 00:28:32.257 But they're also mostly situational and aren't going to matter to everybody. 00:28:32.257 --> 00:28:38.288 And while VHS-C did have one clear disadvantage which was impossible to ignore, 00:28:38.288 --> 00:28:42.806 it was still the same VHS everybody already had. 00:28:42.806 --> 00:28:52.461 The fact that the tapes this camcorder made have been played in probably half a dozen VCRs over the years is both quite handy and impressive. 00:28:52.461 --> 00:28:56.306 And because of that, these two formats coexisted. 00:28:56.306 --> 00:28:59.457 We didn't end up with a second videotape format war. 00:28:59.457 --> 00:29:04.553 We just had two competing ideas for how camcorders should be. 00:29:04.553 --> 00:29:09.913 Folks who gravitated towards simplicity  and compatibility would tend to choose VHS-C. 00:29:09.913 --> 00:29:15.370 Pretty hard to beat "take tape from camera, put in adapter, watch on TV." 00:29:15.370 --> 00:29:22.970 For those who envisioned using the camera for longer recording sessions or who perhaps really didn't want to pack a half dozen tapes on their trip to Europe, 00:29:22.970 --> 00:29:24.628 there was Video8. 00:29:24.628 --> 00:29:26.892 There wasn't a right or wrong answer! 00:29:26.892 --> 00:29:29.349 There was just what made sense to you. 00:29:29.349 --> 00:29:32.843 And so sales between the two were always pretty comparable. 00:29:32.843 --> 00:29:40.182 As years passed, the 8mm format tended to see  more tech-forward users, which honestly makes a ton of sense. 00:29:40.182 --> 00:29:43.791 If you aren't expecting to play a camcorder's tapes in another device, 00:29:43.791 --> 00:29:49.153 it's easier to accept the format changing with each new camcorder you might purchase. 00:29:49.153 --> 00:29:50.879 And boy, did it change. 00:29:50.879 --> 00:29:55.703 Some of you are probably more familiar with the successor to Video8, Hi8. 00:29:55.703 --> 00:30:00.170 This revised format offered a resolution  bump by using a new tape formulation, 00:30:00.170 --> 00:30:09.347 which was impressive in itself, but also meant the quality  degradation problem when copying onto a standard VHS tape was practically solved. 00:30:09.347 --> 00:30:15.207 Hi8 would eventually go digital by sort of merging into the DV standard as Digital8. 00:30:15.207 --> 00:30:17.817 And then eventually we got miniDV camcorders. 00:30:17.817 --> 00:30:24.242 To the people who never cared for the ability to play the camcorder's tapes on a device which wasn't the camcorder, 00:30:24.242 --> 00:30:27.236 all of these changes never came with any downsides. 00:30:27.236 --> 00:30:34.784 And in the digital age, being able to offload raw data from the camcorder and onto your computer was pretty slick. 00:30:34.784 --> 00:30:41.928 But to all those out there who just wanted to watch the tapes using the VCR they've always had and will always use, 00:30:41.928 --> 00:30:45.060 VHS-C still had the upper hand. 00:30:45.060 --> 00:30:47.701 It just worked. 00:30:47.701 --> 00:30:51.966 And that meant it hung on for a lot longer than you might realize. 00:30:51.966 --> 00:31:01.254 This here is an S-VHS-C camcorder which I bought in 2006, basically the last gasp of VHS. 00:31:01.254 --> 00:31:03.196 Look, I was young and it was cheap. 00:31:03.196 --> 00:31:10.938 The S stands for super and it's the same basic idea as Hi8, but S-VHS never really got much traction. 00:31:10.938 --> 00:31:13.265 I should do a video on that someday. 00:31:13.265 --> 00:31:18.405 But anyway, the fact that this device was on sale well into the existence of YouTube 00:31:18.405 --> 00:31:22.762 shows that sometimes it's not what's technically best that matters. 00:31:22.762 --> 00:31:25.701 It's what fits in your brain the nicest. 00:31:25.701 --> 00:31:30.000 And the real trick is to figure that out for  yourself before the sales team does. 00:31:30.968 --> 00:31:33.645 ♫ pragmatically smooth jazz ♫ 00:31:34.560 --> 00:31:36.845 There's some airc... aircraft traffic. 00:31:36.845 --> 00:31:38.405 Airtraft craffic. 00:31:38.757 --> 00:31:39.761 [belches] 00:31:39.761 --> 00:31:44.675 ...start over with a brand new format called Video8. 00:31:44.675 --> 00:31:46.050 I'm holding it backwards. 00:31:46.725 --> 00:31:49.871 All you... that was bad. 00:31:49.871 --> 00:31:51.380 I... this, this... 00:31:51.380 --> 00:31:52.490 Wow. 00:31:53.429 --> 00:31:57.802 But the point of VHS-C... oh, I had that facing down? 00:31:57.802 --> 00:31:59.058 Well, screw me. 00:31:59.058 --> 00:32:03.325 It was only ever going to appeal to those who were... 00:32:03.325 --> 00:32:04.056 farts. 00:32:04.056 --> 00:32:06.926 Just pop the tape inside here... 00:32:06.926 --> 00:32:08.064 and I [bleeped] that up. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:11.426 Yeah, we're not going to do that. 00:32:11.426 --> 00:32:13.038 That's not going to be demonstrated live. 00:32:13.948 --> 00:32:15.588 Did you really just die on me? 00:32:15.588 --> 00:32:16.982 Seriously? 00:32:16.982 --> 00:32:19.156 Ugh, gravy. 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:30.761 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Other than that bit, the YouTube auto-captions have gotten TONS better. There's punctuation now! So I just assigned timings and proofread from what it did. Man, progress at YouTube? Astounding.