It's that time.

Lock and load.

The Michael Berry Show is on the air.

Today's Michael Berry Show is sponsored by The Video Cassette Recorder.

Ampex introduced the quadriplex video tape professional broadcast standard format

with its Ampex VRX 1000 in the year 1956.

It became the world's first commercially successful video tape recorder using 2-inch wide tape.

But due to its high price of $50,000, that's $565,000 today.

It never stood a chance for in-home use.

Now, the Ampex VRX 1000 was a video tape recorder and should never be confused with the video cassette recorder.

That wasn't even invented until October of 1969 by Sony.

But Sony reached out to seven other manufacturers and they all agreed to work together on an industry standard.

What they developed was the Sony U-matic.

It was a TV, VCR combo that ran 1395 in 1971.

No, no, no, not $13.95.

$1395, that's over $10,000 in today's money, so you can see why they never took off for in-home use either.

It wasn't until the 1980s that the video recorder became popular for in-home use.

However, you had two types of VCR, the Betamax and the VHS.

The Betamax was considered to be a superior product, but the VHS was more affordable.

And video stores more commonly carried VHS tapes for sale and rental.

Thus, the Betamax just went away.

Not everyone liked the VCR.

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