Before VHS and DVD, how did people watch movies at home?

Question

What was the format of home video back then?

Answer 1

Beta was the first popular home video system. There was U-matic video tape before that.

Also, of the more popular formats, Beta came first, the following year (1976) VHS came out, and Laser Discs two years after that.

It took Beta and VHS to make home video popular.

A good book on that period, thats out of print now, is Fast Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, and the Onslaught of the Vcr (Hardcover) by James Lardner (Author)

Answer 2

We waited until it came on TV.

Answer 3

Actually, Shawn, reel-to-reel was just an audio format (I had a Sony to play my KISS albums).  VHS and Beta came out about the same time, and laser discs came out between VCR's (VHS or Beta) and DVD's.  Strangely enough, laser disc movies came out before cd-audio.  Now we've got DVR's of course.

Before these devices, in order to watch movies at home you had to have a pay channel, like HBO.  But before HBO there was a service available in L.A. called "Z"tv.  Came out before cable, it required you to put a special round antennae on your roof connected to a receiver/descrambler box.  

Before that, the old C-band satelite dishes.  If you've not seen one before, they're about 15-foot across and the dish is made out of a metal mesh.  When they first came out, they were very pricy, but didn't require any "box" because the stations didn't start scrambling their signals until a lot of people started buying the dishes.  By the time they started scrambling the signals, VCR's had been out for a while, but BlockBuster was still years away from appearing.  

Back then the place to rent movies was The Warehouse.  It was a record store that jumped on the VHS bandwagon.  They were'nt very cheap, and didn't buy tons of copies so it usually took you a couple weeks to get the video you wanted.

Before all that, the only way to watch movies at home was on a projector (not LCD, but one you actuallly load a reel of film into).  Mostly these were intended for home movies, but you could actually buy movies on film, too.  There was no sound.  But I remember my parents would pull the old projector out for family get togethers and they would set it up in a room for all the kids to watch while the parents drank and partied.  I think we had Disney movies... Swiss Family Robinson or something like that.  The older kids would take turns reading the subtitles since there was no sound.  

Before that?  Watever happened to be on T.V.  I lived in Los Angeles.  We were able to get a whopping 7 channels.  Most cities were lucky to have 2.  And you watched whatever was on.

Before that?  Radio.

Answer 4

cogenerate, i remember watching cartoons on an old projector.. reel to reel.  that was in the 70's... before we had the betamax.

lol.. edited to say that i thought it was reel to reel because one reel empties on the projector.  but aye you're right. reel to reel is audio

Answer 5

for the longest time, home movies were on reel-to-reel machines like a movie theater, between this and VHS was laser discs, an early version of DVDs on a LP sized disc that had to be turned over to watch a 2 hour movie but the image was as good a quality as modern HD