A Golden Anniversary.

The VCR turned 50 this week, with the original machine being released by Ampex on April 14, 1956 at a trade show. If you'd like to read more about it, check out this article from TVTechnology.com.

Since that day, we've seen technology progress to video cassettes like Betamax and VHS, and progress on to DVDs and hard-disk based recorders. Soon we'll see HD-DVD and Blu-ray disks. Today, the flagships of video recording are the Sony SRW-5500 HDCAM SR recorder with a list price of ONLY $98,000 USD or the Panasonic AJ-HD3700B D-5 HD recorder for $99,000 USD list. A two-hour tape for the Panasonic deck is nearly $300.

Here's your fun fact for the day: The Sony model mentioned above is a descendent of the Betamax tape. When the Betamax "lost" to VHS for the consumer market, it moved into the professional market. Business was okay with spending more for better quality. The Betamax tape became Betacam, then Betacam SP, Betacam SX, and eventually progressed onto HDCAM SR.

So 50 years after the birth of the video tape machine, we have high-definition video recorders, DVD players, and even a few VHS decks sitting around...and so many people STILL don't know how to keep the clock from blinking 12:00. :-)