In our glorious age of streaming services, we never need to worry about recording anything ourselves - we just click “Continue Watching” and chill. But in the sad, not-too-distant past, you couldn’t always just open up Netflix and binge all nine seasons of Suits whenever you felt like it. Instead, if you missed your favorite soap, tough noogies. That is, that was the way things were until the magical VCR entered the American household. Out of the house? No problem! Just pop in a cassette and you’re golden. The only problem was that two companies wanted the glory of becoming the standard format on which people would record their shows - and neither was going down without a fight.
Daniel teaches Rob and Ray about the infamous format war between Sony’s Betamax systems and tapes, and JVC’s competitor, the VHS; how the history of recorded and broadcast video on recorded tape media took some strange twist and turns involving World War II and Bing Crosby; Rob’s and Ray’s favorite streaming services; the legal challenges Sony faced from studios terrified that home recording would be the death knell of movie distribution; and why home recorded media is no longer something consumers really seem to want or even have access to.
If you like what we’re doing, please support us on Patreon, or you can subscribe to our bonus content on Apple Podcasts. And we’d love to find even more listeners, so if you have time, please leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you have any other thoughts or feedback you’d like to share with us, we’d love to hear from you - feel free to email us or send us a message on social media.
TEAM
SOURCES
Podcasts
Articles
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.