I'll buy the suggestion that it originally meant "Victor Helical Scan". It makes perfect sense. It would have been changed to "Video Home System", because most consumers have no idea what "helical scan" means.
Because not everyone thinks in English. SECAM is an acronym for "Sequential Color with Memory" according to the Wikipedia, but I have also seen it as starting with System. That one came out ok, but the other well know French acronym, GSM stood for "Mobile System Group".
The later Global System for Mobiles is revisionist history as GSM was orginally designed as pan European (if you count the UK around 1980 as being a part of Europe). :-)
The US also tends to make acronyms from whom they came from, e.g. NTSC (National Television Standard(s) Committe), JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) and MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group).
VHS was successfull because Sony refused to lower prices below cost on units sold in the US. The EU countries threatened to put a quota (in addition to a very high tax) on VCR's if Sony and JVC did not restrict the number of VCRs they sold in the EU. Sony just reduced production, JVC shifted it to NTSC units and "dumped" them (sold below cost).
Geoff.
-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM
It
orginally
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I liked the original French trade protection measure , against imported VCRs. They didn't ban them, just made sure there was only one customs clearence house in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from ports/airports/rail or motorways.
VHS 'won' the UK market through supplying the largest rental companies at very low unit costs. In the UK, TV and later VCR rental was a popular option. Indeed my elderly next door neighbour still rents both - although she's paid for them several times over.
--
*Some days you\'re the dog, some days the hydrant.
Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Do you have to put a shilling in them to watch a program?
Geoff.
-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM
It's Moving Pictures Experts Group.
;-). Of course you still could since the 5p is based on the same coin.
I don't think the large rental companies did pay as you view.
So TV rental wasn't common in the US?
Perhaps the same as car leasing here - still not common with private owners.
--
*INDECISION is the key to FLEXIBILITY *
Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
ok, it was a joke.
No not at all. The main advantage of TV/VCR rental was the low taxes. Since you were renting the device, you paid tax on the rent (VAT?) and not on the unit.
No such taxes in the US.
Car leasing is popular because you don't have to sell the car at the end of the lease period to go out and buy a new one. If you plan on keeping the car a long time, it makes very little financial sense.
There is an old joke about the time to buy a new car is when the ashtrays are full.
Geoff.
-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM
Ampex was developing an early VCR technology that they sold to the Japanese when they decided not to pursue the home video market.
Cartrivision.
-- You can\'t have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!
In that case a lot of people would only own one vehicle their whole lives.
-- You can\'t have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!
Now yes, but back in the 1950's and 1960's it was very "in" to smoke. I was watching the season 1 Twilight Zone (1959) shows and almost all of them had people smoking in them.
I did not smoke, which in the late 1960's made me a "social cripple".
Geoff.
-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM
I have never smoked, and always thought that they looked like fools in movies & on TV. Even cartoon characters pushed tobacco products.
-- You can\'t have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!
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