omg. I never had this as a kid. I guess this might be from the late 50s 60? that lady in the red dress looks like my Grandma when she was younger!!!!!!!!!! OMG. LOL Cool info tho thanks
Fascinating......would love to know exactly what year this is from. I suppose these gigantic cartridge's came first, & quickly 8-track & cassettes took over.......
Wow. This video was hot. I love the style. And it's really cool to see the design of the stereos. Also, I had no idea that that's what cassettes looked like when they first came out. They're huge!
When was the last time they actually made an ad that contained sensible content, explained the product and did not treat their customers like morons ?
That music selection we hear several times throughout the demo is "Charmaine" as performed by the Living Strings. I happen to have this album on a RCA Camden recording on open reel tape that I bought around 1959.
I love looking back from once we came. Now I can talk, take pictures, surf the web, listen to music or even watch "TV" on my phone which is smaller than my hand. If it wasn't for this stuff, we'd have never made it where we are. Gotta love it!
4:48: Pretty impressive; even in the '80s you had to go out of your way to find auto-reverse boom-boxes and car decks. Phillips pretty much took all this technology and shrank it a bit. RCA didn't sell a lot of seriously high-end stuff, but they advanced technology more than most companies of that time.
When was this demo film produced? Looks like the late 1950s. What was known first as the Compact Cassette, which those of us who are Generation X were familiar with when listening to music on our boom boxes and Walkmans, was introduced in the late 1960s.
These look almost like oversized cassette tapes. Does anyone know more about them and why they didn't catch on?
Another RCA idea that blew up on the pad in the late 70's and early 80's was the early videodisc SelectaVision system, groove-skipping monstrosities which offered a very limited selection of titles, besides. To this day, you can still spot SelectaVison systems at yard sales all across this great nation of ours.
I grew up around 8 tracks, vinyl, compact cassette, videotapes. I never got into the short lived LaserDisc or Beta but I do have to admit. The music sound better back then. mp3 is just another way of getting more music onto a device and if you notice, the lower the birate, the worse the music is. You didnt have that problem with Reel to Reels, 8 tracks or compact cassettes (especially when the chrome ones came out)
I can imagine taking a laptop, blackberry, and an mp3 player back to their engineering headquarters in a time machine and show it to them. They'd have a heart attack! They would probably take you to the pentagon and ask you where your space ship is.
The real truth is these tapes actually sounds better than ipods, ipods play compressed music and you miss the full fidelity. Unfortunately, most people today are sheep and believe what they are told. If you took someone from back then and played ipod for them, they would be impressed by the size, but would be unimpressed by the lack of fidelity.
@JENDALL714 yes tapes sound better than ipods but lps sound way better than tapes do. tapes Execpt for reel to reel tape lack the frequency range of a good lp impairing sound quality. but still analoge is the best format for music
@JENDALL714 I've done an audio comparison to loss-less formats. The difference is not possible to hear in choral music, which IMHO is a litmus test for fidelity. Also, I have listened to both cassette and records growing up; they definitely sound worse than a modern mp3 player. So sorry. Unless you have super human hearing, you won't notice any difference between these tapes and music you buy off iTunes or in my case Android Music Market.
@theraiderrobert Depends on high-quality recording source, which type of headphones/speaker system, file formats, etc. I also listened to records and tapes growing up but they were all definitely used or plain cheap, so I personally wouldn't gauge off that alone. Also, modern ears have been trained to appreciate digital sound, whereas analog sound is just a whole different animal.
@JENDALL714 Agree, also.. when I listen to tape vinyl or CD, and then compare it to those Mp3's and similair formats I almost always hear a very high noise which could be compared to a constant bleep. And in some songs you can hear a kind of noisy"effect" which I can't describe. Happens mostly when and volume drops or with classical instrument.
how fuckin boring does that look. sittin on those hard chairs with you freshly pressed family in front of an ugly box lol no shit a AND b... what will they think of next
So easy even a woman can do it. I bet the announcer wanted the ground to open and swallow him up when started on about "for ease of use one side of this new fangled cartridge is labelled A whilst...er....the other side...God get me out of having to say the end of this sentence please....is labelled....PLEASE let me DIE NOOOOW!....B!!!" I laffed like a drain.
Wow this modern technology sure is swell!!! I better get down to my RCA Victor dealer and get one today. I'll just put it on my revolving credit Charge-A-Plate. Boy oh boy, I just know that this is going to enhance not only my music listening enjoyment, but wife Helen and kids Bobby and Sue are sure going to take to this. Thanks RCA Victor for making our lives more modern!!!
As much as this is a fascinating bit of tech, I gotta say I love the cookie-cutter nuclear family units sitting on the couch grinning on cue at the end. Dad with his pipe and enough hair cream to lube a jet engine, mother somehow out of the kitchen, and little Lulu with her dress worn all day long even in the house.
Jesus... those cassettes were HUGE! If I had the room and living quarters for them, I'd start collecting for sure. For now, I'm getting back into compact cassette tapes. Amazingly, there's actually a record company that still sells tapes online. Crazy!
Thank you so much for this upload. An iPod can only deliver so much good sound and appreciation...
Those cartridges were the size of a book. Yes, it flopped in 1958. Philips introduced the compact cassette just a few years later which became the standard.
too bad this didnt take off. the cassettes that were more commonly used have thinner tape, slower reel speed, (i think somewhere around 1 3/8 IPS) and narrower audio tracks.
My father have a storage locker full of tapes; VHS, Beta format, cassettes, super 8, and 8-track tapes from the '60's & 70's! He still has the the players or he would get rid of them! LOL
I sure was impressed by RCA's aggressive leadership shown in this informative seven and three-quarter minute long video. I think I'll go buy a tape player so I can enjoy music in my living room while smoking a pipe with my picturesque 50's-era family.
Oh my, I recall these but I was very young. I recall 8 tracks much better. I think these were replaced quickly by 8 tracks but I could be wrong. Oh now I feel old....
yes but not always forward. reel to reel has better sound than cassette's, records, cd's, mp3's, and bassically everything except 35 mil film. that is due to the extremly hight bit rate from reel to reel.
..and you can you still do editing with these as you can do with open reel. RCA had it pretty well with this format, but the Philips Cassette format killed this RCA format .. as did with JVC's Laserdisc killed RCA's CED videodisc.
Never seen that type before. I owne a small reel-to-reel in the late '60s with a round clip-on microphone. Thinks the tape was about 1/4 " wide on a 3" reel. My Next unit was a cassette. Owned only one 8-track tape purchased used. Thought they were ugly.
I remember the huge Sony reel-to-reel audio tapes. And videotape recorders. So bulky to carry around and weighed a ton! I still like reel to reel stuff though.
RCA had it right on this before Philips came out with the compact cassette. This RCA version reminds me of the Sony Elcassette which actually had a short life.
i noticed several times on letterman and conan o'brien's show they held up and vinyl albums for their music acts. and that was just this week. i wondered about that.
I have over 3 weeks of non-stop MP3s on my external hard drive. HAHA but you know what? It's just not the same as it used to be. I will never get rid of my vinyl and/or reels.
You know what? I didn't know that either. I guess that this was the first "tape-shaped" tape. As years and technology goes on things get made smaller. I mean, how small is a 8GB or 16 GB MicroSD Card that can fit into a cellphone??
This system was vastly superior to the lowly Phillips cassette which was developed for dictation machines and reporters. However 3-3/4 ips was still too slow on even the best reel machines (Tandberg, Ampex) to offer adequate high frequency response. The system was down 3-5 db already at 10KHZ and s/n ratio while better than cassette..was still poor by hi-fi standards. It offered alot more potential than cassette but failed due to size and proprietary format. Open reel was/is still my favorite.
Wow, that tape and the machine is ahead of itz tape because of the braking system like on a VHS tape and the auto-reverse feature. Itz very rare seeing a tape recorder only Hifi cabinet. Usually, there a record player in those. Those portables put out a lot of sound just like the cabinet types. They don't make 'em that good anymore.
Part of the problem was also Sarnoff's personality. He lost on the 45 rpm (CBS LP's were more popular), lost on FM (Armstrong's widow eventually won), lost on Color TV (Columbia again) and was determined to find a medium he could control 100% by demanding huge licensing fees and and forcing other mfg's to use RCA built transports. Moreover they ignored the growing auto sound market. Philips asked for minimal fees and let anyone build transports, promoting portability for a new generation.
amen to radiorob1. every rca thing i have reminds me of e,h, armstrong. its a shame that few people know of this mans greatness!! do some research folks !! i have a zenith with both the old and today's fm bands and, in the back proudly says the amstrong system!! rca was a good co. but sarnoff was a king in his castle!! loved the vid!! amazing how the tech. has progressed !!!!
That is an interesting video! This offer sounded SO perfect....but reel to reels were(and still are,compared to digital) much better than the sound tape cartrige recorders!
Can't really understand why this product failed. Even got more features than the compact cassettes. The developers had really thought about everything. Was totally groundbraking when it came. A masterpiece of engineering it appears but I haven't tried them myself after all.
Ironic: The worst of all home playback mediums were the various incarnations of analog tape, but the BEST medium for use in professional recording, even today, is tape.
Nothing, even digital, compares to the fidelity of a 2" master on a glorious Studer or Otari deck at 30ips. Even 1"/15ips has a cool, warm tone. But every home version of tape has simply been awful.
@mig189189189 DAT was a good mix-down medium for it's time, but it was a digital format. Even pro DAT machines with outstanding D/A were not abundant, to say nothing of home versions. DCC on the other hand was a disaster from it's inception; mediocre sound quality and clumsy playback. It's only advantage is that it (along with MiniDisc) allowed for convenient home digital dubbing, but faced competition from superior CD-R, and was rendered totally obsolete by the dawn of the Mp3 era.
@freakybuzz Tape does NOT have higher fidelity than digital. That's just not possible by the medium. Digital has a more linear frequency response and a larger frequency range. Tape is, however, a lot more musical sounding and thus prefered over digital by many sound engineers and musicians. I have myself a Tascam BR-20 running 1/4" 456 tape which I use for saturation and tape compression. Cant do that digitally! Cassettes were always a compromise in audio quality, but the price is more important
@soundiscomforting Digital is (theoretically) linear in response. If that was the only virtue by which to judge a recording medium, so be it. But frequency fidelity in digital PCM is of course dictated by sample rate (Nyquist/Shannon), which can be prone to jitter if not synced to a good clock, not to mention the vagrancy of sub-par A/D/A conversion which is ubiquitous on most digital gear this side of BIG BUCK$. Analog has errors too, but--as you mentioned-- is a more musical format overall.
Wow watch out 60's people big scam comin your way. I'll bet this thing made a loud HISSSSSSS sound as it played. I'll also bet you got a lot of practice at taking those two screws out to repair the tape. ALSO anyone remember how the regular sized tapes would somehow get of track and the other side of the tape
omg. I never had this as a kid. I guess this might be from the late 50s 60? that lady in the red dress looks like my Grandma when she was younger!!!!!!!!!! OMG. LOL Cool info tho thanks
disneyfanjilly1 3 weeks ago
Fascinating......would love to know exactly what year this is from. I suppose these gigantic cartridge's came first, & quickly 8-track & cassettes took over.......
jeffthrow6892 4 weeks ago
/watch?v=5yZI230yHnQ
dontleavehimfaceless 1 month ago
7:09 - Now ready to move the tape recorder out of the closet and into the living room where it belongs. LOL!!!!!
richardgarrison 1 month ago
Looks like a forerunner to the 8 track tape. Problem is this stuff sounded like shit compared to records and open reel tape.
socksumi 1 month ago
I keep expecting the video to cut off and show the New Vegas wasteland.
FlyingPiranha92 2 months ago
If you're one of the actors or the narrator in this video, then please speak now or forever hold your nose.
rsp196607 2 months ago
Oh, crud. I just read your description. You already said they're huge.
liwowoli 2 months ago
Wow. This video was hot. I love the style. And it's really cool to see the design of the stereos. Also, I had no idea that that's what cassettes looked like when they first came out. They're huge!
liwowoli 2 months ago
1:55 I have never seen a tape like that.
DoReMiForever 2 months ago
@Kristurentroende I know the normal cassette tape. Seriously, that thing is gigantic.
GaolisVideoLog 4 months ago
When was the last time they actually made an ad that contained sensible content, explained the product and did not treat their customers like morons ?
djb3500 4 months ago
@djb3500 This ad would have been shown before a movie at the cinema. Not on TV. When ads hit TV screens is when they started to get dumber and dumber
boogiefever1985 3 months ago
That music selection we hear several times throughout the demo is "Charmaine" as performed by the Living Strings. I happen to have this album on a RCA Camden recording on open reel tape that I bought around 1959.
basspig 4 months ago in playlist More videos from Ziptrivia
@basspig Er, it actually sounds like "Diane" to me!
PeteLindup 1 month ago
Back then, we always wore a suit and tie to listen to music at home.
CatholicBoy1957 5 months ago 11
@CatholicBoy1957 lol "get ready kids we listening to music! put on your sunday best!" I probably would have liked that xD I like dressing up smart.
JaemzStar 5 months ago 2
@CatholicBoy1957 it was some classy stuff back then XD
t0xictreasure 4 months ago
@CatholicBoy1957 these were only owned by the rich so they did not dress like slobs like us XD
force311999 2 months ago
I love looking back from once we came. Now I can talk, take pictures, surf the web, listen to music or even watch "TV" on my phone which is smaller than my hand. If it wasn't for this stuff, we'd have never made it where we are. Gotta love it!
4gasem 5 months ago
"A fast reverse" XD
jebug29 5 months ago
I have one of those RCA tape decks that play those huge tapes... and it still works! God bless lost formats ;~)
howardale1 6 months ago
Where's the power cords and speaker wires???
blackhrholdenute 6 months ago
that little girl looks weird in that dress
andrespereyda 6 months ago
whats the walkman look like?????
poptat1 6 months ago
4:48: Pretty impressive; even in the '80s you had to go out of your way to find auto-reverse boom-boxes and car decks. Phillips pretty much took all this technology and shrank it a bit. RCA didn't sell a lot of seriously high-end stuff, but they advanced technology more than most companies of that time.
5:44 Hmmm, I would never have guessed!
lrd9999 7 months ago
First time I'm seeing a cassette tape like that!!!
TheJaHa5 8 months ago
is that a really tiny woman?
Rick6315 8 months ago
When was this demo film produced? Looks like the late 1950s. What was known first as the Compact Cassette, which those of us who are Generation X were familiar with when listening to music on our boom boxes and Walkmans, was introduced in the late 1960s.
collegeman1988 8 months ago
OOH...AHH...sooo 1950s!
Going out now to my RCA dealer to purchase! ;-)
riceboy1701e 8 months ago
too corny for me.......typical of the yester years in America
supremes1964 8 months ago
These look almost like oversized cassette tapes. Does anyone know more about them and why they didn't catch on?
Another RCA idea that blew up on the pad in the late 70's and early 80's was the early videodisc SelectaVision system, groove-skipping monstrosities which offered a very limited selection of titles, besides. To this day, you can still spot SelectaVison systems at yard sales all across this great nation of ours.
librarybob1958 9 months ago
Well now, how are tapes measuring up to records today?
toasteroven427 9 months ago
Jam Handy reminds you to keep your preserves in a convenient location.
jcice3 9 months ago
I grew up around 8 tracks, vinyl, compact cassette, videotapes. I never got into the short lived LaserDisc or Beta but I do have to admit. The music sound better back then. mp3 is just another way of getting more music onto a device and if you notice, the lower the birate, the worse the music is. You didnt have that problem with Reel to Reels, 8 tracks or compact cassettes (especially when the chrome ones came out)
MrKrime 9 months ago
I can imagine taking a laptop, blackberry, and an mp3 player back to their engineering headquarters in a time machine and show it to them. They'd have a heart attack! They would probably take you to the pentagon and ask you where your space ship is.
nobux60 9 months ago 3
@nobux60 Or burn you for being a witch! LOL
trollop19 8 months ago
@nobux60 I'd trade a laptop for a C64, a BlackBerry for a WE500, and an MP3 Player for a reel-to-reel in a heartbeat!
vantageIIx 8 months ago
@vantageIIx Me too.
freethoughtmusic 8 months ago
anit no way id trash my records
outlawcountryman 9 months ago
seriously.. "how did she do it?"
1337BananaL33TVostok 10 months ago
Hell I'd rather get that than a stinking ipod anyday.
Wow! An ipod!
Can you record with it?
Does it have built in speakers?
Can you at least use the bulky earphones with it?
What!? No, no, and the port is too small? Then it doesn't suit my needs.
Morahman7vnNo2 10 months ago
Here is the mid-century era at it finest! Glamorous and modern, take it for its good, bad, and ugly, but the good was really good!!!
TheFRiNgEguitars 11 months ago
The real truth is these tapes actually sounds better than ipods, ipods play compressed music and you miss the full fidelity. Unfortunately, most people today are sheep and believe what they are told. If you took someone from back then and played ipod for them, they would be impressed by the size, but would be unimpressed by the lack of fidelity.
JENDALL714 11 months ago 11
@JENDALL714 yes tapes sound better than ipods but lps sound way better than tapes do. tapes Execpt for reel to reel tape lack the frequency range of a good lp impairing sound quality. but still analoge is the best format for music
dcp10200 7 months ago 2
@JENDALL714 I've done an audio comparison to loss-less formats. The difference is not possible to hear in choral music, which IMHO is a litmus test for fidelity. Also, I have listened to both cassette and records growing up; they definitely sound worse than a modern mp3 player. So sorry. Unless you have super human hearing, you won't notice any difference between these tapes and music you buy off iTunes or in my case Android Music Market.
theraiderrobert 1 month ago
@theraiderrobert Depends on high-quality recording source, which type of headphones/speaker system, file formats, etc. I also listened to records and tapes growing up but they were all definitely used or plain cheap, so I personally wouldn't gauge off that alone. Also, modern ears have been trained to appreciate digital sound, whereas analog sound is just a whole different animal.
TheMorphite 3 weeks ago
@JENDALL714
nah not really
flexxo1000 1 month ago
@JENDALL714 Agree, also.. when I listen to tape vinyl or CD, and then compare it to those Mp3's and similair formats I almost always hear a very high noise which could be compared to a constant bleep. And in some songs you can hear a kind of noisy"effect" which I can't describe. Happens mostly when and volume drops or with classical instrument.
RaymundoMazz 2 weeks ago
how fuckin boring does that look. sittin on those hard chairs with you freshly pressed family in front of an ugly box lol no shit a AND b... what will they think of next
TWOhits6 11 months ago
Hey, it's produced by Jam Handy whose short film were frequent subject of old Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.
guruatomik 11 months ago
I think I just fell asleep.
chalklounge 11 months ago
get an ipod
loggerjock 1 year ago
So easy even a woman can do it. I bet the announcer wanted the ground to open and swallow him up when started on about "for ease of use one side of this new fangled cartridge is labelled A whilst...er....the other side...God get me out of having to say the end of this sentence please....is labelled....PLEASE let me DIE NOOOOW!....B!!!" I laffed like a drain.
MarkPMus 1 year ago
Wow this modern technology sure is swell!!! I better get down to my RCA Victor dealer and get one today. I'll just put it on my revolving credit Charge-A-Plate. Boy oh boy, I just know that this is going to enhance not only my music listening enjoyment, but wife Helen and kids Bobby and Sue are sure going to take to this. Thanks RCA Victor for making our lives more modern!!!
willyboi708 1 year ago
Back when things were still made in America...
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago 2
As much as this is a fascinating bit of tech, I gotta say I love the cookie-cutter nuclear family units sitting on the couch grinning on cue at the end. Dad with his pipe and enough hair cream to lube a jet engine, mother somehow out of the kitchen, and little Lulu with her dress worn all day long even in the house.
talshiarr 1 year ago
nice
urbanexplorer1996 1 year ago
Sweet..auto-reverse & auto-stop..in the 50's! Here I thought those were marvels of the late 70's and early 80's.
aRxMainChannel 1 year ago
Jesus... those cassettes were HUGE! If I had the room and living quarters for them, I'd start collecting for sure. For now, I'm getting back into compact cassette tapes. Amazingly, there's actually a record company that still sells tapes online. Crazy!
Thank you so much for this upload. An iPod can only deliver so much good sound and appreciation...
BlooditeDrakan 1 year ago
I prefer vinyl than those HUGE cassettes!!!!!!......... Dont let the Vinyl die!!!
45gabo 1 year ago 2
Those cartridges were the size of a book. Yes, it flopped in 1958. Philips introduced the compact cassette just a few years later which became the standard.
steelbeard1 1 year ago
too bad this didnt take off. the cassettes that were more commonly used have thinner tape, slower reel speed, (i think somewhere around 1 3/8 IPS) and narrower audio tracks.
pastryhat 1 year ago
@pastryhat yeah, probably used the same 1/4" tape that the reel to reels used, which sounded great.
rockabillycat1954 1 year ago
RECORDS ARE STILL ALIVE!!!
ollieroks 1 year ago 2
ooo fancy polystyrene casing
kuza261 1 year ago
Very interesting. I had no idea the cassette was developed so early. This version obviously never took off. Any theories as to why it flopped?
paleblue498 1 year ago
there is one thing, cell phones, mp3,'s ipod's , and all that crap will never stand up to the record, reels, and cartrages.
thereelmaster 1 year ago
there is one thing, cell phones, mp3, ipods , and all that crap will never standup to the recorder, rees, and cartrages.
thereelmaster 1 year ago
I want this for christmas , i am sick of my ipod :(
Gerogiancounty 1 year ago
They had me sold at "monaural recording"
c8udyp 1 year ago
I love antique audio equipment. The digital era sucks. Pretty soon almost everything will be hand held.
dudesons441 1 year ago
"The first truly sensible approach to tape." HA!
DivineTrash81 1 year ago
it is called 1/4 track
analyzingfunny 1 year ago
Wow, That Cassette Tape is as bick as a BRICK! lol.
CoolConejo 1 year ago
My father have a storage locker full of tapes; VHS, Beta format, cassettes, super 8, and 8-track tapes from the '60's & 70's! He still has the the players or he would get rid of them! LOL
IkilledColMustard 1 year ago
@IkilledColMustard I thought you were gonna say you discovered PORN on all of those tapes he had....That would be funny !!!
getchasumm 1 year ago
I sure was impressed by RCA's aggressive leadership shown in this informative seven and three-quarter minute long video. I think I'll go buy a tape player so I can enjoy music in my living room while smoking a pipe with my picturesque 50's-era family.
NTG56 1 year ago 3
How long did this format last?
TheMaxx111 1 year ago
Boy, they sure liked their fractions back then.
lemonrind 1 year ago 49
@lemonrind Your not "Half" wrong!
juglearl 11 months ago
@lemonrind The metric system was for commies.
BGP87BK 2 months ago
so why did this die and get stuck with an 8 tracks for years? I dont get it, it has reverse and fast forward why did it die?
coldplays179 1 year ago
Oh, did we forget to mention about cleaning the heads, adjusting the heads, demagnitizing the heads...
tripjet999 1 year ago
Trash the Tapes now we have CD's, Trash the CD's now we have MP3's, Trash the Mp3's now we have Ipods. Whats next?
KriptoDie 1 year ago
@KriptoDie Trash the IPods. Use vinyls :D
lamersoft 1 year ago
@lamersoft hahaha that's what I was about to say.... I only use my ipod and vinyls.
JohnnyLovelyOfficial 1 year ago
@KriptoDie
trash the map now ! we have in car navigation !
trash the DVD now we have blue ray
trash our genitals now ! we have clone reproduction! :D
grantourismo0109 1 year ago
@KriptoDie - Great comment man! They make us buy over and over again the same music in diferent ways!
mig189189189 1 year ago
DAMN!! LOL
skywatcher75 1 year ago
Why were they short-lived? Maybe it's why compact cassettes were more popular.
Rlotpir1972 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
The hunky dory 50's...how funny!!
darthslash77 1 year ago
Holly #$%^, thats a big cassette!
Packrat14 1 year ago 35
@Packrat14 #$%^ = fuck, and it's holy, not holly-berry
andrespereyda 6 months ago
they're gigantic
rhpsfan1929 1 year ago
Can I save this video on floppy disks?
Renegen1 1 year ago
From wax cylinders to flash drives - time really is flying.
I find it so weird that sometimes kids have never played a 12" LP - I must be getting old! : )
rennyminou 1 year ago
@rennyminou
but hey, don't give up hope yet. Me and a few kids at my high school listen to and collect records.
themadhacker2 1 year ago
@rennyminou many Adults have never played a 12'' lp...... let alone kids :-/
neverfearchrisishere 1 year ago
I can't imagine living in this era. No one even speaks this way anymore...
stads24 1 year ago 3
@stads24 I do. Don't let school standards keep you down! In intellect.
Morahman7vnNo2 10 months ago
A cool machine,a decade ahead of the Sony-Phillips compact cassette.
Htos1 1 year ago
Interesting. Those RCA tape cartridges are a lot larger from the ones I used to play in the 70s and 80s.
reneecalling 1 year ago
those tapes have better quality than cds and the wife is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo UGLY!!!!!!!!!!!
geekforlifevandc 1 year ago
lol thnk about today what do families do now sit infront 40 inch screen watching movies on bluray players back then listening to music on a bed
geekforlifevandc 1 year ago
what year was this
VJTOMYAZ 1 year ago
Oh my, I recall these but I was very young. I recall 8 tracks much better. I think these were replaced quickly by 8 tracks but I could be wrong. Oh now I feel old....
shananagans5 1 year ago
Reel to reel, 8-track and compact cassette were pretty much known, but I,ve never seen this format before this system must have been short lived
KevinRexrod 2 years ago
It was gone by the early 80's
Hotshotter3000 2 years ago
its not as crappy as blueray
apache1234657 2 years ago
what a time to be alive
phantazmo 2 years ago
holy crap, those cassettes were huge!! technology is amazing. it progresses so fast...
951258tike22 2 years ago 2
neet, u dont even need to flip the tape over, it outomatically plays in the other direction, u dont ever need to rewind.
1337
thisizntmikey 2 years ago
yes but not always forward. reel to reel has better sound than cassette's, records, cd's, mp3's, and bassically everything except 35 mil film. that is due to the extremly hight bit rate from reel to reel.
btown2011 2 years ago
oh, i completely agree with that, high fidelity sound doesnt really exist anymore.
951258tike22 2 years ago
i dont think record was that great, you had to clean it, the bit rate is lower than cd too.
btown2011 2 years ago
Reel to Reel and and cassette tape was analoge and therefore it had no digital bits and no bit rate.
arcanacelestia 2 years ago
progresses into the wrong direction!!! everything sounded better back then!!!
btown2011 2 years ago
That a big cassette you need a big Sony Walkman.
masterlee123 2 years ago
yeah lets go to the park, hold on i gotta go get a forklift to move the walkman around!
btown2011 2 years ago
lol that was a good joke
masterlee123 2 years ago
They got reeeealy carried away with showing a family listening to their products...
peppoj 2 years ago
wow I'm sold, where can I get one of these new miracle tape machines!
brothadave 2 years ago 3
..and you can you still do editing with these as you can do with open reel. RCA had it pretty well with this format, but the Philips Cassette format killed this RCA format .. as did with JVC's Laserdisc killed RCA's CED videodisc.
DSM1G90 2 years ago
at this point I am really trying to wait out technology things are changing so fast. the ipod is about to go the way of the walkman
lambchopxoxo 2 years ago
Don't blink!
jdgator95 2 years ago
But will it play my MP3's?
Richardddoobies 2 years ago
this reminds me of the elcaset
Ziplock74 2 years ago
2 and 2 fifth's seconds EXACTLY
killedkenny07 2 years ago
I think this was Concpet Ideal
then they Made the 8track then was Raplace buy Audio Cassette like we had in 90s but sadly is Gone now . and it hard to find Blank taps now
PinkSilverWolf 2 years ago
You can still find blank tapes like in Wal-Mart, Office Max, Target, or in yard sales.
ipodspartan 2 years ago
Never seen that type before. I owne a small reel-to-reel in the late '60s with a round clip-on microphone. Thinks the tape was about 1/4 " wide on a 3" reel. My Next unit was a cassette. Owned only one 8-track tape purchased used. Thought they were ugly.
I remember the huge Sony reel-to-reel audio tapes. And videotape recorders. So bulky to carry around and weighed a ton! I still like reel to reel stuff though.
jenniferjuniper97 2 years ago
RCA had it right on this before Philips came out with the compact cassette. This RCA version reminds me of the Sony Elcassette which actually had a short life.
KRF888HEI 2 years ago
Those consoles are so butt-ugly, it's funny.
rennyminou 2 years ago
shut the fuck up your not funny.
WULFY1993 2 years ago
Oh, is someone about to get his period?
Pauvre petit toi.
Go back to school, you delinquent.
rennyminou 2 years ago
your a 45 year old virgin so i would talk if i were you :P
WULFY1993 2 years ago
The first tape she put in sounds like "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol.
doabaudio 2 years ago
Its like a Steve Jobs keynote.
shakeyphil 2 years ago 3
it just looks like a great big cassette tape to me.
laron214 2 years ago
That is almost exactly what it was.
83pgm 2 years ago
Holy cow! That "new" cartridge tape is about the same measurements as a cd jewel case.
justme632 2 years ago
How thrilling! Finally, high fidelity for everyone!!
mstax 2 years ago
Vinyl is making a big comback, was on the news!
josny1 2 years ago
i noticed several times on letterman and conan o'brien's show they held up and vinyl albums for their music acts. and that was just this week. i wondered about that.
laron214 2 years ago
Comment removed
SashaNein 2 years ago
holy crap that thing had auto reverse! Awesome.
kurisux 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
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greatwhitenorth112 2 years ago
thats funny the bigger tape would be technically better sound i bet. thanks for sharing this, great stuff
pentaxsubversion 2 years ago
This tapes are rubbing down by the time slowly the reading head...but until it has excellent sound quality. Better than mp3 128kbps.
313EDO 2 years ago
I have over 3 weeks of non-stop MP3s on my external hard drive. HAHA but you know what? It's just not the same as it used to be. I will never get rid of my vinyl and/or reels.
ourvinylcollection 2 years ago 16
I agree
lorrblade 2 years ago
@ourvinylcollection plus MP3 IS NOT hi-fi! I love my 1976 vinyl player more everyday.
rugbytlse 1 year ago
WOAH... I didn't know they were different sized tapes lol. why were they so big???
tkoizumi 2 years ago
You know what? I didn't know that either. I guess that this was the first "tape-shaped" tape. As years and technology goes on things get made smaller. I mean, how small is a 8GB or 16 GB MicroSD Card that can fit into a cellphone??
lorrblade 2 years ago
Wasn't 3-3/4 ips speed the same as the old 8 track tapes?
charlesn12 2 years ago
A Gigunda cassette tape. But this opened up 4-track recording which was a boon to home studios.
kd1s 2 years ago
lol, vinyl is back
airburt13 2 years ago
Sony had a similar system in he 70;s ... I have one player.. I'll make a video
cobolsaurus 2 years ago
This system was vastly superior to the lowly Phillips cassette which was developed for dictation machines and reporters. However 3-3/4 ips was still too slow on even the best reel machines (Tandberg, Ampex) to offer adequate high frequency response. The system was down 3-5 db already at 10KHZ and s/n ratio while better than cassette..was still poor by hi-fi standards. It offered alot more potential than cassette but failed due to size and proprietary format. Open reel was/is still my favorite.
fresnel1956 2 years ago
Wow, that tape and the machine is ahead of itz tape because of the braking system like on a VHS tape and the auto-reverse feature. Itz very rare seeing a tape recorder only Hifi cabinet. Usually, there a record player in those. Those portables put out a lot of sound just like the cabinet types. They don't make 'em that good anymore.
Vinylrecordsneverdie 2 years ago
Gimme back my 8 tracks.
ferociousgumby 2 years ago 2
Incompatible proprietary format number 317.
ianchard 3 years ago 3
Part of the problem was also Sarnoff's personality. He lost on the 45 rpm (CBS LP's were more popular), lost on FM (Armstrong's widow eventually won), lost on Color TV (Columbia again) and was determined to find a medium he could control 100% by demanding huge licensing fees and and forcing other mfg's to use RCA built transports. Moreover they ignored the growing auto sound market. Philips asked for minimal fees and let anyone build transports, promoting portability for a new generation.
sealforvr 3 years ago 3
Comment removed
fresnel1956 2 years ago
amen to radiorob1. every rca thing i have reminds me of e,h, armstrong. its a shame that few people know of this mans greatness!! do some research folks !! i have a zenith with both the old and today's fm bands and, in the back proudly says the amstrong system!! rca was a good co. but sarnoff was a king in his castle!! loved the vid!! amazing how the tech. has progressed !!!!
lawnking168 3 years ago
Remember kids, RCA killed E. H. Armstrong.
radiorob1 3 years ago 3
That is an interesting video! This offer sounded SO perfect....but reel to reels were(and still are,compared to digital) much better than the sound tape cartrige recorders!
oviwolf 3 years ago 3
LOL "Monoro", probably to make it sound like "Stereo"
robyboy718 3 years ago
It's actually "monaural".
spamsponge 2 years ago
Can't really understand why this product failed. Even got more features than the compact cassettes. The developers had really thought about everything. Was totally groundbraking when it came. A masterpiece of engineering it appears but I haven't tried them myself after all.
filthguy 3 years ago
Ironic: The worst of all home playback mediums were the various incarnations of analog tape, but the BEST medium for use in professional recording, even today, is tape.
Nothing, even digital, compares to the fidelity of a 2" master on a glorious Studer or Otari deck at 30ips. Even 1"/15ips has a cool, warm tone. But every home version of tape has simply been awful.
freakybuzz 3 years ago 9
@freakybuzz - Man I think you missed the DCC (Digital Compact Cassete) and the D.A.T. (Digital Audio Tape)! They were great home tape versions!
mig189189189 1 year ago
@mig189189189 DAT was a good mix-down medium for it's time, but it was a digital format. Even pro DAT machines with outstanding D/A were not abundant, to say nothing of home versions. DCC on the other hand was a disaster from it's inception; mediocre sound quality and clumsy playback. It's only advantage is that it (along with MiniDisc) allowed for convenient home digital dubbing, but faced competition from superior CD-R, and was rendered totally obsolete by the dawn of the Mp3 era.
freakybuzz 1 year ago
@freakybuzz - Now I agree with you!
Thanks for your reply!
mig189189189 1 year ago
@freakybuzz Tape does NOT have higher fidelity than digital. That's just not possible by the medium. Digital has a more linear frequency response and a larger frequency range. Tape is, however, a lot more musical sounding and thus prefered over digital by many sound engineers and musicians. I have myself a Tascam BR-20 running 1/4" 456 tape which I use for saturation and tape compression. Cant do that digitally! Cassettes were always a compromise in audio quality, but the price is more important
soundiscomforting 1 year ago
@soundiscomforting Digital is (theoretically) linear in response. If that was the only virtue by which to judge a recording medium, so be it. But frequency fidelity in digital PCM is of course dictated by sample rate (Nyquist/Shannon), which can be prone to jitter if not synced to a good clock, not to mention the vagrancy of sub-par A/D/A conversion which is ubiquitous on most digital gear this side of BIG BUCK$. Analog has errors too, but--as you mentioned-- is a more musical format overall.
freakybuzz 1 year ago
that family at the end cracks me up. wtf that was only 30 yr ago
silentbob71420 3 years ago
30? Try 45-50.
radiorob1 3 years ago 3
Wow watch out 60's people big scam comin your way. I'll bet this thing made a loud HISSSSSSS sound as it played. I'll also bet you got a lot of practice at taking those two screws out to repair the tape. ALSO anyone remember how the regular sized tapes would somehow get of track and the other side of the tape