The Walkman's an antique, man!

[Buttercup]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/01/BU2618GKE7.DTL&nopu=1

Good gosh! It's big as a book, has a weird background warble when played and who knew a cassette had 2 sides filled with music? :p

I mean, was this technology EVER credible? :rolleyes:

---[The above a current 13 year old's reaction]---

Yep. It was when I was a teenager. :D And I remember pinball machines too {{gasp!!!}} ;)

[Tucson_Tim]

I have one of those in a box somewhere.

How I view music tech evolution:

- First there were records and they were direct access - you could put the needle down directly on the track you wanted to hear. But you couldn't listen to it in the car.
- Then there was the 8-track and with 4 tracks you could get close but it was no longer direct access. But at least you could listen to it in the car - until the tape or the player went bonkers.
- Then there was the cassette and the song you wanted to hear could be at the other end of the tape. The cassette tapes, while by no means indestructible, they were less likely to break than an 8-track tape.
- Then came the CD and we were again back to direct access and programmable. But the medium is still somewhat fragile.
- iPods (and clones now) but still direct access and programmable. And the original copies are safe - backed up several times.
- What's next?

[novaderrik]

you get the same reaction if you show a teenager an original Gameboy or cell phone.

[HenrikOlsen]

- Then came the CD and we were again back to direct access and programmable.
- solid state MP3 players
- iPods (and clones now) but still direct access and programmable.

[Tucson_Tim]

I personally skipped that step. I also never had a portable CD player. And I must add that I've always been about the last person on the planet to dive into the new technology (well, not too new by the time I buy one).

[chrissy]

I have my old "walkman" personal tape player...yay! It still works with my .....ancient tapes.

[Tucson_Tim]

I have my old "walkman" personal tape player...yay! It still works with my .....ancient tapes.

Hey, I still listen to audio books on cassette tapes, played with an old-style boom box.

[Buttercup]

I also have a Walkman from 1987. :D The Joshua Tree by U2 was the first tape I played on it.

[KaiYeves]

I used casettes on a boom box to listen to books until the boom box broke. I had a CD Walkman until my mom dropped something on it.

So now I just listen to the radio in the car.

[Gillianren]

I have literally hundreds of tapes--mostly mix tapes, of course--but, sadly, the tape player in my car doesn't work. (I can listen to tapes in the house, though.)

[Jay200MPH]

- First there were records and they were direct access - you could put the needle down directly on the track you wanted to hear. But you couldn't listen to it in the car.

Oh no? (http://ookworld.com/hiwayhifi.html)

[Tog_]

I have one of those in a box somewhere.

How I view music tech evolution:

- First there were records and they were direct access - you could put the needle down directly on the track you wanted to hear. But you couldn't listen to it in the car.
- Then there was the 8-track and with 4 tracks you could get close but it was no longer direct access. But at least you could listen to it in the car - until the tape or the player went bonkers.
- Then there was the cassette and the song you wanted to hear could be at the other end of the tape. The cassette tapes, while by no means indestructible, they were less likely to break than an 8-track tape.
- Then came the CD and we were again back to direct access and programmable. But the medium is still somewhat fragile.
- iPods (and clones now) but still direct access and programmable. And the original copies are safe - backed up several times.
- What's next?

You forgot Minidisks. Sort of a fusion of CD and Cassettes. Programmable, Direct access and re-recordable. You could edit songs in the player and record from any source. The biggest drawback was very limited prerecorded music, and realtime recording speed.

[SeanF]

First there were records and they were direct access - you could put the needle down directly on the track you wanted to hear. But you couldn't listen to it in the car.
Who says you couldn't (http://www.roadkillontheweb.com/images/s_magad.jpg)? :)

- Then came the CD and we were again back to direct access and programmable. But the medium is still somewhat fragile.
- iPods (and clones now) but still direct access and programmable. And the original copies are safe - backed up several times.
CDs and mp3 players aren't quite direct access. You can easily jump to a particular song, but you still need to FF or RW to get to a particular point within a song.

[chrissy]

Hey, I still listen to audio books on cassette tapes, played with an old-style boom box.

:D I still listen to mine too.

[Metricyard]

Let's not forget the Laser disc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc). I still have quite a few of the discs stored somewhere, but no way to play them.

Not that it was really a portable medium. Just a walk down the old technology lane.

[Arneb]

Who says you couldn't (http://www.roadkillontheweb.com/images/s_magad.jpg)? :)

Man, tha way the ad reads "The FORWARD Look". That sure was long ago for Chrysler :(.

[Nick Theodorakis]

Let's not forget the Laser disc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc)...

Or the Digital Audio Tape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Tape), not to be confused with the Digital Compact Cassette (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Compact_Cassette).

Nick

[Tucson_Tim]

Sorry. I should have been clearer in my post. I was giving my experiences with music technology - not the entire history of music tech. But the "record player for the car" was interesting - I didn't know about that one. And, as Sean pointed out, only records are truly direct access, clumsy as it was.

[Buttercup]

I don't miss cassette tapes at all. I love CDs. No more rewind, forward-wind, paying attention to the marker (and if you don't it's stop/start/listen...nope, forward or back a bit more) etc. :rolleyes: And didn't you just love it when the tape snagged? :(

[KaiYeves]

I have a lot of VHS tapes I can NEVER watch, because my dad won't let us get a player or even a converter, because, no, it's TOO outdated...

[Buttercup]

Most of our movie collection is VHS. Couldn't foresee DVDs of course. Now I'm buying used DVDs of favorite movies, but won't replace the entire collection.

[Tog_]

And, as Sean pointed out, only records are truly direct access, clumsy as it was.

MD can sort of be direct access as long as it's a recording you make yourself. You can add, and remove track marks on the fly. Listen the first time and mark the important bits, then when you go back you can skip to track 126 or whatever. It does cause issued with random though :)

[Gillianren]

Now I'm buying used DVDs of favorite movies, but won't replace the entire collection.

I can't; I have a couple of tapes that aren't available on DVD and one that probably never will be. (An episode of California's Gold, with Huell Howser, which I picked up in my library's used books section.) On the other hand, I find VHS pretty much exactly as convenient/inconvenient as any other kind of tape.

[GeorgeLeRoyTirebiter]

And, as Sean pointed out, only records are truly direct access, clumsy as it was.

On a computer, mp3 and other digital formats are just as accessible as records. You can instantly jump to anywhere in a file by clicking on or scrubbing the time slider, or seek bar, or whatever it's called.

That most portable mp3 players can't do this is a design choice, not a limitation of the medium. It requires a continuously variable input device, like a knob driving a rotary encoder, or a touchscreen, or a mouse. Microswitch fast-forward and rewind push-buttons are simply easier to implement.

[Tuckerfan]

The Walkman wasn't even the first portable personal music player. This beauty dates from the 1920s! (http://www.rubylane.com/shops/legendsantiquesclocks/item/D112?hgtv=1) (And Chrysler made the turntables an option up to as late as 1971, you could also get an 8-track recorder for your car at the same time.)

[roverich]

When we first got a dvd player , and watched a movie the wife asked which button to push to rewind the disk ..LOL ..I have a old land rover with a tape player and use a cd walkman with a tape adapter just so i can use my cds in it ...

[Tucson_Tim]

When we first got a dvd player , and watched a movie the wife asked which button to push to rewind the disk ..LOL ..

I think my wife and I were the last people in America to get a DVD player - and our son had to buy that one for us.

Here's a silly misconception. I saw a post on this forum (or another forum, I forget) a year or so ago and the guy said that when he rented movies on DVD he would play a "practical joke" on the next user by setting the language to Japanese (or some other language) before ejecting the DVD and returning it to the rental place. That was pretty funny.

[roverich]

That is pretty funny ..I will have to try it ...Come to think of it , i have rented them and they have been left on spanish subtitles ..

. We have over 1000 movies ..I worked in a pawn shop for a while and i got them for 1.oo each ..So i stocked up while they were cheap ..

[Tucson_Tim]

That is pretty funny ..I will have to try it ..

No, no, no. It can't happen unless someone knows how and has the equipment to write to the rented DVD to change the default language setting.

1000 movies- that's a lot. I have quite a few, not sure how many. I should count them sometime but I think I have 200 or so.

[roverich]

No, no, no. It can't happen unless someone knows how and has the equipment to write to the rented DVD to change the default language setting.

1000 movies- that's a lot. I have quite a few, not sure how many. I should count them sometime but I think I have 200 or so.

The one that was left on spanish subs might have been one we bought used from the pawn shop ...You know when you have 1000 ..Man they are everywhere ...

[Gillianren]

No, no, no. It can't happen unless someone knows how and has the equipment to write to the rented DVD to change the default language setting.

I will occasionally get one from the library that doesn't have subtitles as an option, and I mean Spanish-language movies. This is great for the area's relatively small Spanish-speaking population, but I do wish the library would label them as such.

1000 movies- that's a lot. I have quite a few, not sure how many. I should count them sometime but I think I have 200 or so.

I have a little over 500, but of course, I watch a lot that I don't own.

[HenrikOlsen]

Here's a silly misconception. I saw a post on this forum (or another forum, I forget) a year or so ago and the guy said that when he rented movies on DVD he would play a "practical joke" on the next user by setting the language to Japanese (or some other language) before ejecting the DVD and returning it to the rental place. That was pretty funny.
Funny that he's think the setting was saved on the disc rather than in his player:)

It would look like it's saved on the disc if his player remembers the settings for the last few discs.

[Tucson_Tim]

It would look like it's saved on the disc if his player remembers the settings for the last few discs.

I have an older DVD player and it only remembers settings while the DVD is loaded. It does remember settings after the unit is powered down/powered up but as soon as the DVD is ejected then all is forgotten. But I could see where the newer players could remember settings based on the DVD. Don't know if they do. Anyone here have a "modern" DVD player?

[Gillianren]

I had one briefly that seemed to have a capricious AI. Sometimes, it would just decide that I wanted the subtitles, and it took much convincing otherwise. This did not only happen after I'd watched several foreign-language films in a row, either. To my great surprise, of course, the thing died after a few months. Well, I hadn't paid for it!

[mugaliens]

No way! I still have one, and guess what - it works! Yes, I'm talking about the old tape-playing version.