Intro to CBS EVR Video Format 1968 - databits Edited Version! 

I can tell you, I was a little kid in 1968 about to enter first grade, and we had no idea that things like this existed, or would exist. This would have been science fiction; and the idea that people would have films on cartridges in their hands and in personal entertainment libraries was not even in our vocabulary.

“You can not only go forward, but you can go in reverse.” This really does have, “almost limitless potential.”

Love his east coast accent, the caaaaaatridge and the plaaaaaayyyahhh....

Bob Hill was a lot stronger than he looked. He picked up that 60lb unit like it was nothing.

Wow, this is the future!

I love how Bob Hill tries to disguise his BAH-ston accent! :)

"E-V-Ahhhh Playuh" Sounds like he has a Boston accent.

I love it when he carried the EVR out at the end :-)

CBS Laboratories was located in my hometown of Stamford, Connecticut.

I remember reading about CBS's EVR system 50 years ago in 1970. Today's DVDs and Blue rays are light years ahead of the EVR system in every respect. What is available in today's home video, and for that matter professional video, is beyond the wildest dreams of what anyone would have thought possible back then.

Mr Hill could never stand accused of being dynamic and to the point...

This is pretty awesome, I had heard of EVR before today, just had never seen this video or knew anything else about it. I just knew it was a film cartridge. Really looking forward to seeing your video with your machine showing YOUR take on it.

2 years before I was born . I will stand out and say that all new Digital is nothing like the reel of tape . Nothing is as good as it was , and never will be .

I like RU-vid because I can pull up any video at my election as one desires and stop at any frame as one desires and at my election...

"180 bits in a small 7" casing" - this is the future boys! Now we only need one room for the IBM.

What is so ironic is here we have CBS, a broadcaster making the first home Video recorder. About 10 years later, VCR's boomed and the broadcaster took the VCR manufactures to court over copyright infringements. I bet CBS was one of the broadcasters suing

Humorous attempts on our part aside, what this guy gets across to me is that this machine did have educational usage potential.

An optical version of the read-only Laserdisc system. Considering that broadcasters and media companies thought that 16mm films (Kinescope) taken of video productions was OK, this fits into this mindset. Eastman Kodak ruled the film roost at this time, and videotape systems were future tech. Imagine that, no need to deal with Audio Visual department tech nerds and those pesky 16mm projectors.;) All hail the "Charles Atlas/Arnold Schwarzenegger" edition EVR!

Neil and MacXpert74. I always associate the N1500 with education as that was the only place I saw them used. Too expensive for most homes but affordable to schools or colleges, and a huge improvement over the reel to reel Video Recorder we had at school which was so complicated it was only operated by the school librarian. Of course the huge advantage of any Video Recorder is that you can record educational programs (of which there were many in the UK) and then play them at a time to suit the school timetable.

Very, very interesting and impressive format. If only it had been two hours plus, it could have conquered the world. One of the good things is the lack of sprockets. It means very little wear, mechanical noise and more room for the picture. Wonder how it worked exactly.

So, effectively a telecine device

The recording system used an electron beam which directly exposed the film in the cartridge, providing the same or better recording quality as a film camera. The same recording technology was used in IBM's 1360 Photo-Digital Storage System, of which only five were built. It used small cards of photographic film.

Fascinating, perfect for teaching or selling material where color is crucial.

Such a cool film player for your TV! In the '60s and '70 before video tape, this would have been a nice video player to have in the home to play movies even if it was only in monochrome. Many people don't realize this, but a black and white TV was still a nice TV set to have in your possession, and they were still making them in large screen formats at that time. I could have seen the potential of this even if you owned a color TV. I remember the first time I got to watch a movie on a VCR, and the feeling was absolutely wonderful! I imagine the same feeling would not have been lost on someone from this era. I could see two possible reasons why this did not take off. One might of been the cost of the device and the film. The other was that watching movies in your own home on demand especially on your TV set was a strange concept at that time. Film had always been watched on a movie screen so watching a film on your TV would of been seen as an incompatible mismatch. At any rate, I love this, and I would have been amazed by it as a child in the 1980s. This kind of format might of also made high quality reel-to-reel audio recordings easier to use. 8-track was the last format to attempt to do this before a chrome formula on audio cassette finished off the awkward, endless format altogether. Funny not, that film player looks similar to my uncle's old hi-fi record player from the '50s with the curved, narrow base supporting the upper part of the unit. It looks about the same size too. We still have that record player. It still works too.

They should've had Rod Serling do this. Everyone would've bought it then.

very fascinating format, and really proper introduction on how to use it and what one can do with it.. classy!

If only one day the common man can own an EVR.

At the end the guy lift the thing and you can see him smiling like "guys, this sh*t isn lightweight as you said"

Looking forward to the next video ^^

I would love show this guy a paper thin oled tv with 4k HDR movie with dolby atmos for sound

Looking forward to your preview of this device! I don't understand, though, why they called it a "Video Recorder" when it was playback only?!?

Ok, I'm now eagerly awaiting the teardown. I can only imagine what is in that thing. And macrophotography of the film strips themselves is of course a given! Those exposed frames must be downright tiny. I'm guessing it's built around a "tiny" tube camera inside the machine and that the only reason it's not in color is that it would be too bulky and expensive to fit that equipment into a box that is expected to be portable. Also, he does mention the mono sound stripes at the edge but between the frames there seem to be some form of a signal also. It's probably that which lets the camera sync with the film without the need of sprocket holes. I also imagine that the pipedream version of this thing would be one where they use the whole width of the filmstrip to get a finer grain image. That would give you opportunity to use the soundtracks in stereo. Yes, it would half the runtime but better image. It would be double width, perfect for widescreen. Or you could mess with the timings to get a regular 4:3 ratio. Or you could half the runtime again to get quarter runtime (using both sides and running double speed) for super resolutions. Imagine that, with color film and playback. 12 minutes of high res color video with stereophonic sound on a single cartridge! Just imagine what one could do with that! And it would only cost you the same rough amount as a Saturn 5 booster rocket! What a steal! You could maybe even build something that uses an endless loop cartridge? Ok. I got a bit carried away there. But still. I am honestly now fascinated with this format.

These are fantastic

:O Actualy the technology is really advanced for the period.

The switching of channels was fairly neat, VHS couldn't do that!

Interesting. Some googling provides answers: 25 minutes would have been sufficient for a half-hour tv program sans commercials. The sales of color TV sets didn't exceed that of bw until 1972. If this took off, a color model would be the next step. All in all, I suspect it could have had some success if it was embraced by the studios and the media wasn't too expensive. I wondered how they got it so quiet and then I realized they must have used a flying spot camera - it scans side-to-side and the films movement does the top-down scan. It looks like the sync comes from the center track - that's how they were able to eliminate sprockets.

CAN NOT WAIT FOR THIS DEMO!!!

Got one of these to do a teardown? I (and I guess many others) would love to see what's inside and how it works.

Frames based optical film as a tv storage media is ludicrous in any time. What were they thinking? They would have to have scanned every frame line by line optically to create the TV raster. Well, I guess cathode ray scanning tubes were known technology by then. Use what you know.

Wicked VCR!

I remember watching this promo years ago. It's amazing what a world we live in. Just 60 pounds it so light weight.

Everyone in this video is dead. Sad.

This is awesome! Did this format make it to store shelves? And, if so, what was ever released on it other than this demo? It's very fascinating. Bob Hill sounds like he is gonna make me an offer I can't refuse!

Looking forward to the follow up video, this is a fascinating find! It would have been monochrome because I doubt miniature colour cameras were available in the late 60's. I doubt the resolution of the image is all that good.

People are "poo-pooing" this, because it is a monochrome player. IF it had widespread releases of popular T.V. shows released for it in 1968, and was widely available to the public that year, CBS would have been in the lead, for the home video format market. ...VHS came out in 1975, and didn't become big, until 1983 (due to lowered prices and movie releases). The CBS EVR would have had a foothold in the home video format market, for fifteen years.

He carried it like a lunchbox

The future is here!

Weighs just 60 lbs! Damn that thing was heavy!

Can't wait, as he really did not demonstrate recording.

Amazing footage. Where did you get it? Makes me nostalgic for a time I never knew.

A COMPLETELY portable machine that is as easy to carry around as your paralytic upper mid to high-ish sized dog...

I need to know everything about this

Very interesting... if one desires!

A heavy lift at the end for bill poor bloke

We've come a long way ....

Why are there 2 TVs??

10:10 So eager to watch that, I'll of course be tuned!

Is this optical or video? How is the film getting changed to video data?

I think I might have read about this format mentioned (very much in passing) in a book about the history of home video, but this is the first time I've actually seen one being used. And you actually HAVE one?

They shoulda pushed the engineers fir the extra 5 min a track,.. two "carts" (looks like reel or spool to me..) then would hold a standard movie, if I'd been alive and could afford one , I'd have been very thrown by the need for three reels just to cover that extra 10 mins... I'd have been all over one of these (or a vtr, I don't know if the added features cost more or what, I'd have also been happy with an open reel vtr)

Anybody know which Mission: Impossible episode that was? I swear I’ve seen it before.

Very cool. :)

Can't wait to see it

Thanks for the overlays. But what is 180,000 frames in metric?

Is it wireless?

You mean THAT CBS who was known for The Price is Right?

Nice!

Cool. Why don't they make them anymore?

So 50 minutes is limitless?

So what is the “recording” part??? It’s just a film player!!

This is very interesting. It looks like it was a very Innovative player. I have one question about it, was it meant for professional, educational, and/or home users. Either way it's still a very Innovative piece of technology.

I'm Bobby Hill. I sell video and video accessories. :)

This system was later used by Nintendo for it's lightgun arcade games.

when does it release cant wait to buy one

do you have one in person?

Why didn't you upload it in 4:3 aspect ratio instead of 16:9

120 frames per second, isn't that a bit much?

I can imagine why EVR flopped It's only in black and white which is a big nono by that point when people are switching over to color by that point

Average size for a 15 megapixel JPG image is 1.8 MB. 180000 frames makes 324 GB per track. X2 and you get 648 GB which is a LOT of information even today! But unlimited? 🤔

I bet Oddity Archive's after one of these Also, EVR was monochrome, in mono, used film (so it couldn't record) and Laserdisc was around the corner Americans really don't understand the meaning of the term "flicking the Vs" which is odd as CBS were partnered the very British ICI. You'd have thought someone at ICI would have pointed that out! "You cam program independently" Making it sound futuristic and complicated when he could say "Two tracks of video, like the two sides of audio on a phonographic record, but you can switch sides, at your own election, without having to flip the cartridge like you would with a record should you so desire."

Remember when 60 lbs. was considered 'portable'?

But how long will it last?

Let's get the most boring guy we can find to talk about EVR.

Good east coast accent

50 minutes is't very limitless. For 1968 maybe.

I wonder if they made one for color

"Completely Silent." I bet that EVR player is just as "Silent" as a Laserdisc player.

Thats a reel not a cartridge.

Why does he say “cartridge” with an Australian accent?

features tell, benefits SELL

5:40 Is it a fart ?

Usually when new technology introduced - they display it's logical "genius" advantage very thoroughly (because everything patented already)- BUT NO ANY DETAILS here. I haven't seen Wikipedia and by first ever view on this - i CAN"T UNDERSTAND HOW THEY TRANSPORTED ANALOGUE presumably by light picture to very old TV's before the suitable standards-by RADIO? 🤔

did they release any pornography on this format ? If not that may be why it died

I was nearly exited. Two 24fps filmstrips on a side by side format on a single reel with build in telecini. Like microfiche film. Untill the guy said "sprocketless" And I realised it was nasty-@ss reel2reel videotape 🤮

I wouldn't want to buy it just because of the guy giving his spiel. *HE'S BORING*