page_title: Home video
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Home video / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Innenraum einer Videothek in Salzburg
context_page_description: Home video is prerecorded video media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotape, but has carried over to optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray. In a different usage, home video refers to amateur video recordings, also known as home movies.
  The home video business distributes films, telemovies, television series and other audiovisual content in the form of videos in various formats to the public. These are either bought or rented and then watched privately in consumers' homes. Most theatrically released films are now released on digital media, both optical and download-based, replacing the largely obsolete videotape medium. The Video CD format remains popular in Asia, although DVDs are gradually gaining popularity.
context_section_description: As early as 1906, various film industry entrepreneurs began to discuss the potential of home viewing of films, and in 1912, both Edison and Pathé started selling film projectors for home use.  Because making release prints was (and still is) very expensive, early home projector owners rented films by mail from the projector manufacturer.  Edison's business model was fundamentally flawed because the company had started with phonographs and did not understand that home viewing is fundamentally different from home listening.  Edison ended its home viewing business in 1914, while Pathé lingered a bit longer but exited at some point during World War I. 
  After the quick failures of these early attempts at home viewing, most feature films were essentially inaccessible to the public after their original theatrical runs. Some very popular films were given occasional theatrical re-releases in urban revival houses and the screening rooms of a handful of archives and museums. Beginning in the 1950s, most could be expected to turn up on television eventually. During this era, it was also the norm that television programs could only be viewed at the time of broadcast. Viewers were accustomed to the fact that there was no normal way to record TV shows at home and watch them whenever desired. 
  In 1924, Kodak invented 16 mm film, which became popular for home use, and then later developed 8 mm film.  After that point, it became possible for consumers to purchase a film projector for one of those film formats and rent or buy home-use prints of some cartoons, short comedies and brief "highlights" reels edited from feature films. In the case of the 16 mm format, most of these were available with an optical soundtrack, and even some entire feature films in 16 mm could be rented or bought. 8 mm films almost never ran longer than ten minutes and only a few were available with a magnetic soundtrack late in the life of the format. The Super 8 film format, introduced in 1965, was marketed for making home movies but it also boosted the popularity of show-at-home films. Eventually, longer, edited-down versions of feature films were issued, which increasingly came in color and with a magnetic soundtrack. But in comparison to modern technologies, film projection was still quite expensive and difficult to use.  As a result, home viewing of films remained the province of dedicated film buffs willing and able to invest thousands of dollars in projectors, screens, and film prints, and was only a tiny fraction of the film industry.
  In 1956, Ampex pioneered the first commercially practical videotape recording system.  However, the Ampex system used reel-to-reel tape and physically bulky equipment not suitable for home use.  
  In the mid-1970s, videotape became the first truly practical home video format with the development of videocassettes, which were far easier to use than tape reels. The Betamax and VHS home videocassette formats were introduced, respectively, in 1975 and 1976 but it took several more years and dramatic reductions in the prices of both equipment and videocassettes before both formats started to become widespread household fixtures.  
  Initially, film studios and video distributors assumed that consumers would not want to buy prerecorded videocassettes, but merely rent them. They also felt that virtually all of the sales would be to video rental stores and set prices accordingly. The shift to home viewing also changed the movie industry's revenue streams, because home renting created an additional window of time in which a film could make money. In some cases, films that performed only modestly in their theater releases went on to sell strongly into the rental market (e.g., cult films).
  Video rental stores became a popular way to watch home video. Video rental stores are physical retail businesses that rent home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract, which may be impl
caption: Movie boxes on display at a video rental store.
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