Playboy Guide Preview

December, 1984

Way Back when all this started--back there in the late Seventies--there were the doubters. Videotape recorders for the home? Nah. They were just too big, too expensive and too unproved. Early on, there was some truth in that. The first commercial VCR, made by Ampex in 1956, was about the size of the average living room and cost around $50,000--a little steep for a weekend rental of Emmanuelle.It took more than ten years for Sony to come out with the first portable. In truth, it was portable only...