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FORMAT: CartriVision | |||||
DATE: 1972 PRICE: $1600 |
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| CartriVision was the brainchild of the charismatic Frank Stanton (No relation to the Frank Stanton who was previously president of CBS, the company responsible for the abortive EVR system.) On EVR, CBS is reported to have commented (unofficially) "We couldn't think of any kind of program to ask people to buy that they couldn't get free on regular television". Perhaps as a result of this, CartriVision was a magnetic tape system which allowed users to record off-air as well as play back.
Note: Although CartriVision did go on sale, it was only sold in the USA so doesn't strictly belong in this UK-oriented museum. But, it is an interesting system, and important part of the story of home video. |
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| CartriVision had many unique properties, both technical and commercial. For a start, unlike almost any other system (certainly then, and often even now), it was launched with a substantial catalogue of pre-recorded tapes already available, from major Hollywood film studios - headed by the mighty Columbia.
Right from the launch, too, tapes could be rented - special red tapes were used which could only be rewound in a machine at the store, not on the home players, guaranteeing only one-view per rental. |
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CartriVision tapes were co-axial, with the two spools mounted one on top of the other, and used half-inch tape (just like most other video tape systems, including Betamax, VHS and V2000).
The recording system used a single head to record every third frame, which reduced the amount of tape used (at the cost of quality), and allowed two hours on a single tape. On playback, three staggered heads read the same field three times. This "skip field" system would obviously mean a rather shuddery effect on moving sequences, and apparently also gave a rather blurry picture. |
| The majority of tapes offered for sale were documentaries, travelogues and "hobby" titles such as fishing or cookery programs. Hollywood movies were offered mainly as rental tapes - for although several studios took part in the project, this was still the era when they resisted the idea of selling movies direct to the public, preferring to charge for each performance - even at home.
Blank tapes were available in several lengths, from 30 to 114 minutes - just under two hours, enough for a whole feature film. The 30 minute tapes were physically smaller than the longer ones; since the tapes were inserted rather like an audio cassette, with the back end sticking out, so it didn't matter if the cassette body was short or long. |
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| A black-and-white camera was also available, billed as the "Instant Replay TV Camera". Curiously the microphone was sold separately, perhaps because that's what people expected from the world of Cine - sound was an optional extra. Although the CartriVision system was capable of stereo sound, home recordings (from the camera or TV) were mono. | |
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| CatriVision was launched in June 1972, with units on sale in the well-known chain of Sears stores. Initially it was sold only in the Chicago area, to test the water, and a two-page advert in the local newspaper was used to attract customers.
The players were built into television sets, which meant a rather large price - $1600, which must have been pretty huge in 1972! Other problems didn't help matters; the Sears salespeople did not know much about the system, and treated it as a large TV set, and the stores stocked the tapes on a completely different floor from the machines... |
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| Although sales were not particularly spectacular, Catridge Television Inc. went ahead with plans for a national roll-out. But in November, just before an expected Christmas sales boom, it was discovered that all the tapes stockpiled in warehouses were decomposing, the tape literally disintegrating. The entire stock of tape had to be recalled, since playing a defective tape could wreck the player's heads.
In 1973 the company had to launch a massive advertising campaign, to demonstrate that the system worked and that there were tapes available. 130 stores on the West Coast took part in a sales drive, with properly trained salespeople and a good stock of tapes. 4-year credit deals and free tape rentals also helped to improve the sales figures, and CTI again prepared to go national. But the investors were beginning to get nervous about the holes in the company accounts, and the stock price began to slide. Frank Stanton was forced to lay off employees and put a hold on development, just to keep things going. But it was no use; in June Avco - the manufacturing arm - pulled out of the project, and CTI filed for bankrupcy. Stanton continued to search for funding - he reckoned that $10 million would be enough to get going again, allowing CartriVision to become the standard for home video - but no-one was willing to send more money into the black hole of CTI. |
| Curiously, that's not the end of the CartriVision story. The stock of player hardware was auctioned off, and sold on to hobbyists as kits of parts by mail-order electronics firms. Just like Star Trek at the same time - officially cancelled but becoming popular all over the country in syndicated re-runs - CartriVision was in some ways more successful as a cult product than it was in its mainstream lifetime.
Hobbyists would build their own CartriVision players from the raw hardware, and in fact this still goes on today. The CartriVision hardware kit The green electronics assembly is affectionately known as "the fishtank" |
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