A 4K Free-For-All

Home video and movies both feel like they're reaching turning points

It’s Monday, August 29th, and here’s where we are…

Wait, this isn’t The Hip Pocket!

You are correct. Mondays have definitely become our Hip Pocket days, but this week, I’m mixing things up a little bit to talk about a new passion of mine a little bit.

I have been a home video addict since the first day I became aware of it as a concept in the ‘70s. I’ve told this story before, but this gives you an idea of just how long I’ve been fascinated by all of this. One of my dad’s sisters was married to a guy who worked for RCA in Memphis, and he was the first person I ever saw with a VCR. It was the size of a Buick, a top-loader that weighed something like 100 pounds. We were on a trip to Memphis to see the extended family, and he invited everyone over to show off this amazing new invention.

When we all went over to their house, he made a huge show out of unveiling the VCR. And, to be fair, what he explained was pretty mind-blowing to me. You mean you can record a TV program while it’s playing and then you can play it back any time you want? Once I got my head around that, then the other shoe dropped. You mean they are going to put out movies from theaters on these tapes so you can watch them again and again? It seemed like the entire world turned upside down with that information. It immediately changed my entire relationship with media.

To show us exactly what he meant, he brought out the first pre-recorded movie on home video I’d ever seen, a brand-new store-bought copy of Jailhouse Rock. He put the movie in the player, he pressed play, and then he stood back to bask in our wonder and admiration. Once the film began, though, he started messing with all of the settings on the TV. Tint. Horizontal. Color. Vertical. He just kept adjusting and fiddling even as the film was playing, until finally, my father asked him what he was doing.

“I’m trying to adjust the color on the movie!”

“It’s a black-and-white movie, Marshall.”

“I know that, but it’s a color TV!”

image courtesy of MGM/UA

You notice I didn’t call him my uncle? That’s because I don’t want there to be any confusion. Even if I weren’t adopted, there is no chance I share DNA with that dude. Even though he was obviously completely out of his mind, that night was special to me, and it kicked off a lifelong obsession with the entire idea of owning movies that has continued right up to my current mania, collecting 4K Blu-ray discs mastered for HDR playback.