Comments on: Phonevision: on-demand movies for $1!

By: eustace

eustace — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A simple gadget indeed! I wonder how long it worked between service calls…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wow, 90 movies! That’s like 5 or 6 good ones. And they charge more than Netflix too. I guess I’m a little skeptical that this will find an audience.

By: brainswarm

brainswarm — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It sounds like an early broadcast version of pay-per-view. I imagine if it had caught on, someone would have reverse engineered it and started selling pirate versions of the box, the way it later happened with cable boxes, satellite receivers, ITunes, etc.

By: Johnny Cat

Johnny Cat — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wasn’t this how the masses in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil watched TV at work?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Adjusted for inflation, that’s a rental fee of $8.31 in 2009.

By: teapot

teapot — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@#2 are you joking or didn’t you read the whole post?

“The above was from Time magazine, January 8, 1951. Radio: Phonevision”

By: Charlie

Charlie — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here is a 1947 Popular Science blurb about it along with a picture of the system in operation.

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/09/04/early-pay-per-view-tv/

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

up next on the history channel:

willing slaves provide information to big brother about themselves just because they are lazy.

after the break:
how to be cool by getting a chip planted under your skin.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

pay-per-view, not on-demand..

By: Xenu

Xenu — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonevision

By: lolop

lolop — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

unscramble
it’s like saying magic