“A standard cassette recorder with a superior quality of digital recording.”
To the untrained eye, it looks just like any other cassette tape, but this prototype will not work on your existing stereo.
Judith Hann demonstrates a new cassette incorporating metal tape, that contains music which has been converted into digital code. When the tape is played on a compatible tape deck, the digital code is converted back into music, producing excellent sound quality with none of the audio degradation associated with existing pre-recorded cassettes.
The tapes can hold more than just music though, they can also hold digitised pictures, meaning that in the future, albums might include not just songs, but digitised lyrics, album covers and even videos.
The first commercial machines are expected to go on sale in three years time.
Originally broadcast 11 March, 1982.
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45 comments
其实数字录音比cd问世早好几年，早年的pcm数字音频基本都是用磁带存储的，而晚期的黑胶唱片很多都是用数字音源灌录的。
Pfft.
Digital recordings are so 20th century.
Compact Disc? 💿
Genuinely educational. It was a brilliant programme – I always looked forward to tomorrow’s world – nostalgia
Now of course this show would all be diversity hires talking about how technology was all invented by blkwahmens tribes in africa and how toxic masculinity is destroying tech. 😂💩🤡
#EndWokeness
Tape is an awful medium. CDs were always going to win this one.
Dance. Daniel Langdon Zibass. 💙
Thats interesting because I thought Philips developed the DCC and that didn't look like a Philips prototype unit. Looked more Sony or Pioneer
Can someone please overdub this with some garage techno rave or even better scooter!! that would be great thank you.
A home machine wouldn't let the digital code be copied directly to protect copyright owners. This means generation losses from analogue to ditial conversion and data reduction algorithms. Dropouts from damaged tape would result in a complete loss of signal rather than moderate muffling.
"This. Is a finger. You stick it. Up your bum."
I'm excited for this can't wait!
I always remember the late 70's and early 80's as though it had a liminal feel to it, 2001 a space Odyssey type of thing
Meanwhile in 1982, cd's were also starting to become a thing in Japan. Much like the vcr/beta-max, lcd/plasma screen, blu-ray/hd-dvd competitions, this was on the losing side.
I like how it immediately drops out :))
That was only 42 years ago and look how far we've come!
dcc
Let's hear it for binary logic.
Looks like a predecessor of Philips DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) and Sony's MiniDisc
Digital copies terrified the music industry, held back the release of DAT, etc.
Back when the BBC had great content and production. Unlike the shell of a corporation it is today.
loved this programme, growing up in the 80s thursday was good tv on BBC Top Of the Pops and Tomorrow's world double bill
Good presentation – but i much prefer Raymond Baxter
Had no idea cassettes were digital till now
The fact that there was no loss of sound quality from generation to generation caused the labels to panic, and they killed the DAT (which is what this evolved into) as fast as they could. Truth be known, they have been opposed to every form of home recording since the cassette.
would this prototype become DAT or DCC? Or both?
Problem is, Compact Disc was released at this time in 1982, and CD doesn't suffer from tape head wear or tape mangling!
That was some serious kit back then!. 🤣
Explaining Computers channel on YouTube made an excellent video about data lifespan of various types of media including archival tape and optical discs.
It would be interesting to know if the data on the various tape recordings on the Tomorrow's World video are still usable.
what format is that? philips's DCC?
the Brain in the beggining credits always disturbed me as a kid…
those old videos are just gold, the way they explain how it works is so simple.
as a kid i understood how cassettes worked and i was experimenting on my own. i was born in 90s, so cassettes weren't that new, but still widely used. i tried putting computer data onto tape, but it didn't work that well without proper equipment, however i did manage to record pulses from a TV remote onto cassette.
i basically created a "macro" in 90s as kid. i connected 2 extra wires to TV remote's IR LED (one that sends signals) and connected those wires directly into microphone's input. i cut the microphone wire and connceted it directly to that IR LED, so signals were sent from TV remote into cassette player's mic input.
this allowed me to record those pulses onto cassette.
then i reversed the process and connected IR LED to speaker (player's output) and pointed the LED towards tv … what do you know, it worked!
it was so amazing inventing stuff like that. it wasn't as high tech as the one seen on this video, but it was still cool concept.
i also remember some basic games that were on cassettes by using same method, but i think those cassettes needed a special player that had AV (audio video) output and was able to play the cassette back/forth at different speeds.
0:22 an amplifier without cables and speakers!!!
That sounded nothing like a home computer, that was just static noise 🙂
I cannot wait to get my hands on one of these!
The size of all the equipment is amazing lol. I think my recollections of Tomorrows world, and it shows here, is that everything was explained in an in dept, but easy to understand, way.
Home digital tape recording, a technology killed by the music industry's insistence on having built-in copy protection (subsequently rendered irrelevant by PC-based CD burners).
Thats big Walkman
I watched this by streaming it to my phone via a wifi connection and listened to it in my blutooth earbuds
What an amazing modern world we live in.
What's next? Beethoven's 5th on a micro chip?
I've seen the future and it is good
Brilliant presenting and production
Why PCM digital formats were never released on standard shaped cassettes was obvious: they would be pirated to no end on ordinary dubbing cassette decks.
"This prototype won't be on sale before it's rendered unnecessary and obsolete by CD players."
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