(no subject)

[baratron]

We have a new video! Richard picked it up in Oxford Street. It matches our new television and does NTSC playback, so we can get tapes from the US and Japan.

I was wondering if there are any other things where the same name is used both for the device and for the thing you play it on. I mean, we say "video" for both the cassette and the player, whereas it's "CD" and "CD player" and "tape" and "tape recorder". It's rather odd, that.

Comments

what do you play the video in?

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

USAans tend to say "VCR" (video cassette player) or "video player" and "DVD player."

And Richard has a lovely package. :)

Re: what do you play the video in?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

The term "VCR" exists here, but it's not the term used in everyday conversation. Absolutely everyone I know talks about watching a video on their video. I think some people use "video recorder" to distinguish the machine from the cassette, but no one ever says "VCR".

What confused me was when I found that the instructions in our new video were referring to something called a "VTR". I eventually realised this could be expanded in the same way as VCR but with "tape" instead of "cassette". I've definitely never heard VTR used before.

Re: what do you play the video in?

[adjectivemarcus.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I tend to say 'tape' for video tapes and audio cassettes, 'records' for vinyl, 'album' for vinyl and CDs.

I've heard people in my family refer to the record player as the 'stereogram' before. Which is doubly weird because stereograms are a sort of photography...

M xx