Home video

Home video is pre-recorded media that is either sold, rented or streamed for home entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotape, but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital distribution such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video.

The home video business distributes films, telemovies and television series in the form of videos in various formats to the public. These are either bought or rented and then watched privately from the comfort of consumers' homes. Most theatrically released films are now released on digital media, both optical (DVD or Blu-ray) and download-based, replacing the largely obsolete VHS (Video Home System) medium. The VCD format remains popular in Asia, though DVDs are gradually gaining popularity.

Prior to the arrival of home video as a popular medium, most feature films were essentially inaccessible to the public after their original theatrical runs were over. Some very popular films were given occasional theatrical re-releases in urban revival houses and the screening rooms of a handful of archives and museums, and beginning in the 1950s, most could be expected to turn up on television eventually. During this era, it was also the norm that television programs could only be viewed at the time of broadcast. Viewers were accustomed to the fact that there was no normal way to record TV shows at home and watch them whenever desired.

It was possible to purchase a 16 mm or 8 mm film projector and rent or buy home-use prints of some cartoons, short comedies and brief "highlights" reels edited from feature films. In the case of the 16 mm format, most of these were available with an optical soundtrack, and even some entire feature films in 16 mm could be rented or bought. 8 mm films almost never ran longer than ten minutes and only a few were available with a magnetic soundtrack late in the life of the format. The Super 8 film format, introduced in 1965, was marketed for making home movies but it also boosted the popularity of show-at-home films. Eventually, longer, edited-down versions of feature films were issued, increasingly with a magnetic soundtrack and in color. But, these were quite expensive and served only a small niche market of very dedicated or affluent film lovers.

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Wikipedia