It was September, 1976.  Gerald Ford was in the White House.   Watergate was a recent memory.  TV had monaural sound.   Digital watches and LCD displays hadn't been invented yet.  No personal computers...no Internet...no cell phones.   And the home video market consisted of .....two Sony Betamaxes!  Luckily, a gentleman from Tallahassee, Florida, decided to try to pull together the first owners of the revolutionary "Betamax," and  publish a subscription-only mimeographed newsletter called THE VIDEOPHILE'S NEWSLETTER...the VERY FIRST video magazine!!!  TVN ran from 1976 to 1981, changing its name to simply THE VIDEOPHILE in the early 80s.  I have reprinted a few pages from selected issues below for your enjoyment and education.  You will be amused by what you read, because all these articles, questions/answers, ads, etc., were from the very DAWN of the home video revolution, which obviously has changed and evolved drastically since the mid 1970s!!

As you will see, Jim was VERY big on trading tapes and bringing early collectors together...see notes below.   Jim heavily advocated this and laid down his ideas and guidelines.  Jim also kept his readers abreast of new developments, such as the "new" videodisc, projection TV, and satellite systems, etc, as well as availability of blank and pre-recorded tapes, lowest prices on Beta VCRs, and so forth.

You must remember that, when these issues were published...
*Imagine a world without VHS, without audio CDs, without DVDs or DV tape, and without video stores!  That was the state of the electronics industry when this magazine was first published!  Also, the only home video format that was around was Betamax, and it had been around for barely a year at this time!  The only 2 models that were available were the LV-1901 console and the SL-7200, and they both only recorded on one-hour tapes!  There was no Beta Hi-Fi audio,  no SuperBeta, no BII or BIII speed, no wireless remotes, and no BetaScan (picture search).  Imagine!!!
*When you could obtain blank Betamax tapes, they were $16.95 for one-hour tapes and $12.95 for half-hour tapes. Incredible!!  Blank tapes sold very fast in the early days, and had to be back-ordered quite often.
*There were NO pre-recorded movies available yet, and no video stores to rent them! The only way to obtain programming, and to build a library (which was everyone's goal in the beginning), was to record your own material off TV, or trade tapes with others.
*A very small percentage of Americans had cable TV in those days, and virtually no one except the very wealthy had a satellite dish.  DSS was still years away.
*Even though the pre-recorded video industry had not been born yet, the original purpose of these home VCRs was to timer-tape and time-shift TV shows!  No one could have foreseen  that VCRs would become simply movie playback machines over the years, and their ability to timer-tape shows was almost forgotten!
 
As for Jim Lowe, he is still alive and well and in Florida, and although he is not involved in home video like he used to be, he is active on the Internet.  

I have reprinted the earliest issues in their entirety, since, when they were published, the hobby was absolutely in its infancy....and I felt that it would be fascinating reading.  Enjoy your history lesson!!!