NORFOLK, Va. — Editor's note: This story is part of 13News Now's Vault series.
File this under things we take for granted in 2022: Compared to what it was like decades ago, our access to videos and music couldn’t be easier.
We can watch or listen to anything we want with our smartphones at any time. That was not the case in 1984.
Compact Discs weren’t even mainstream yet, and music videos were still in their infancy. You’d have to sit at home and wait patiently until your favorite song aired on MTV.
But there was another option, not often talked about, that was featured at an electronics store in Norfolk right before Christmas that year: the Panasonic Quadrophonic Video Jukebox.
It was a series of bulky audio boxes stacked in a system the size of a refrigerator. It played LaserDiscs (think: DVDs the size of vinyl records) of popular music videos on a television stacked on top. There were only 100 song options to choose from in a machine the size of a refrigerator.
This was cutting-edge technology back then.
While the video jukebox was really meant to be in bars and restaurants, there were some people hoping to make it a big-ticket Christmas gift that year.
But the price tag scared most people away. You think your smartphone is expensive? The video jukebox was priced right around $10,000!
Watch our original report from 1984: