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Home video is pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented or streamed for home cinema 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. 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, then watched privately from the comfort of home by consumers. 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. == History == Prior to the arrival of home video as a popular medium in the late 1970s, 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, some could be seen 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, but interrupted by commercials and very possibly at an inconvenient or impossible viewing time. 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. Many observed that such a capability would be desirable. Those who could afford such luxuries could buy 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, at a steep price, 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 rest were silent. 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 and longer edited-down versions of feature films were issued, increasingly with a magnetic soundtrack and in color, but they were quite expensive and served only a small niche market of very dedicated or affluent film lovers. The Betamax and VHS home videocassette formats were not introduced until 1975 and 1976 respectively and it took several years, and substantial price drops, before they started to become a widespread household fixture. Film studios and video distributors assumed that consumers would not want to actually buy prerecorded videocassettes, just rent them, and that virtually all of the sales would be to video rental stores. Prices were therefore set very high. Eventually, it was realized that many people ''did'' want to build their own video libraries as well as rent, if the price was right, and that a title which had sold a few hundred copies at $99 might sell tens or even hundreds of thousands of copies at $19.99 or $9.99. The first company to duplicate and distribute home video was Magnetic Video in 1977, originally established in 1968 as an audio and video duplication service for professional audio and television corporations in Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA, although Avco's 1972 Cartrivision system preceded Magnetic Vision's expansion into home video by a few years. Major United States players in the video rental business today include Netflix. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Home video」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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