Electronics 1981
Magnavox
You already own half of the world’s most advanced home entertainment system.
FROM THE PRINTED PAGEOriginal ad copy
OCR transcription from the archived page. Scanning and reading-order errors may remain.
YOU ALREADY OWN HALF OF THE WORLD'S MOST ADVANCED HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. You're already halfway to Magnavision® right now. Because all you have to do is plug it into your present color TV set. Magnavision is a turntable. A video turntable as well as an audio one. It plays discs that show pictures on your TV. With stereo sound capability. And what pictures. Magnavision delivers a picture that's clearer and crisper than video tape TV, even TV itself. And the Magnavision picture lasts, because the discs are impervious to wear. See the buttons on the front of the Magnavision unit? They give you total control over what you watch and how you watch it. Consider the possibilities: Reverse. Slow motion. Individual frame-by-frame indexing. More. And you can exercise control from anywhere in the room, since Magnavision Model 8005 (shown here) gives you a full-feature remote control. AMAZING: PICTURES WITH STEREO SOUND. Magnavision even gives you high-fidelity stereo sound. Just run it through your present stereo system and choose from one of the many stereo videodiscs (concerts, musicals, shows). You can't get stereo with video tape, and stereo TV is years away. Imagine, now you can see Liza Minnelli,† for example, as well as hear her in stereo concert! All of this wonderwork comes from Magnavision's laser-optical scanner. It is a beam of light that works like an audio player's “needle.” But Magnavision's laser-optical scanner has none of the archaic limitations of a needle. Magnavision is full of ideas. It can be a learning machine as well as an entertainment source. Many of the discs are interactive. You can carry on a dialogue with them. How To Watch Pro Football, The First National Kidisc†—games, puzzles, questions and answers for your children, The Master Cooking Course†, and Jazzercise† are just four examples. You can put as many different kinds of programs on your television screen with Magnavision as you can imagine. Choose from over 120 videodisc albums now. They range from classic movies to new releases. From sports instruction to art gallery tours. From cartoons to concerts. And new programs are continually being developed exclusively for videodiscs. So put your half of the world's most advanced home entertainment system together with Magnavision soon. For the name of your nearest dealer, please call toll-free 800-447-4700 (in Illinois, 800-322-4400). © 1981 N A P CONSUMER ELECTRONICS CORP. †Liza in Concert ©, Pioneer Artists™. †Optical Programming Associates® LaserVision THIS LASERVISION MARK [illegible] COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER [illegible] LOOK FOR DISCS BEARING [illegible] MAGNAVOX The brightest ideas in the world are here today. MAGNAVISION
Commentary
I went looking for the half the reader supposedly owns. It is the modest television tucked into the upper-right corner. Everything else—the open lid, shining discs, buttons and remote—belongs to the half still for sale. Magnavox starts the purchase psychologically before asking for it financially: possession of an ordinary colour television becomes evidence that the reader is already progressing toward an extraordinary system.
“Turntable” is the next clue. An unfamiliar video device is introduced through an object the audience might already understand, then explained as a machine whose discs produce pictures. The copy returns to that analogy when it describes a beam of light working like a needle, before distinguishing optical reading from mechanical contact. The Computer History Museum places the American consumer introduction of the Magnavox laserdisc player in 1978. This 1981 page is still doing the work of teaching the category.
Its deepest promise is control. Reverse, slow motion and individual frames offer a different relationship with television from accepting whatever happens to be broadcast. Yet the programme library has to be made tangible too: over 120 albums, Liza Minnelli, cooking, football and exercise. These examples turn a formidable appliance into a proposed household routine. I read the varied list as an attempt to give several family members a reason to tolerate the purchase.
“Over 120” now sounds like a small catalogue, but here it has to stand for abundance. More revealing is the need to telephone for a nearby dealer. Access to the future involves finding a physical seller and obtaining physical programmes. Today’s on-demand interfaces make selection feel immediate; this page shows the distribution work that once sat between wanting a film and controlling its playback.
For beginning copywriters, study “already.” Before a single feature appears, that word converts an existing possession into momentum. “Half” makes the next purchase feel like completion. The short fragments “Reverse. Slow motion.” then let individual benefits land with the firmness of button presses. A useful lesson is to connect the unfamiliar purchase to something readers own, while explaining exactly what the addition changes.
Magnavox traces its brand origins to 1917 and reports that Curtis International acquired global brand rights in January 2025. Curtis’s current brand account describes televisions, DVD players and audio products; this is a later business context, not a continuation of the advertised Magnavision offer.
Making an existing screen more useful remains an intelligible promise. The discs, playback comparisons and prediction about stereo television belong to 1981. The enduring idea is ownership reinterpreted: show people that something familiar can become the foundation of a new experience.