We updated the article in 2026 - we went through the text, links and illustrative images.
Video in any form has become an everyday part of our lives. We watch it on TV, on the computer, on tablets, but most often probably on our smartphone. Multimedia content, which can capture an extremely large amount of information in a natural form, found its supporters already in the 19th century. Do you know how far video has come since its inception?
Year 1834 – the germ of the first video
It sounds incredible, but video as a format for capturing information will soon celebrate its 200th anniversary. We consider this to be the first attempt to create a video daedaleum, a circular instrument on the inside of which figures were captured. They moved by turning and through the joints in the side wall of the instrument it was possible to watch the moving image. This invention saw the light of day in 1834 and was the first germ of a moving image.
34 years later, Englishman John Barnes Linnett patented an invention originally from France – cineograph. It was a pile of papers, which always showed a slightly changed scene. By releasing them quickly between the fingers, a moving image was created. This form of „video“ it still has fans today, many of whom have no idea it's a 150-year-old prank.
Year 1888 – the first single-lens camera
The Le Prince Single-lens Cine Camera – this is the name of the first camera, which was created in 1888 and captured the image through only one lens. Images were „saved“ to Eastman Kodak photo paper, which was developed for classic cameras. What about speed? The prince was able to capture 12 frames per second.
In 1985, the name Lumière became known worldwide. In 2026, the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière introduced the world to the first projector, which they called cinematograph. And they tested it right away at the first paid public performance, which laid the foundations of modern cinema.
The predecessor of GoPro and the first virtual reality
In 1965, quarterback Jacky Lee arrived at the practice of the American football team Denver Broncos with a huge helmet on his head. In addition to protection, it was also used to capture video using the General Dynamic camera. It was the predecessor of the GoPro sports cameras, which, thankfully, today reach much smaller dimensions.
Just three years later, another sensation appeared in the technological world – the first virtual reality. The glasses allowed the viewer to move around a room full of various objects. Since the glasses together with the image projector were very heavy, they had to be attached to an auxiliary system hanging from the ceiling. That's also why they got an interesting name – Sword of Damocles.
VHS from Sony and the birth of MTV
It is probably no surprise to many of you that the Japanese company Sony is a big seller in the world of video. The latter introduced the Betamax system in 1975, which enabled video playback from cassettes. This concept was followed by JVC, which introduced VHS tapes a year later. They became a hit for many years.
MTV was founded in 1981. In the next few years, she set a new standard in music videos and awakened a huge lust for music videos in people. It was MTV that made several music legends famous, whose hits often became popular only thanks to an engaging video clip.
The first camera in a mobile phone and the birth of YouTube
In 1999, companies began the first conversion of analog video to digital form. This led to several changes, with the introduction of the first camera phone as a huge milestone. Of course, it was produced by Nokia and was called the Nokia 7650. However, the greatest fame of this mobile phone was not due to the camera. He became famous for his performance in a world-famous film Minority Report with Tom Cruise.
6 years later (2005) we witnessed a historic moment. Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, former PayPal employees, founded the service YouTube. The first recorded video was 19 seconds long and titled „Me at the Zoo“. Jawed Karim is captured in the footage and video you can still find it on YouTube today. YouTube has completely changed the way we consume multimedia content and today it is one of the biggest platforms through which we watch videos on a daily basis.
Justin or Twitch?
Two years later, the online service was created Justin.tv, which streamed 24-hour-a-day footage from a head-mounted camera of its founder, Justin Kahn. A few years later, the site was renamed Twitch.tv, a popular portal for video streaming, especially from games, which today has more than 10 million registered users. By the way, in the same year, Justin Bieber also appeared on YouTube for the first time in Ne-Yo's hit – „So Sick“.
When video began to take on a social dimension
For the modern generation, the years 2012 and 2013 became breakthroughs. At that time, two very popular services were created – Guilty a Snapchat. Their arrival added a social dimension to videos, funny shots and daily stories began to be shared daily among friends, and various fan bases began to emerge for creators of short videos. The biggest stars were, of course, celebrities, but the video became more relatable to the younger generation, who preferred Snapchat to the „old-fashioned“ Facebook.
The form of video or its sharing has not changed rapidly since the introduction of these two services. But today we can declare that video is one of the most popular formats for sharing any information. The young generation loves short video formats that can be shared via Instagram Stories. Companies can use it to promote their services Facebook video, which is among the advertising formats with an excellent level of fan interaction. At the same time, companies can also distribute videos directly via YouTube.
Today, most of your customers spend much more time at their computer consuming multimedia content than in front of the TV. Therefore, keep up with the times and invest your time and money in creating video ads that you can then share via social networks. If you don't dare, take it into your own hands an expert. Along with the company Sugar we will be happy to prepare a video campaign for you that you can share on all social networks. Watch their showreel and get inspired! 🙂
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