Having lived in Romania during communism, I was shocked in disbelief when I read that the VCR's original purpose was recording and not playing. Having a video here at those times was more prised here than having a car (which you couldn't drive much anyway on 20 liters of gas a month which was the amount one was entitled to buy after waiting innumerable hours in the queue at petrol stations). And to record what, 2 hours of TV per day that only showed Great Leader's achievements?
Playing western movies was the whole purpose and beat by far any other form of entertainment. So imagine my surprise when discovering people were using these wonderful devices primarily to record stuff...