Why were films silent for so long if audio recording technology like radiowas already commonly used?
In: Technology
Radio does not record audio, just transmit it, and even that came just as audio movies were invented. A better example would be gramophones. Edison were an early adopter of both of these technologies had did actually come out with combined devices as early as 1895. But these early system had issues synchronizing the audio to the video, the projectors were usually louder then the gramophone output and the audio quality were generally quite poor. The sound also had to be recorded live in front of the recording device as there were no sound editing equipment yet. That made it hard to get anything but music on these recordings or maybe a simple voiceover. And at that point it was just cheaper to have simpler cinemas with a piano or organ.
It was only until the 1920s that you got electronics good enough to handle analog signals like sound that audio movies started to become a thing. And as these techniques and technologies developed you got the first popular talkies starting in 1927.
Latest Answers