Star Wars? :) Sure, the tech was there, but it probably wasn't affordable for everything. Plus the preservation. This is before mass consumer digital media (maybe something like laserdiscs were available though?)
It's weirder than that; I watched the Silicon Cowboys documentary about compaq, and the archived footage quality takes a sharp dive from the 70s to the 80s as they switched from recording on film to videotape.
Tape quality was good and a lot cheaper, but it doesn't last as long before the video signal gets munged