Posted on 11/27/2006 1:02:05 AM PST by Dallas59
After a long illness, the groundbreaking home-entertainment format VHS has died of natural causes in the United States. The format was 30 years old.
No services are planned.
The format had been expected to survive until January, but high-def formats and next-generation vidgame consoles hastened its final decline.
"It's pretty much over," concurred Buena Vista Home Entertainment general manager North America Lori MacPherson on Tuesday.
VHS is survived by a child, DVD, and by Tivo, VOD and DirecTV. It was preceded in death by Betamax, Divx, mini-discs and laserdiscs.
Although it had been ailing, the format's death became official in this, the video biz's all-important fourth quarter. Retailers decided to pull the plug, saying there was no longer shelf space.
As a tribute to the late, great VHS, Toys 'R' Us will continue to carry a few titles like "Barney," and some dollar video chains will still handle cassettes for those who cannot deal with the death of the format.
Born Vertical Helical Scan to parent JVC of Japan, the tape had a difficult childhood as it was forced to compete with Sony's Betamax format.
After its youthful Betamax battles, the longer-playing VHS tapes eventually became the format of choice for millions of consumers. VHS enjoyed a lucrative career, transforming the way people watched movies and changing the economics of the film biz. VHS hit its peak with "The Lion King," which sold more than 30 million vidcassettes Stateside.
The format flourished until DVDs launched in 1997. After a fruitful career, VHS tapes started to retire from center stage in 2003 when DVDs became more popular for the first time.
Since their retirement, VHS tapes have made occasional appearances in children's entertainment and as a format for collectors seeking titles not released on DVD. VHS continued to make as much as $300 million a year until this year, when studios stopped manufacturing the tapes.
Yep, never had to set that clock after a power outage. :)
Granted, the first time I plugged it in, it set itself to Eastern Time, since the "Time Zone" was set to "Auto" and my TV was tuned to FOX News at the time. Once I programmed the correct time zone in, it sets itself to the correct time zone where I am.
Couple years ago, my aunt accidently put something in her microwave she shouldn't have, and it ruined the microwave. She sent it into the shop to be repaired. The repair job cost more than a brand new microwave.
I suppose black and white TV is next?
"The PS3 adoption of BlueRay might be enough to nudge that format into the lead."
Except that by the time Sony finally releases its first generation player, Toshiba will already have its second generation player out.
And who can afford a PS3 game system at 1,500 a pop?
"It wont let you fast forward through the crap they put at the front of the movie."
Have you tried using the "menu" button?
"The DVD format won't even make it to 20."
Its already at nine. Why won't it last another 11?
As far as I know Disney is only supporting blu ray. But Most HD and blu ray players will be backwards compatible.
I have used every button on the thing. The people whp produce these advertisements make them so they wont be fast forwarded. They couldnt do that with tape.
Nobody can afford them. That's why there are lines of people camped out in front of stores to buy them.
And the history is that Microsoft, not IBM, reaped the rewards of DOS/Windows' success. Remember that the Mac came out in 1984, when Microsoft was still pretty small and the clones were just beginning to eat IBM's lunch. Apple wasn't looking to become the next Microsoft -- it was looking to avoid becoming the next IBM.
It's also worth noting that IBM didn't intentionally build an open system. Companies beginning with Compaq reverse-engineered the BIOS, and IBM lost lawsuits trying to stop them.
An important point often lost in the Apple/Betamax comparison is that Apple made a conscious decision to keep the system closed, because the whole Macintosh concept was that the hardware and software were designed at the same time by the same company to work together. That has been the concept for more than twenty years, and it's why throughout that time Macs have worked more smoothly and had fewer complications than Windows computers.
ping
Betacam/Beta SP is not the same as the consumer Betamax format. They share a name and a general tape shape, but that's it. You can't play your old Betamax tapes in a Beta SP deck.
Once the industry adopts a standard, one of the two will die the same death Beta did.
Possibly, but I think it will take a longer time to sort things out than it did with tape. I don't know about the physics of it, but my theory is that players will emerge that can handle both formats. Once that happens, the format wars will become irrelevant for most consumers, and it'll eventually shake out based on the economics of manufacturing.
I have cordless phones, so I'm cut off when the power goes out. But if I shut down everything but the DSL modem and the wireless router, and the laptop is fully charged, I can squeeze in a good three or four hours of fast wireless internet. The last couple of times, I reported the outage on the Georgia Power Web site.
You know what is really weird in light of what I posted? Tonight at the drug store, I saw a (cheap) emergency kit and it had a plug in phone in it............LOL........I couldn't believe it! Flashlight, battery operated radio, some other stuff ..........and a Princess phone!
My high school American History teacher had what I thought was one of the most clever exam questions ever: "When did Sgt. Pepper teach the band to play?"
It requited two pieces of knowledge -- that the album was recorded in 1967, and that it contained the lyric "It was 20 years ago today ..." Neither was unfair to expect of students, because the 20th anniversary just happened, and Mr. Morgan had used the album as a cultural touchstone when he taught the '60s.
The reason I thought it was clever was that it required putting together two disparate pieces of information and doing a little thinking rather than just spitting back bullet points.
And as a little side note... As far as single sourcing all the equipment so "it all worked together", that's what AT&T said/did as well... When people were allowed to connect whatever they wanted the options and capabilities exploded - and it still worked...
Yes, but they didn't want to be what Microsoft is today -- a company that has to throw a whole lot if resources at supporting any hardware anyone could cook up. That would put a serious dent in the whole software/hardware integration idea. Apple has been pretty consistently profitable, and even in its worst days in the late '90s, it had billions in cash on hand.
I prefer Macs. My only concern is that the company remain healthy enough to keep making them and keep innovating. Beyond that, I don't care about their market share, any more than someone who's comfy in his BMW cares that there are a lot more Toyotas on the road.
Apples (ahem) and oranges. AT&T was arguing for exclusive access to a nationwide network. Macs work on the same Ethernet and IP networks as any other computer. They use the same peripheral hardware (I have a Dell monitor, an HP printer and a Microsoft mouse hooked to mine), run on the same 110 or 220V AC current, use the same 802.11 networks, the same USB ports, and the same 1394 connections to camcorders as Windows and Linux machines. The integration is limited to the one small box on my desk.
Nooo....
I'm talking about the days AT&T (Bell Telephone) leased you the phone on the end of their wires. You weren't allowed to hook much of anything to the phone line that AT&T didn't make/authorize. It was essentially a closed system to outsiders.
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