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.
Is that at the same store where you bought your 4 yards of calico, 2 pounds of crackers, three pounds of beef jerky and a penny bag of sorghum candy?
What I normally do is put the DVD in the recorder about five or ten minutes before I want to begin a movie and then get to clearing dishes off the table, or gathering snacks or getting the kids ready for bed or whatever. Then when I am ready to watch the movie everything has already gone through the nonsense. I do this with the tv off too which is another bonus. I really wish after you go through them once you could skip them easier but that does not seem to be the case.
The DVD format won't even make it to 20.
WOW, he was so young. I knew him well, he was my exercise partner for years and we often went to the movies together.
I have found it depends on the disc. Some will let you skip others will not. Also I would like to skip that federal crap no one reads anyway. With the VCR you could skip all that crap.
I believe most households still have VCR. Not to watch movies, but to record news, TV programs, etc. It's just cheaper and easier to operate. Yeah, there will a day when VCR dies. But not today... not yet.
I agree. Jump drive will be the thing one day.. A little jump drive will hold a couple of movies and dont take up any space.
And look at the kids. The idea of owning a physical thing -- LP, 45, cassette,CD -- is entirely alien or quaint to them. In their minds, music is digital code that can be shuttled and forth between devices. Same will hold true for movies with that generation.
I buy VHS tapes at the flea market for $.50-$1.00 Still get some hard to find early titles that haven't made it to DVD yet .
If you have a large collection buying a cheap player might be good idea in case they stop manufacturing them .
Most of the students I taught in 6th grade didn't even know what a RECORD was .
That's actually due to the manufacturers of the DVD, not an issue of the format... If you buy a commercial DVD, the manufacturer can keep you from fast forwarding through it... But if you record a TV show on a DVD, you can fast forward all you like... And if, like me, you buy DVDs, but keep them archived, you can always "re-author" a DVD using a computer in order to get rid of the stuff you don't like... Of course, someday before long I'm sure that the government will outlaw being able to reauthor DVDs, and even to skip commercials using DVR/PVR on your TV - I'm not kidding about that one... The lobbying groups actually called skipping commercials "stealing."
Mark
I still have the VCR here in the basement. There is no way I would ever be able to replace all my VCR movies with DVD's.
Can you tell me how to stop the blinking 12:00 on the face of my VCR?
Remember, now that Daylight Saving Time is over, your VCR should blink 11:00. :)
Most of the students I taught in 6th grade didn't even know what a RECORD was .
Older kids know what records are...they're something a DJ scatches to get a particular sound at a dance club.
The Luddite.
Duct tape!
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