VHS, 30, dies of loneliness

The home-entertainment format lived a fruitful life


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.

Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117953955.html

ill not miss it at all

in my experiences, there were always tracking issues from one machine to the next

the tapes were bulky and very heavy

storage was a constant issue

i did have a machine that cut out commercials, but it wouldnt work on the enxt machine, only the priginal one

i havent owned a vhs machine for over 3 years now, having tossed the last two i owned, when i moved

i refused to carry it another foot

good riddens

I thought VHS was already dead!!!

When manufacturers see there is little demand if any for vhs tapes and no longer profitable to produce them, vhs tapes will go the way of the dodo bird. You can't find 5 1/4 in flopies, 3 1/4 in. hard disks any more, soon it will be the same for vhs tapes. I can remember where all storage for computers was on tape drives.

As in all aspects of life there will be a few that will cling to the past, not embrace the present and will still sing the virtues of vhs tapes and machines.

Harvey

:rip:

I will miss it, I never saw a picture FREEZE on a VHS tape

I will miss it, I never saw a picture FREEZE on a VHS tape

i never saw tracking issues from one dvd player to the next either

every format has some limits

no says you cant keep using vhs forever

this just says that the studios will not release new movies on vhs


heres a hint

go buy a few vhs machines on ebay and stash them away

or even on the closeout sites

they are dirt cheap

and almost everywhere has tapes at give away prices

stock up

One way to look at it is, if not for VHS, many of us would not be here trading today. Everyone is capable of getting things from the DVD age, but you're fortunate to find someone who has something from 20-25 years ago you saw as a kid.

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.


Mark Twain

Luckily I still have hundreds of VHS tapes plus a few recorders so it shall live for me for quite a few years to come. :D

While I haven't been recording anything new on VHS for about 2 years now, I am still playing my VHS tapes aplenty as I transfer them to DVD. I just hope they don't stop making VHS machines before I get my tapes transferred. I have this problem with Beta, I have a whole lot of great Beta tapes I never got to transfer before my beta machines died. The tapes live on but a way of playing them dies and then so does all the entertainment you had on those valuable tapes. I hate to have to buy 10 VHS machines to be sure I have enough to cover the rest of my lifetime, not to mention where to store them. But I may have to.:(

One way to look at it is, if not for VHS, many of us would not be here trading today. Everyone is capable of getting things from the DVD age, but you're fortunate to find someone who has something from 20-25 years ago you saw as a kid.


Thats exactly my theory.

Since dvd and wasn't around and beta at the time was so expensive the only way to get some rare items, is from VHS
and for that I hold deep respect.

Some users till only trade vhs.

And I will say this, DVD is lighter, cheaper, more convieneint

But its also more fickle at times, more fragile at times, and more demanding at times.

Wait, some people might confuse Vhs with woman now...

VHS was good in its day
but it died

dvds do have issues too
all formats do
but vhs tapes have more issues and less benefits

my prediction is in 5-10 years u wont be able to find blank tapes or players anymore at all
and it will be completely dead

I think VHS will be around longer than 5-10 years as long as dvds have their issues. Why are the machines so sensative? I don't worry about walking near my vcr, but I practically tippy toe around my dvd player afraid that my disc will freeze up or skip. Also avoiding getting scratches and fingerprints are a pain. I still don't get why they haven't made the discs as tough and durable as the casing for VHS.

If the issues are ever resolved, I'd be the first to shovel dirt on my VCR. :crazy:

One way to look at it is, if not for VHS, many of us would not be here trading today. Everyone is capable of getting things from the DVD age, but you're fortunate to find someone who has something from 20-25 years ago you saw as a kid.

We got our first VCR in 1983 as a wedding present. It was a BIG DEAL, since we only knew a handful of other people who had them. I really regret we didn't save many of the things we recorded. But I think tapes were much more expensive than they are now. Heck, they HAD to be, since so few people had VCRs. I mean, you couldn't go to the grocery & buy blank tapes back then. Maybe drugstores, I really don't remember where we bought them. And, like the recording studios of yore, reusing the tapes made much more sense (financially) than saving them. (sigh)

my prediction is in 5-10 years u wont be able to find blank tapes or players anymore at all
and it will be completely dead

My prediction is it won't even take that long.

On second thought...unless a new technology develops, VHS may be around for impaired people, just like they continue to use tape cassettes today for audiobooks. (Most MP3 players are not "vision impaired" friendly.) IE, my 89 y/o mother, who's "low vision" (not totally blind, but legally blind). DVD would be much too confusing for her with the menus, chapters, etc. Simple VHS with start/stop/pause/rewind is easier for her to deal with.

there are many beta machines for sale on ebay

some for little more than ship charges

so they are easy to find


and also 8 track players

I have 3 working Beta decks, and at this point, they all came from eBay. And there are still manufacturers who make Beta tapes - Sony, for example. If anyone has certain material on my want list in Beta (or VHS), I would definitely be interested in trading for it.

I have a number of VHS PAL tapes I'd love to find a home for. Retail releases. They take up so much space, and much of it has been released on DVD or I'm no longer interested in it. They cost me a fortune, but I'll be lucky if I get anything at all for them - can't even donate them to Goodwill or any place like that since most people don't have multistandard VHS decks ... sigh. Ah well, the cost of being a long-term videophile ...

And I agree, Redwhine - tape makes more sense to some older users. My 80-year-old Mom can handle the VCR, but the DVD player confuses her.

its always sad when technology dies

i still have an old 8 track machine that was my grandads, and i collection of old 8 tracks too!

but i tossed the beta player decades ago
and the vhs players are only around to transfer old tapes with

THE BIG DRAWBACK is that its tough to get some tapes to track on some vhs machines so even they are pretty useless sometimes

i still have an old 8 track machine that was my grandads, and i collection of old 8 tracks too!

Oh, man, you are killin' me here! I remember back in the early 70's when THE BIG DEAL was getting your 8 track ripped off. I STILL remember a double date when my girlfriend's boyfriend drove to a movie. When we came out - voila - no 8 track.

well my collection of 8 track tapes is pretty funny

SONNY BONO solo work
AMERICA
BOB DYLAN
a bunch of WILLIE NELSON
LAWRENCE WELK
LIBERACE
ROCKY soundtrack
THE MUPPET MOVIE soundtrack
THE DRIFTERS
etc etc etc

In Quebec, it's a bit different. There are only a few larger cities and the rest of the population is rural. I live in a town of 3000 people and I dont even know anyone with a dvd recorder to tape shows off tv. I know people that burn movies onto discs with their computers, but apart from that, VCRs are still very much alive here.
Even the cable company gives us the cheapest cable you can get. They had to give me an old tv converter to be able to get the pay channels because the new converters arent compatible with the system. I dont have a remote though, I have to get up and manually press the button on the box to change stations. I dont mind that, its excercise! LOL

And there are still manufacturers who make Beta tapes - Sony, for example.

Really? I seem to recall a few years back reading about the "final" death knell of Betamax with Sony finally throwing in the towel.

Sony no longer manufactures the machine, but new tapes can still be purchased. Beta is still used in 3-D modelling for engineering ...

never saw a dvd snap either or get tangled and ripped apart

never saw a dvd snap either or get tangled and ripped apart


Well that would be because of a cheap VCR

not all the time,,even good vcrs go bad

my only drawback on the dvd is the dvds itself need to be handled more carefully. there are certain vhs tapes i will keepwhen i put them to dvd,i got thousnds of wrestling tapes even after i put on dvd i wont part with

well my collection of 8 track tapes is pretty funny

SONNY BONO solo work
Is that "Inner Views"? If so, I'd be interested in getting that on 8-track - I love them. PM me if you want, I have one episode of Bronk which I saw you were looking for.

hey
ill have to check
i KNOW i have INNER VIEWS but not sure if its on 8 track or LP

well my collection of 8 track tapes is pretty funny

SONNY BONO solo work
AMERICA
BOB DYLAN
a bunch of WILLIE NELSON
LAWRENCE WELK
LIBERACE
ROCKY soundtrack
THE MUPPET MOVIE soundtrack
THE DRIFTERS
etc etc etc

Cool! I had a huge 8 track collection. One was the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever. After that movie came out, every teenaged guy wanted to dance like Travolta because it was the way to get more chicks. Hell, I even bought a flashy polyester shirt and even considered taking disco dancing lessons with some friends of mine! It was all part of "the BIG plan"! What was I thinking? A girl I worked with had a brother who taught lessons, but we never followed up on it. I was really after his sister anyway! :)

The only thing I will miss with VHS is the recording quality of the 4 and 6 hour modes as compared to the current DVD technology.DVD recorrding on anything over 2 hours (with the exception of a few minutes more in Flexmode)is absolutely terrible.I have some older VHS machines that record beautifully in those 4 and 6 hour modes and use those sometimes for recording sports games that always run over 2 hours.Alot of times I don't feel like recording games on DVD and have to change discs at halftime which means babysitting the DVD recorder.DVD technology badly needs to improve the recording results of the LP and EP modes.

The only thing I will miss with VHS is the recording quality of the 4 and 6 hour modes as compared to the current DVD technology.DVD recorrding on anything over 2 hours (with the exception of a few minutes more in Flexmode)is absolutely terrible.I have some older VHS machines that record beautifully in those 4 and 6 hour modes and use those sometimes for recording sports games that always run over 2 hours.Alot of times I don't feel like recording games on DVD and have to change discs at halftime which means babysitting the DVD recorder.DVD technology badly needs to improve the recording results of the LP and EP modes.


i guess i will find that out in a couple of months

whats vhs???? never heard of it

maybe its your dvd recorder
because i usually put 4 hours on a disc with fine quality from HD source

I have no problem recording on my Panasonic dvd recorder on 4 hr mode,but when im taping Wrestling i notice a differs in quality,im starting to do that on 2hr or felx

i wouldn't toss vhs out too soon. it still has some advatages over dvds,but not much. for example if you record a show on vhs and find out it's the wrong show, you can tape over it,but you can't with a dvd unless it's a rw without losing space. number two if you miss and epc on a show and waiting on someone to mail you the missing epc , you can fast forward the tape for the space you need so you won't mess up the order,but you can't with dvds unless it's a rw( i believe). i believe it's the hard drives like tivo what's killing vhs. no tapes, no worrying about running out of tape. i know what you mean about the vcr tracking thing. since i don't have the vcr that tapes the tape, i have to constinatly set the tracking or the picture warps when i try to record it to dvd. i love my dvds though less space.

I went to w-mart tonight
they have a bin- of 5 vhs tapes, 99 cents.

So they are basically blowing them out for 20 cents a piece. So I got several packs of 5 to put away.

It makes me feel old.
I was around for beta before it disapeared-
and Laser discs, and CED's IF ANYONE else even remembers THAT format
http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ced-1977-vs-1982.html



VHS...VCD

What does it say when 5 formats of media have come and gone?

if it truly is a dead format
i know just the guy to deliver a loving Eulogy!

if it truly is a dead format
i know just the guy to deliver a loving Eulogy!

You can't get rid of dead technology unless you have something to replace it with.

Betsy the old mule, is no Mercedes Benz but it beats walking if you have nothing else.

Harvey

if it truly is a dead format
i know just the guy to deliver a loving Eulogy!

I am SO outta here. :lol:

There are advantages and disadvantages with both formats. With DVD's, you don't have the hassle of fast forwarding or rewinding, but there are format issues with the disks and often times they freeze up when playing. DVD's are fragile, you have to be extra careful not to smudge or scratch them. It's amazing though the superb picture quality that you get on DVD's. Hard to believe that they can produce such great video quality on a piece of plastic. It's good technology, it's cheap, and the DVD's take up less space than VHS tapes. But I still like VHS, the format overall is a little more user friendly. I have 6 VCR's, 4 are in use and 2 are still in the box and haven't been opened yet. Over the next few years, I'm probably going to stock up on blank VHS tapes in the event stores quit selling them down the line.