Death of a Friend...we will all miss

[savageamusement]

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

[loren]

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

[RedWhine56]

I thought VHS was already dead!!!

[lilhave]

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

[Brian Damage]

[TVFactFan]

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

[loren]

Originally Posted by TVResearcher

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

[T-Greg]

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.

[wew3]

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.


Mark Twain

[Mr. Television]

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.

[Hazel Anyday]

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.

[savageamusement]

Originally Posted by T-Greg

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...

[Lamont]

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

[wew3]

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.

[RedWhine56]

Originally Posted by T-Greg

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)