VHS, 30, dies of loneliness

[fringey]

The home-entertainment format lived a fruitful life

By DIANE GARRETTAfter 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.

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A moment of slence is called for, folks.



Patrick
a.k.a. Fringey, The Fringe Element
"A life lived without passion is a life not lived.

[rayman]

So it's finally over, rest in piece VHS. I really had years of enjoyment on this format. I purchased my first Fisher VCR in 1985, those were the big bulky machines, and they lasted longer to, it was seven years until the machine finally broke down. Such fond memories of visiting the video rental mom-and-pop store during the late '80s in the Bronx, browsing through the horror section was my favorite. Seeing these tapes with family and friends in the early years of VHS is what I remember the most.

[fringey]

rayman wrote: So it's finally over, rest in piece VHS. I really had years of enjoyment on this format. I purchased my first Fisher VCR in 1985, those were the big bulky machines, and they lasted longer to, it was seven years until the machine finally broke down. Such fond memories of visiting the video rental mom-and-pop store during the late '80s in the Bronx, browsing through the horror section was my favorite. Seeing these tapes with family and friends in the early years of VHS is what I remember the most.



I think my first VCR was a Sharp and it was bought just in time for the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation. That was the first time I felt the NEED for one as I wasn't going to miss one episode of that. But, as I had worked in one of those little mom and pop video stores, I was constantly taking one of the players home along with my free movies all the time. I still have a lot of vhs of movies that haven;t been released on DVD yet, mostly B-movie horror flicks that i just refuse to give up on until I can convert them to DVD. Yes, I willl miss VHS.

Patrick
a.k.a. Fringey, The Fringe Element
"A life lived without passion is a life not lived.

[ninjabear]

Screw that---I'm still honked off because I can't get Star Wars Episode-III on VHS to complete my collection. I know it will never happen but being a stubborn S.O.B. I will not buy the DVD.

VHS will not die until an acceptable replacement comes along. Like the audio cassette and the 3.5 floppy disk, VHS remains a useful, reusable, easily transportable alternative to the options currently offered.
Burn a disk and it's burnt, that's it, it's done, grab another. I've been using and reusing VHS tapes, over and over for decades. I've worn out several VCR's but there are new ones on the shelf at Wal-Mart.
Give me something better and I'll use it but until they do, I'll be watching Numb3rs while I tape Law & Order---or as Richard Pryor once put it, "I ain't dead yet, (mellon-farmer)!"

[rayman]

ninjabear wrote:

Burn a disk and it's burnt, that's it, it's done, grab another. I've been using and reusing VHS tapes, over and over for decades. I've worn out several VCR's but there are new ones on the shelf at Wal-Mart.




You're forgetting the Rewritable DVD discs (RW) which you can record and erase up to 1000 times. And start stocking up because the single players VCR might be extinct in stores, they'll be making more of those combination VCR/DVD machines.

The only problem I have with the DVD revolution is all these new formats coming out, HD vs. Blu-Ray high-definition players that are way too expensive not to mention you would have to buy the same movies on a HD discs.

[ninjabear]

"Yeah, these things will be replacing CDs in a few years. I guess I'll have to buy the White Album again." MIB Agent K

That's the plan---you wind up buying the same things over and over every time a new, allegedy better format comes out and I for one am sick of it.

CD-R can be used 1000 times...gee, is that all?
I mean I just used a VHS tape I bought in 1988 to record something a few hours ago. I have no idea how many times I've used it, but I'm willing to bet anything it's way more than 1000.

My CD player came with a cassette deck, so why not get a VCR/DVD combo? What we're talking about is your favorite TV series or movies will no longer be available on VHS, but that does not mean the format is dead. VHS has been relegated to light duty, pending retirement, but it's too useful to get rid of altogether.
VHS has not gone the way of the 8-track just yet.

[fringey]

I just wanted to point out that VHS as a recordable medium is NOT going away anytime soon. The article is just stating that studios aren;t going to be putting out movies on VHS anymore. You should still be able to get blank VHS tapes for a long time to come. But, honestly, blank DVDs are as cheap, or cheaper than VHS now. I recently got a stack of 100 for $20. I can't buy VHS that cheap.

Patrick
a.k.a. Fringey, The Fringe Element
"A life lived without passion is a life not lived.

[ninjabear]

Screw the studios, they don't put out much of anything worth owning anyway. New format, higher prices, big ripoff.
Fringey, the reason you could buy a stack of blank DVDs dirt cheap is because they are dirt cheap to make---so why is a movie on DVD $20 (U.S.)?
Because that's the price the market will support. Buy it at $20, and they'll charge you $25 next time, on and on until you stop buying it but by then, they've bled you dry---time for a new format, folks!

Blank VHS doesn't have to be so cheap, since they are so reusable.

Don't get me wrong I like DVD, but I shudder at the thought it will be quickly supplanted by yet another high priced format I'll have to buy into because it will render DVD obsolete.

[fringey]

ninjabear wrote: Screw the studios, they don't put out much of anything worth owning anyway. New format, higher prices, big ripoff.
Fringey, the reason you could buy a stack of blank DVDs dirt cheap is because they are dirt cheap to make---so why is a movie on DVD $20 (U.S.)?
Because that's the price the market will support. Buy it at $20, and they'll charge you $25 next time, on and on until you stop buying it but by then, they've bled you dry---time for a new format, folks!

Blank VHS doesn't have to be so cheap, since they are so reusable.

Don't get me wrong I like DVD, but I shudder at the thought it will be quickly supplanted by yet another high priced format I'll have to buy into because it will render DVD obsolete.



I won't argue the high costs of DVD. I WILL say though, until the studios quit making VHS, when a movie was released on both formats, they went with a multiple price platform. While DVDs were releasing for under $30, VHS was still pricing at $99 retail in a lot of cases. So making the choice to buy a DVD player was a nobrainer for me. Otherwise I would have to wait months to buy movies with inferior picture and sound quality when the price dropped. LOL Never could understand the logic there. One of things that make DVDs expensive is the extras. For instance, when actors do commentaries, they often get paid more money to do that. I know I recently heard about a commentary that Schwarzengovernor did that they had to pay him $10K to just sit, watch the movie, and talk about it. As if he didn;t have enough money!

Patrick
a.k.a. Fringey, The Fringe Element
"A life lived without passion is a life not lived.

[fringey]

Just thinking some more about this, and DVD really isn't more expensive than VHS prices used to be. I remeber when VHS fueld my movie addiction and I used to search for VHS movies that were under $20 and $30, too. So not really a big difference.

What does just really hack me off is the practice of "double dipping". You know where you buy a DVD and a few months later they come out with a "special edition" or "director's cut" with all the bells and whistles special features they could have put on the first one? It doesn't bother me so much when they do like they did with LOTR and King Kong and tell you ahead of time, "Hey, you can buy this now or wait a few months for a better one!" At least that way, you get the choice. When they just suddenly pop up with another edition, it really gets up my nose.

Patrick
a.k.a. Fringey, The Fringe Element
"A life lived without passion is a life not lived.

[ninjabear]

I'm with you there, Fringey.
I bought Star Wars on RCA videodisk.
Then I bought it on VHS.
Then I bought digitally remastered VHS.
I got the "special edition" with the extras, new effects and screw-ups (Han shot first) as a gift.
Now I have to buy it on DVD---but which DVD set do I want?

I want my frelling money back!

[fringey]

ninjabear wrote: I'm with you there, Fringey.
I bought Star Wars on RCA videodisk.
Then I bought it on VHS.
Then I bought digitally remastered VHS.
I got the "special edition" with the extras, new effects and screw-ups (Han shot first) as a gift.
Now I have to buy it on DVD---but which DVD set do I want?

I want my frelling money back!






I was most annoyed that I had to buy the Special Edtions of the Star Wars trilogy to get the original theatrical versions, as I already had those. But, at least I got them at Wal_mart so was able to get the graphic novels of all three movies too. Still....

Patrick
a.k.a. Fringey, The Fringe Element
"A life lived without passion is a life not lived.

[ed2065 (deleted)]

I still tape my shows and also have a dvd player.