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Circuit City Phases Out VHS
Rashan writes: "Video Business Online is reporting that Circuit City is becoming the first of the mass merchants to state its intent to discontinue sales of the aging video format."
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Ever tried to by a tape of your favorite new album?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
But I can still buy Beta, right?
An optimist believes we live in the best world possible; a pessimist fears this is true.
I assume there will still be a niche market for security cameras and camcorder type cameras.
On the plus side, if anyone is looking for a good security camera program that is open source, I recommend "Motion". I was going to use a VHS based security setup, but went with it instead, with VHS as a backup un case the computer crashes.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Anyone else remember the far-sighted and insightful (ha) judge in the DeCSS case that said hey, you don't need to make excerpts from DVDs, because the analog format is available?
Not that I'm crying about the loss of VHS tapes, that's for sure. As soon as PVRs have built-in DVD writers, clunky tapes that operate by scraping against a metal disk will be a distant memory.
that this article is about phasing out pre-recorded VHS tapes. It doesn't say that it will phase out VCRs.
This is just the next step in the evolution of the format. Now that it's gained customer acceptance, the stores can get rid of the inferior technology (VHS) and concentrate their business. It happened with audio cassettes (vinyl was killed), and it happened with CDs (bye bye cassettes).
;)
As far as being a premature move, everyone that I talk to nowadays either has a DVD player or plans on getting one within the year. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for the stores to push those last few stragglers to DVD by eliminating the VHS market for new releases.
Besides, wouldn't you rather have more room on the shelves for the latest anime imports?
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Anyway, since VHS is still the primary *recording* medium of the consumer, I wonder if they'll continue to sell VCRs?
I just mentally picture Circuit City as being more "in the pocket" of Sony et al, especially when it comes to playing with the anti-copying lobbyists.
John
I don't see what the big deal is. Tho what I do find interesting is walking into a local music store named "Record & Tape Traders" and finding no records or tapes. Blah.
Yes VHS is on its way out. The worst problem with this is the eventual loss of films that will never be released on DVD.
Not only do they earn commission, they earn their commission based on the profit of an item. That "too powerful" phone you were trying to purchase was probably a loss leader and had a very poor profit margin. He was likely trying to steer you a phone with a better profit margin and of course a better commission for him. Commission is still commission, but don't be fooled into thinking that the more expensive item will yield a better commission for the salesperson.
Who cares what the percentage of homes with DVD players is? The fact that you do is why they are making these decisions at a giant nation-wide chain, and you are reading Slashdot...
Think about it -- the *only* figure that matters is what percentage of people who routinely buy movies have DVD players. The number of people with VCRs doesn't matter any more than the number of people who like SpongeBob SquarePants matters in a decision like this one.
Its also a very different issue from one of, say, Blockbuster dropping VHS -- they won't, because I'd guess its a safe bet that the percentage of people who rent videos who don't have DVD players is a lot higher than the percentage of people who buy movies who don't have DVD players.
Sure, VHS will have to go eventually. and I won't exactly mourn the crap quality. But what's coming down the line?
What's the standard affordable alternative to replace the easy recording ability of VHS?
Before anyone says it, Tivo(and other services like it) ain't it. I can't share it with anyone else over my always-down DSL connection. No one can just hand me a disk of the Angel episode I missed last week or something.
I'm trying to think of a technology that could replace it... maybe a box that could burn VCDs on the fly? The technology's probably at the point that you could do that affordably.
The advantage of this is that people are already used to burning CDs, it's a widely available media, and you probably wouldn't need industry support to make the player. That means you wouldn't need to include DRM or other crap.
Degrade? My copy of Debbie Does Dallas plays just as well as it did back in the early 90's as it does today!
:grin:
Of which, anyone know where I can locate this great release on DVD?
======
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. - Euripides
While I use and love my DVD player all the time (ST:TNG DVD collection is getting quite a workout), I still love my old VCR. Why? It was a convenient, all in one package. I could buy used VHS tapes for under $10 each at the local blockbuster, or pop in a blank cassette to record whatever program I wanted. No need for two seperate disc racks, and one less box to fiddle with in the entertainment centre.
Agreed, the quality isn't there. The picture and sound are completely inferior to DVD, and any new movies I buy will most likely be in DVD format. But until they can give me an affordable, recordable dvd player, VHS is a viable option for those who don't want to spend that much money on movies.
Add to that the number of videotapes i've purchased and recorded over the years, and the cost of replacing them all with DVDs, and I'll probably hang on to the old VCR for quite some time.
Having said all that, I am definately looking forward to a time when true HDTV, DVD-Rs, and PVRs are commonplace, and I can say goodbye to analog and poor signal quality forever. Of course, they still haven't figured out how to keep the sat dish from fizzling during thunder/snowstorms.
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What, exactly, constitutes "everyone you talk to nowadays"? The other folks in your cube farm? Doesn't sound like a representative sample to me. (Not a flame, just an observation).
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I know!
I have tapes where uhhh.. certain.. uhh "scenes" are all distorted from repeated rewind-play-rewind-play
-T
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Instead of VHS, CC will be carrying DIVX Movies exclusively. ;-P
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There only appear to be getting rid of pre-recorded ones, and I say more power to them.
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Given the circuit city in my neighborhood the article could read. 'Neighborhood phases out circuit city'.
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He was likely trying to steer you a phone with a better profit margin and of course a better commission for him.
Heh.
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What do you use your VCR for? I use mine to time-shift TV shows. I cannot do that with a DVD player. Phasing out pre-recorded VHS tapes I can understand, DVD is far better in that case, but the VCR will have plenty of market behind it as long as it is the only affordable way to record shows.
Travis
Try WantedList for NetFlix-like porno-rental of over 10,000 titles.
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Anyway, since VHS is still the primary *recording* medium of the consumer, I wonder if they'll continue to sell VCRs?
This is an example of how "electronics super stores" are bad for the consumer. Circuit City wants to make money selling not only electronics, but also pre-recorded entertainment. They don't want you to be able to record a pay-per-view showing of a movie because that could cost them a sale. The sooner they can convince you to scrap your VCR and, if you don't have one, buy a DVD player (from them), the happier they will be.
That's why it was better when "record stores" sold recordings and "stereo stores" sold audio and video equipment. And this is why it was better for Sony to make consumer electronics and Columbia pictures to make films. The conflict of interest is now such that Sony would happily kill off the CD and replace it with a copy-protected equivalent -- much as they are doing to push DVD as a replacement for VHS. They want VCRs to go away so that they can sell you not only the player, but also the movie when you switch to DVD.
It makes sense to phase out the pre-recorded VHS items since the primary pre-recorded rental/sale market is obviously tilting to DVD.
It would make no sense to phase out VHS hardware or blank tapes since those are still (and will be for the foreseeable future) the primary means of recording material in the consumer space.
In fact, CC has started carrying blank D-VHS tape. I don't know that they carry the decks yet, but there's always Best Buy for that.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
Since they purchased a license to the content, and not the physical media, shouldn't it be easy to get a replacement?
It just so happens that one of the many things at which Linux excels is in viewing DVDs
Except that 1) you are committing a crime by posessing a DVD player for Linux, 2) The DVD players for Linux have terrible user interfaces, 3) The DVD players for Linux are unreliable at best, 4) The DVD players for Linux are some of the only software that can cause the entire X server to crash.
Quit yer trolling...if you're getting 29.97 fps, you're getting as much out of a DVD as you can.
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So I guess video capture cards, like the ATI TV Wonder series, are all useless. Silly me.
Seriously, spend $50 on a tv wonder VE, connect your VCR to that, you're in business. Perfectly reasonable.
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