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The VHS is Dead
Ronnie Coote writes "The UK's largest retailer of electronics is phasing out VHS VCRs. Sales of DVD players have outstripped VCRs by 40-to-1 recently. So how long until the mass market will be saying goodbye to the DVD player?" A few historical links to commemorate the occasion: Sony Kills Betamax, Why VHS Was Better, and How to Preserve VHS Recordings. For the future, maybe we'll have Digital VHS, but I suspect it will mostly be hard drive-based recorders.
Netcraft confirms.....VHS is dead.
Please, spare us the netcraft jokes.
^^
Digital killed the video star...
I've rented so many scratched DVDs that at this point I rent the VHS tape before I rent the DVD.
--
Long-term effects of Bush deficits
Maybe in the early days of the video wars, but Beta turned out to be a far superior format than VHS. The quality was better, less quality was lost when copying, the tapes were a bit smaller, Beta tapes last longer, etc. The reason VHS won was because a Beta would only hold one hour and a VHS would hold two when they were released. Later Beta tapes would hold 5 hours in an extended play format, and they'd lose less quality in the extended format as well. Sucks that VHS had to win.
Just because something isn't used as much anymore by the majority of the people as it used to be, doesn't necessarily mean it's dead. A group at college that I'm in was designing a database for some rental place. We purposely included because we were certain that a lot of these places would still actually have tapes. And, after a quick check at a local place called Video Land, I confirmed our thoughts. Sure, it might be phasing out. But that doesn't mean it's dead.
Not when they are preserved for future generations
Monstar L
Ummmmmmmmmm.....because you have a lot of video tapes that you don't have the time or inclination to convert them into another format?
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
I, of course, still have mine around. I already pay enough for TV services without a monthly DVR bill... (grumble, grumble)
casue some peopel have hundreds of tapes, and it's kind of costly to replace them all in one go.Plus not all of them will be replacable.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Why buy a new one?
DVD players are new(ish), so of course they're gonna outstrip VCR's in sales!
DUH!
Not as long as I have my original, unLucasfuckedup Star Wars tapes.
VHS still has its uses, much like the audio-cassette tape. For instance, when I need a chuck in place of my Taurus' poor brakes, I just tape together three or four. Advantages over wood: -light weight -portability -fun for the family (depending on the tapes' content.)
The number of scratched DVDs that I get from my video store, I think perhaps VHS was actually better. These DVD movies are just crap with their pausing and skipping. I bought a retail Lord of the Rings - Two Towers, and the quality and pausing on a new disc half way through were so bad, that I'm lkeaning towards thinking that we were better off with magnetic tapes. Perhaps Betamax gets the last laugh - it seems that it was better than DVD too. Add the problems with legal Linux distro DVD players, and I think the consumer has lost out.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
I refuse to use DVDs. They offer too little control for my taste
compared to VHS? the only thing you have no control over with a DVD is the intro sequence, where you are often forced to sit through the FBI/Interpol warning and maybe the distributors logo before the main title screen (although some are now including adverts as well). past that, you can just jump the last scene of the movie if you wish, far far faster than possible with a VHS.
My old roommate still has like 20-30 VHS tapes full of recorded-off-TV movies that he still likes to watch. (Shhh ... the MPAA's still watching out for those Bill and Ted pirates)
He got his first DVD player in the laptop he bought at the beginning of this semester.
He still watches the VHS.
If you've got a half decent video collection, then do your self a favour and buy a top-o-the-line VCR now... and treat it good. You'll never be able to replace ALL the vids in your collection. (And ripping them to 'puter is ok, but you'll find this weird vid at a car boot sale in 2014 and think back to this slashdot story...)
You can still buy a good record player thanks to them bieng the tool of choice for DJs and hardcore classic moosic lovers, but if you want to replace your Betamax, thats harder... I think VCRs are more likely to go the Betamax route, than the record player route.
Remember some people still have large collections of movies in VHS format. I don't think they are going to rush out to re-buy all of these movies on DVD. Also DVD Recorders are starting to gain in popularity, but they are still a lot more expensive than VHS decks. VHS is still the most economical way to record.
Dying yes, but not dead yet.
A great majority of TV watching people both like the familiarity of recording shows on the VCR and are not ready to make the jump to using a PVR. Also, the process of being able to record a show on tape, take it out of the VCR and do whatever with it still hasn't become common enough or cheap enough with newer mediums such as DVD-R for many people to buy into it.
You gotta find first gear in your giant robot car
I can honestly say that I won't miss VHS. I stopped recording stuff to my VCR almost 2 years ago when TiVOs, recordable DVDs, etc. starting coming out. I've just been too poor to plunk down and pay the lifetime fee for a TiVO or build my own PVR.
/. TiVO mavens), DVDs that can't be copied to preserve a copy, and homebuilt PVRs that may become illegal to use to skip commercials or obsolete if content providers start ramping up DRM efforts on the signal level.
However, when I started to craft this reply -- something struck me -- VHS doesn't have DRM that prevents it from recording stuff. Or being passed around with friends. Etc., etc., etc.
Yes, you can't use a VCR to decode a DirecTV signal without a DirecTV receiver, and that might be poor man's DRM. I don't know -- were there ever VCR + sat. receivers?
And popping the write protection tab on a tape isn't so much DRM as "honey, don't you even think about taping that football game over our wedding video."
VHS was mainstream, you could record most anything that you could get a signal into the VCR, and you could pass it around at leisure. There was talk about digital VCRs coming out in the future that would tag copyrighted broadcasts, I think, and would basically introduce VHS DRM, but for the most part, it's been DRM free, right?
Now, we have TiVOs that are getting more and more restrictive or control happy (for the average consumer -- maybe not
I hated using VHS tapes, but they were pretty no-nonsense. Ahhh...the good ol' days. Now I must go back to finding some money to build a PVR, buy a TiVO, pay off my wife when I get an HDTV for the living room, etc.
IronChefMorimoto
It will never be completely dead. I'm planning to stash a couple decks for the future when people want their grandparents old VHS tapes duped to whatever storage medium is popular then.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
VHS was kind of good for the 1980s - but now it's rather showing its age. If S-VHS (and S-VHS ET, which allows you to record S-VHS standard recordings on decent high-grade VHS tapes) had come earlier to market we might have been a bit better off. It seems that electronic picture enhancement systems from Betamax could have been applied to VHS as well (but weren't). There is still something very clunky about using cassettes the size of paperback books to record on, when recordable disc technology exists. Even though you can still buy brand-name VCRs (like Sony), they aren't made by Sony any more.
The primary use of a VCR is no longer watching videos - but recording things. DVD Recorders are not yet at a price point that makes it affordable for consumers - nor do we have a standard in place for the type of DVD to be recording to. Until DVD recorders reach a price point that is affordable for the average consumers, there will still be considerable demand for VHS to record television. I don't see digital recorders (Tivo, etc) at that point yet either.
I prefer videos to DVD. When I rent a DVD from Blockbuster, I often find that the film just stops when it gets to a damaged part. With rented VHS, the quality may not be quite as good as the best parts of DVD, but it keeps running. I am also not at all amused at the inability of my (Bush) DVD player to skip certain content on the disk. For some reason, it won't let me bypass those ridiculous copyright notices. I have never had that problem with a VCR.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
Once in a while, there will be a show on TV I'd like to watch, but am too occupied with other things to pay enough attention. If I know this will happen, I'll pop a trusty old VHS tape into my trusty old VCR, hit record, and forget about it until the end of the show. Later that evening/day/week, I hit rewind, wait a minute or so, and watch what I missed.
I know PVRs are capable of this as well, and yes, I have a computer with an All-in-Wonder 9700 that I use extensively for video capture, but
1) I'm in linux 95% of the time I'm on my computer, and Rage Theater II chips aren't supported yet. (Yes, I can get some decent capture cards supported under linux but at present my VCR just works without tweaking drivers or anything)
2) In Windows, I take a noticeable performance hit capturing video, and if I do anything to put pressure on the CPU, I'll get dropped frames. (When was the last time you got dropped frames on a VCR?)
and 3) I'd have to go through another step in burning the file to DVD/CD to make it portable/archivable. (Just pop the tape out and take it to a friends house right after recording)
While the format of VHS may be phased out in terms of new product releases, the relative quality (with decent quality tapes) and reliability of the machinery has earned a place in my room. I've never had dropped frames, codec/compressor incompatibilities, or my TV lock up while I'm recording with a VCR. Yes, I know I can buy a tivo, but I don't feel like spending that money when I have something that works fine at the moment. I don't plan to buy any new release movies on VHS, but I do occasionally pick up a few blanks in case something comes on I'd like to watch, without buying any new equipment.
Fans of the VHS video format have been gathering outside the home of VHS for over an hour, forming an impromptu vigil for this fallen hero of home entertainment which was found dead of Degaussclerosis in its home yesterday.
One woman, sobbing, pleaded, "But how will I record American Idol now?"
A memorial service is planned for next week. At the ceremony, the casket containing VHS's earthly remains will be inserted into a slot on the front of a specially constructed burial vault and lowered into the ground.
Unknown host pong.
I still use my VCR for recording.
It's cheap and it works.
One day it will break down, and then I'll consider recordable DVDs or some Hard disk gadget. But for now it does the job.
But I wouldnt buy a new one.
I do not have a DVD player. I do not rent much movies. I do however record a lot of TV shows. My old VHS does the job well. Alternative recording devices are still way to expensive for my taste to replace my VHS and VHS offers "good enough" quality for my needs (when I record a TV show, it is for its content, not the quality of the images).
I bet because of the recording needs, VHS will still be with us for a while. Yes, other technologies are comming and gaining market share, but they still have a lot to go (in price) for VHS to disapear from households.
Remember the year 2000? They promised us flying cars. They delivered the PT Cruiser...
Here's the deal. I've got this GPU with TV-in, but it doesen't have a TV-tuner. So, what do i do? I hook up my VCR to my puter so i can watch TV on my puter without a TV tuner card. It's cheap and works in Linux.
A run of the mill DVD player doesen't have TV tuning capability, therefore it sucks and is nothing that will replace my VHS and DVD drive on my puter anytime soon.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
As popular as Tivo and its ilk are, I really doubt it has risen to majority use for video recording.
I'm a little surprised no-one would be buying a VCR, as they are still handy to record things...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Imagine The data capacity and economics (as far as tape costs go) that would be possible with a VHS data backup drive. Right now it's cheaper to buy a new computer and build a RAID-server than to buy a tape drive & rotation tapes for a small-medium business. $1/Tape is a lot better than the $1/GB you pay for tapes now. If the digital tape format & (USB/FireWire?) interface were standardized, there could be some major competition for the drives (instead of the $1200 drives now on the market).
People might actually start making regular backups again.
Anyway, we recently bought a Pyro A/V Link analog-to-digital converter. It plugs into the Firewire port on my wife's iMac and appears as a video camera to iMovie. Converting our VHS movies to DVD consists of:
The killer app for us is being able to move our kids' movies to a more future-compatible format. As a bonus, we can use the same device to burn content from our DVR without having to mess with its broken Firewire port.
My wife mumbled something about "wedding video", so I guess everybody has their own pet use.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I want a TiVo/Replay-type device that has no subscription service associated with it. I want to program it the way I program my VCR. No fancy schmancy "Record all occurrences of Seinfeld, and phone home to find out when they occur". Just a simple "Record Wednesdays on Channel 4 at 9:00PM for 1 hour", like a normal VHS VCR. I want recording quality, storage capacity, the ability to pause live TV, and the ability to watch something I recorded earlier while the system is recording something else. And I don't want to build a dedicated PC to do the job. If I can get that, I may even forego the ability to pop out the tape I recorded in the living room VCR and bring it up to the bedroom VCR to watch the rest of the show in bed. Maybe. I'll think about it. Can I get that anywhere? If not, I'm sticking with my VCR.
You must be 16.
I read that article yesterday. It basically says the DVD player has replaced the VCR. They aren't directly comparable products. The VCR's main selling point is it allows you to record TV content to watch at another time. The DVD's main selling point is it allows you to watch pre-recorded content.
The VCR originally beat the laserdisc (and destroyed RCA in the process) because people wanted the ability to record. PVRs or set-top DVD-Rs might be the eventual downfall of the VCR but the current DVD players sure aren't.
The article even has a summary of the VCR that talks about how people loved the ability to record. Apparently, the author's microscopic mind couldn't make the connection that DVD players don't have that ability yet.
The CD player also didn't replace the cassette deck. They lived as complimentry products for many years until mass CD-Rs and mp3 players took over the cassette's market. Jason
ProfQuotes
When my wife and I moved to Wash. DC Our moving company stole our VCR. Insured at $350 bought 12 years ago, the company paid to replace it at retail. We still had the receipt (yes we're that crazy.) We bought what we call the uber-VCR 5 years ago. Look at http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity /eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start?Categor yName=hav_VHSVCR&Dept=havsony now and all they offer is combo DVD players and none over $170. Clearly money is no longer being made by VHS recorders, and the last gasp already occurred. Now if you want a record player you might as well make your own since the cost is just crazy now after an insane dip as producers changed over to CD players.
I also worked for Hollywood Video, and unless their store is by a trailer park, they're not renting VHS tapes anymore.
the only thing you have no control over with a DVD is the intro sequence, where you are often forced to sit through the FBI/Interpol warning and maybe the distributors log
Ever watch one of the older Disney DVDs? They used to make that "intro" into a 10 minute commercial for their other DVDs. It was just like going to the damn movie theatre.
This announcement by Dixons smacks of not telling the whole story.
I don't know how popular PVRs are in the US market (in absolute terms; yes, I know TiVo has a cult following, but what are *most* people using?), but they have *not* yet taken off that much in Britain.
TiVo was introduced to the UK, then subsequently withdrawn (*1). Although Murdoch's Sky have since launched "Sky Plus", that only works with Sky satellite TV.
Basically, I am convinced that PVRs will be phenomenally successful (even more so than DVD players) in the UK *once* you can get a decent 80Gb model for less than UKP 100, and the Freeview (Digital Terrestial TV) electronic program guide provides a full 7-day service.
However.... this hasn't happened yet! I was considering getting a basic PVR for UKP 150.00 in February, but it was very limited, so I got a 50 quid VCR with 12-hour recording capacity instead (as a stopgap). My guess back then, and one I still hold, is that Christmas 2005 will see massive PVR sales in the UK, and the swift death of VHS.
Until then, what are people buying?
I can now buy a DVD recorder for 200 pounds, but I don't see this as a replacement for the VCR. Put simply, most VCRs were used either for watching pre-recorded films (DVD players now have this market) or time-shifting. Sure, a DVD recorder looks like a direct replacement for the VCR, but the PVR is actually a better choice for what they are actually *doing*- time shifting!
Anyway, this is beside the point. VCR sales may be falling, but I don't see recordable DVD, nor PVR sales filling the gap just yet.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it's notable that it's only the Dixons stores (which tend to be smaller and based in the city-centre) are discontinuing them, and the sibling Currys stores (larger, based mainly in retail parks) are not.
In short, I think the Dixons group are trying to improve the profit margins in their smaller stores. They just finished closing down a large number of them (good riddance).
(*1) Possibly due to bad publicity they got when they automatically uploaded a BBC program without prior notification, or maybe just bad marketing in the first place. They pushed the 'pause live video' selling-point over everything else, and.... maybe that wasn't enough to convince people to shell out.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
"VHS is dead." - Ronnie Coote
"Ronnie Coote is dead." - VHS
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Don't like the ability of making recordings without worrying about DRM? That whole "if you can see it, you can record" it thing?
This just means I need to look for a sale, so I can put a couple of boxed ones in the basement, to be carefully opened only after the current VCR is totally dead.
Yes, I know that there are ways around DRM. but are they as simple?
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
Good DVD players (both hardware and software) will remember the time at which the last N discs were stopped, and offer to resume from there.
There's a few very good reasons to use VHS.
- You don't have hundreds of dollars, but want to watch shows at a different time.
- You want to record an indefinite number of shows, but don't want to buy new units all the time, and don't want to "DIY".
- You want to record something cheaply from your video camera to a format you can play at a friends house (say, a birthday party or a vacation, whatever).
- The pricing of VHS tapes, per minute of TV recording can't be beat (yet). Even with DVD-R, at $1 per disc, recording to a standard format will only gain you up to about 4 hours of VHS quality video. A $0.99 economy VHS tape can do 6 or more hours of recording.
- Ease of use / Familiarity.
- Lack of trust with PVR companies (example, you don't want a nasty TiVO surprise of banner ads when you skip commercials, and when you learned of this, you no longer trust the company's products).
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
My DVD player, a cheap far eastern thing, has a cunning feature where if you insert a disk, press STOP twice while the intro is playing and then press PLAY, on about 90% of disks it'll immediately start playing title 1. It misses the intro, the warnings, the menus, everything. It's great.
Region hackable, too --- they know where the money is.
Of course, some neighborhood kid absconded with it before the trash people came... I shudder to think of the education he has received this year.
Seriously, make backups of everything. Blank media is dirt cheap these days, and in our household at least $cost_of_movie * %likelihood_of_destruction is far greater than $cost_of_dvd-r.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
VHS tape drives for backup was tried, back in 8088-based PC days. They used to advertise them in Byte magazine. They were a little touchy, tho, so they never gained trust, so never gained momentum.
Slashdot's name? When my compiler sees
I've seen a lot of people complaining about DVDs getting scratched. So why not make a DVD with a protective case on like a floppy? It would never leave its shell so it would never get scratched.
It's sort of like a swap meet. You can load up your car/pickup full of stuff you want to sell, then go to the place. You pay some amount of money ($20 or so), and then you get a designated spot and you can sell stuff to the other people who come. People who come to buy stuff either pay nothing to get in or they pay only a nominal fee ($3 or so).
My other first post is car post.
Very few VCRs can record Macromedia encoded content without additional hardware to strip/clean the video signal. What Macromedia does is add an alternating black and white stripe to your video signal that displays off the screen for most tvs. This "invisible" stripe tricks your VCRs auto-gain control into adjusting the picture brighter then darker over and over throughout the movie. The resulting recording is thus unwatchable.
Counterpoint: scene selection is almost invisible to toddlers I have been around. That means that when it is nearly bedtime, you can skip past the majority of Finding Nemo directly to the fun bits at The End, and have it look like The End. Toddlers know what that means, and off we happily go to brush our teeth and put on jammies.
Ahh... scene selection. Nemo is MUCH more watchable the 20th time if you go from school to turtles to reunion to THE END.
Yes! My god, someone else noticed that and despises it. The first DVD player I owned omitted that feature (It was a cheapo ;), but when it broke down... bah. Ever since, I've been cursed with unskipable, repetitive FBI warnings >:/.
I like the product I buy to keep on working as it's supposed to at the time I bought it, not have the company reduce its value later. I'll pick something trustable instead of TiVO.
Many of the older (mechanical tuner, die cast chassis, top loading) VHS machines have AGC and sync circuitry that seems unfazed by Macrovision encoding. I have an ancient Panasonic PV-1000 that I keep around just for this reason. Short of the occasional drive belt or sensor bulb replacement, the thing just refuses to die. Of course, the fact that the thing originally sold for close to $1000 may have something to do with that. This thing is built like the proverbial "brick shithouse".
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
Letting the Media conglomerates decide when you can
fast-forward is part of the original deal to get a license to build
DVD players. Google was not immediately helpful, but the truth is out there...
Strangely enough, I've never seen anything of Macrovision; I'm certain it exists because everyone talks about, but none of the VCR's i've owned seem to have problems with it.
Just lucky, I guess?
I just tested it, recorded a couple of minutes of chronicle of riddick from DVD; clear picture.
I, of course, Immediately destroyed the VHS tape so as to comply with our benevolent overlords at the MPAA.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
Because you have children with lots of tapes they want to watch?
Because your two-year-old son can handle putting a tape in a VCR but you won't let him near the DVD's?
Because regardless of picture quality issues you balk at the thought of paying again for the same content in another format, assuming it's still available?
Because you're getting sick of being sold the new stuff when the old stuff still just works?
Other than these reasons, no, can't think why anyone would want to buy a new VCR.
Just buy the cheap dvd players from asian countries that don't care for licenses and rules and stuff like that. I bought a $60 CDN dvd player and it is region free and lets me fast-forward almost anything. I can't always chapter-skip certain things but I can hit the 'play 2x faster' or '8x faster' button.
Not that I like VHS in in any way shape or form ... but my wife likes to tape shows and since we can't afford a PVR we have to settle for taping the old fassion way. Anyway, to make a long storry short, we went to the two walmarts in our city, and both were completely sold out of Blank VHS tapes ..... so I guess some people will not let it die :-)
Alternatively, perhaps I decided not to buy a DVD player (because of the aforementioned problems) but received one as a gift.
considering the amount of piracy, the copyright notices are there for a reason.
I don't care why they are there. I find them intensely annoying and have no desire to watch an industry's enforced propaganda.
you're in THAT much of a hurry that you can't look at that for, what, 5 seconds? i bet you nuke your poptarts because "you don't have time to cook."
No, I don't generally eat poptarts -- they are junk food.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
In other words, a caddy drive like Macs used to have, except the disc comes in a caddy already so you don't need to swap discs in the caddys or buy piles of disc caddys.