Slashdot Mirror
Reports of VHS's Death Highly Exaggerated
aicrules writes "What does it take to ensure that a technology choice will remain relevant and available to the general public? Well, being sold by Wal-Mart is certainly pretty high on that list. According to a CNN/Money article, Wal-Mart Stores will continue to sell VHS tapes for as long as its customers want them. With Best Buy, Circuit City, and Target all dropping sales of the VHS medium, how long can VHS hold out? What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?"
Who gives a crap about VHS as long as I have my Betamax anyhow???
The reason VHS is still sticking around is because I can't buy a $40 DVD Recorder.
Don't mod me, bro'!!!!
There's a poll in the article asking " Are you planning to replace your VCR with a DVD player? "
I guess that sums up why VCR and VHS tapes are still selling, because while DVD players are pretty advanced and cheap right now, DVD recorders are still expensive to most households, and what are consumers going to do with their precious VHS tapes?
What is required is a VHS+DVD recorder with easy to use interface to transfer VHS to DVD, that'll be the first step to move consumers away from VHS.
I'm moving all my CDs to DVDs. It's pretty easy to do that with a software, and let's not forget that my DVD writer is also capable of reading old CDs, that's why I didn't think so much while buying a DVD writer.
I suppose if technology moves too quickly without sufficient transitional period, older technology might get a chance to stay longer.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
The advantages of the blanks should be clear enough... It's still not cheap/easy for most folks to record TV any other way.
LOL
Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting someone else to do the work. --John G. Pollard
What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?
It looks nice in the back of their horse-drawn buggy?
"This wallpaper is killing me. One of us has got to go." -- Oscar Wilde on his deathbed
After one defeats the almighty 'blinking 12:00' on their VCR, there's no giving up the beast.
I
If it remains profitable to sell it then I don't see why it will disappear. Some shops might find out that the demand is not worth stocking VHS but on the other hand some stores might come up that only cater for the VHS clients. Somehow a la Vinyl. If the demand persists.
1: My wife is pregnant with twins, and as much as I'd like to get a DVD of the ultrasounds, they spend their money on staying abreast with the latest childcare technologies, just like they should. So I need VHS to take those ultrasounds home with me (just did this today, in fact);
;)
2: My grandparents (in their late 80s) were very reluctant to accept VCR technology; moving them to DVD will be impossible. And we want them to see the ultrasounds.
saying my dvd player is always flashing 12:00 just doesn't sound right.
For myself and a dozen million other people, VHS is still the cheapest easiest way to record TV programs. Yeah, yeah, I'm behind the tech curve because I don't TIVO or digitally record tv. I don't get tv via bit torrents and honestly, I just can't bring myself to spend the money or the time learning all of that. VCR. Put in Tape. Hit Record. Done.
This is not the way to build a lasting empire.
What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?
We'll always have our VCR because my wife has nearly every Disney movie ever made on VHS (sad, I know). And since we have a VCR, we can get our 5 year old VHS tapes that are often cheaper than DVDs. And honestly, they hold up quite a bit better with a 5 year old than DVDs and CDs do.
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
Don't give them so much credit.
Why let them determine something's retail viability? Why credit them with so much power? If you do that you only help to make it true.
Start Running Better Polls
With Best Buy, Circuit City, and Target all dropping sales of the VHS medium, how long can VHS hold out? What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?
VHS can hold out as long as cassettes in the audio realm, and the major reason is the same as audiocassettes (universal and cheaply recordable). Even Betas and 8-tracks are still around if you know where to look.
It must be Windows. It needs half a gig of RAM and a hardware-accelerated graphics card just to run Solitaire.
That is a fairly content-free sentence. When Wal-Mart decides to stop selling VHS, the press release will read, "our customers have told us they no longer want them".
When exactly did journalism become merely aggregating press releases?
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
1)They record. DVDs don't, without very expensive hardware.
2)People have old media they want to play- both store bought and homemade
3)You already own one. DVD players (especially recorders) cost cash. If you already have a VCR, you don't need to buy anything more. So why switch? While there is a quality difference, its not enough to bother most people. THis is the same reason hidef TV isn't taking off.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
1. It's the easiest way to record something. Not as convenient/intelligent as DVR/Tivo, but damned easy.
2. It's cheap for both the VCR and the media.
And, if you have small kids they want to start watching the movie from where it stopped the last time, not from the beginning or the beginning of the DVD chapter.
Like that big "no-no" icon if I dare fast forward past the ads or legal-speak.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
I will need VHS as long as I have family movies, or until there is a good way for me to put family movies on some other medium. So far DVD technology doesn't provide that yet.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
I know a fanatic who refuses to watch movies on computer screen. He records Divx to VHS tapes and then watches them on TV, from the player.
Perverted, isn't it?
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
I got my VHS 6 years ago when I moved out into my first flat. Naturally Iit had to be the cheapest one available. It contains one tape since half a year now and records my daily dose of Trek.
Easy. Programmed it once never runs out of tape. At the end it just rewinds and starts over. Quality is ok, as I don't need high definition to watch nice scifi stories before bedtime. I won't replace it unless it breaks.
I really like digital HD-recorders a la Tivo but I don't think my mum would throw away her extensive opera collection on VHS just yet.
I will replace mine, however, if it dies with a DVR. If, by the time, there is still one out there with a sane DRM policy that is...
What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?
Pornography, of course.
-kgj
-kgj
Simply stated, PVRs. The cost of a VHS VCR is WAY cheaper than a PVR. Not to mention people have to learn a new technology. My wife's sister still calls me to "tape" shows on my TiVo. I tell her to get a PVR, and she says it is too expensive.
"What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?"
;-)
Easy, it gives me warmer, deeper, and groovier playback on my vintage VHS machine, compared to the over-produced, sterile playback of a DVD.
Say all you want, but I can just see and hear the difference, the resonance, the WARMTH. I just love tubes.
"What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?""
You mean besides the obvious? (consumer protest of DVD due to the region coding system.)
Admittedly VHS winds up having some of the same "features" but at least this is a byproduct of 2 different standards (PAL vs NTSC). It's not an intentionally designed feature like DVD region coding, and it's not as restrictive as DVD region coding is.
-Matt
I'm just be worried when I can't be my favorite stuff on Beta anymore!.
</obligatory>
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
VHS is dying.
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
I recently broke out my Star Wars VHS set to have another looky. I played it on my one year old 43 inch DLP and nearly puked. The pictire was so poor that it litterally gave my sight problems that caused a sense of nausea.
VHS may not be dead just yet, but it is on its way out. On the increasingly popular large screen televisions, DVD quality is a minimum requirement and HD is EXTREMELY desirable.
That's a small problem with HD TV. Once you've watched it for a little bit, nothing less is acceptable. I hate watching regular TV, even digital channels suck, when compared to HD and VHS litterally makes me sick.
Because "Erik the Viking" (or insert your favorite old movie here) is not out on DVD yet.
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
Apparently this is not true yet, if you are using VHS! At least Wall-Mart says so.
You can't handle the truth.
Beyond that, there's a huge installed base of VHS tapes. Why get rid of the player? It doesn't make any sense unless you're a geek who's obsessively ripped all of his VHS tapes to DVD-Rs. But there's nobody here who would do that....
Electric Monkey Pants
1. I have a VCR and it works
2. I can record TV shows on it
3. I have a library of VHS tapes
4. I can buy movies on VHS at Wal*Mart
If it ain't broke, don't upgrade to something that, while newer and nicer, is inferior in a lot of ways.
That's "you're an idiot". Or maybe "you fail it!"
...is because Han shoots first like I remember! ;)
libertarianswag.com
News at eleven.
as a door stop.
Two-year-olds can do a number on DVDs. I cringe every time I see my niece touch a DVD. With VHS, she can pop in a VeggieTales video, turn on the TV, and watch it all by herself.
DVDs are too fragile for young kids.
I bought a box of cereal last week and it came with a DVD player. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but honestly at one point in time, I had 4 dvd players of differing quality (my real one, my Playstation, my computer, and I bought a vcr, the cheapest one came with a built in DVD).
So who buys VHS movies now a days? Not I. Unless of course I'm at Walgreens and I see a copy of The Wackiest Ship in the Army on sale for $3.99. I guess it is just habit for some and for others, they see no need to buy a DVD player if they can still buy movies on VHS.
This is not the way to build a lasting empire.
I got my VHS 6 years ago when I moved in at my parents basement. Naturally it had to be the cheapest one available. It contains one tape since half a year now and records my daily dose of Trek.
Easy. Programmed it once never runs out of tape. At the end it just rewinds and starts over. Quality is ok, as I don't need high definition to watch nice pron^N^N^N^Nscifi stories before bedtime. I won't replace it unless it breaks.
I really like digital HD-recorders a la Tivo but I don't think my das would throw away his extensive hardcore collection on VHS just yet.
I will replace mine, however, if it dies with a DVR. If, by the time, there is more smut on E-Mule than in dads locker...
Because with VHS tapes you can 'Re-record, not fade away'
My other sig is crap too
When new release DVDs of a movie are all rented out at Blockbuster, I can always find a copy of the movie I want on VHS. :-)
Well, perhaps some of us don't cream our pants for every new technology. Perhaps some of us don't feel like cable is worth the cost, and therefore devices like Tivo are worthless. Perhaps some of us don't have DVD recorders. Perhaps some of us don't feel like making a "media center".
Perhaps some of us have VCRs that work, and don't feel like it's money well spent to invest in a something new which isn't useful to us. Perhaps some of us don't really like TV so that we consider it worthwhile to invest in something new when something we have works.
I really am insulted sometimes when people act as if I'm not doing my patriotic duty when I don't rush out and buy a 42" digital television and cable and tivo and x and y and z. My 20 year old zenith and VHS are good enough for me to watch a rented flick every now and then.
lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet
Another story about this again? {sigh} Must be a slow news day...
Homer no function beer well without.
It's because you know it works, without having to worry about drivers or anything. You can buy VHS tapes anywhere, and you know they'll work in your VCR, and that you can play them back in any other VCR.
Craig Steffen
http://www.craigsteffen.net
I haven't bought a movie on VHS for years, but I still buy lots of blank tapes because I watch stuff on TV.
Until DVD technology reaches the point where I can easily and permanently store recordings, I need a VCR.
And even if the quality isn't great, I know that VHS recordings won't be DRMed out of existence.
"What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?"
My answer used to be a fear that my favorite movies were going to take years to be released on DVD *cough*starwars*cough*.
Personally, I still own a few VHS' for two reasons:
1) The movie isn't available on DVD
2) I haven't gotten around to purchasing the DVD yet.
SYSOP ('sih-sop) n.: the guy laughing at your typing.
My old Radio Shack Optimus model 61 has a feature called "Commercial>>ADVANCE" when, when enabled, will automatically mark commercials then skip them on playback. Works pretty well, too.
When I buy, or event rent a video - before I let my child watch it, I tape over all of the naughty scenes with static. I don't need Hollywood's smut in my house.
When exactly did journalism become merely aggregating press releases?
....
In the US, no later than the early eighties, under the Reagan Adminstration.
Of course, blogging has brought the whole mess to a new low
-kgj
-kgj
Do you know how many useless DVDs and CDs I have due to scratches. I'd say as many as 30% are unplayable within six months. VHS works, its reliable, kids can't break them (usually). Sure VHS tapes wear out over 10 years or so, but DVDs wear out way faster.
Plus, what's not to like being able to fast forward WHEN YOU WANT. What a concept.
As someone with four younger brothers, I know why my folks buy VHS rather than DVD: durability. The primary problem with DVDs is the fragility of the medium. An 6-year-old can manage a VHS change fairly proficiently, but, given that dropping a DVD on a hard surface can irreparably damage it, wouldn't likely be allowed near DVDs.
Additionally, children are not nearly as likely to be very critical of signal quality issues. The parents of said children then would be less likely to purchase DVDs over VHS, given the elimination of this DVD advantage, and the difference in retail price.
The emergence of affordable media without the durability downside will displace DVD and VHS soon enough, but DVDs will never succeed in eliminating their magnetic media competition. In addition to the durability issue, memory cards are easily recordable and reusable (a trait in which they surpass VHS's diminishing capabilities in this area).
Until those prices come down a bit more, look for WalMart and other family-savvy retailers to keep people on both sides of the fence happy with available substitutes.
I'm pretty sure you'll be able to get a $40 dvd recorder by the middle of next year.
t _id=3610576
They've broken the $100 price point
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?produc
In the early 80s people were paying over $500 for a VCR. In todays money that should have doubled.
DVD recorders are therfore about 10% of the price that VCRs were in say 1982.
I think you'd struggle to get a quality vcr for much less than $100 now... though i realise the dvd+r i linked to isn't exactly 'quality'
1) Little chance VHS will change format, VHS won that battle. DVD's may change many times over. Is anyone here willing to buy several DVD recorders to have a supported format?
2) Backwards compatibility - VHS tapes just work - can't say the same for the different DVD formats
3) VHS just works - pop in a tape, set the time - done.
4) Cheap format - cheap media.
Given enough time, DVD will replace VHS, but it will take several more years for that to occur. I mean how many times has the floppy drive been "dead".
One thing VHS can do that DVD cannot do is remember where in the program you are when you want to take the medium out and move to another room and resume in another player.
Of course someone will suggest I should be playing things through a wireless TCP/IP network so I can watch it on any computer or appropriately equipped TV anywhere in the house. I'm sure that will eventually happen.
Of course someone will suggest I should use the fast forward search.
In the end, I will have all my movies on hard disk, anyway. Then the video server can remember where I was with frame accuracy.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
1. Not everyone has a Tivo, and while people are recording programming on VHS, they are likely to pick up a VHS every now and then particularly becaus of point #2.
2. PRICE!!!! Have you priced VHS compared to DVDs? It's the same racket as cassettes versus CDs. They are more expensive to produce, like cassettes, but are usually a fraction of the price. Hmmmmm. While the prices of VHS are so much less than DVDs, there will still be a market, especially at discount places like Wal-mart.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
Yeah, I'd like to know too actually.
Inspite of their obvious storage capacity advantage, there is still one major problem which plagues DVDs (and all optical media to be precise); they're not durable and are easily broken.
Even though I have owned several DVD players over the years (of various quality) I have yet to find a DVD player which would reliably play rented DVDs. Because of scratches, dirt and finger prints, and out right incompatibility at least 1 in 5 DVDs that I rent have massive problems with them; this is not a problem with VHS or a memory based format.
Personally, I hope that they hold off producing a HD-DVD format and instead produce a Memory disc format because Optical Discs were never ment to be handled nearly as much as they are (and are far too fragile for renting purposes).
Let's see. The vast majority of households already have VCR technology.
There is a huge installed base of players and media.
It's the only recording technology the average home consumer understands and is willing to invest time in. My mom can record on a VCR. The letter PVR and DVR don't mean anything to her.
It's only in the last few years that 1.44" floppy drives are no longer included in PCs by default. I personally haven't had data on a floppy in quite some time, I've still recently used 'em for boot disks.
TV stations have been using video cassette to archive video for as long as we've had them.
Why does someone always get shocked by the fact that technology which has been massively accepted by the consumer market doesn't suddenly go away overnight just because someone else builds something new??
Hell, how many people do you know who own manual (or even electric) type-writers.
Despite what you've read in Wired magazine, a new digital technology doesn't automatically obviate and replace and older, clunkier technology. Sometimes the sheer inertia of that old technology takes a while to get rid of.
Heck, how many Windows 3.11 or Window 95 boxes are still out there?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
My brother has Down's Syndrome and one of the main advantages of VHS tapes is that he can easily put in a tape to watch a Disney movie or something to that effect. It would be much more difficult for him to open the DVD player's "drawer" put a DVD (right side up) into a DVD playerand successfully play it. I suspect that there is a similar difficulty for young children. In addition, the elderly, or those with muscular difficulties are less likely to have problems with dropping a VHS tape. -- BW This is one of the few things that
I can get 8-tracks too?
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
WHOOOO!! :D
I use VHS to backup my computer.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
DVD's usaly got anoying copy protection on 'em... ;)
Simple. No more having to suffer through ads, no more menus you can't skip, none of the hassles of some of the newer DVD's. Yes, I know you can skip those if you are on your computer, but if you have kids, you can just put the tape in, press play, and let them watch. It's just easier, and remember, a lot of people still have vhs tapes. It was around for a long time, and people have amassed massive collections of vhs.
I've vaguely heard of VHS... isn't it a bit like Tivo?
Read reviews of shopping cart software
I want things I buy to last a long time. I am thrilled when I spend $100 on something and it doesn't need to be replaced in a year. There's a reason that earlier generations of American families had more money (well, net worth) than current generations, and while it is a GREAT oversimplification to boil it down to consumer tendencies, it is certainly one of the possible suspects.
I can't tell you how often I walk into a house and see a 20 year old TV or a 100 year old piece of furniture. I also can't tell you the last I thought to say "Man, that particular digital component was really well made...I shouldn't have to replace that for decades (not "years" or "months").
Older manufactured equipment was simply made better, and some of us prefer it to spending more of our liquidity on the latest and greatest (which, as stated above, tends to be more poorly made and hence, more quickly replaced).
If this post sounds a little "that's the way it was in my day, and WE LIKED IT", too bad....it's simply a reflection of my own anecdotal experience and preferences.
1. No DRM ;) I'll be juuuuust fine!)
2. Cheap media, (cents/hour) compared to DVD
3. No coasters
4. It will last on past the next generation of DVD, the introduction of new formats cycle is speeding up, making us buy all our old mivies again....and again. As long as I have VHS (and DivX
Their definition of "Customers want stuff" is much different from, say, a mom&pop electronics store, or Weird Stuff Warehouse or HalTed Specialties.
Unfortunately, Fry's seems to have stopped carrying 10-hour VHS tapes. Sure, they were only "standard quality" instead of higher-end tape, but they worked really well for setting the VCR to record when you're going to be gone for a while.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
All your first post are shoving grandma down the stairs. (The Book of Mozilla, Chapter three, Verse 54)
I am intrigued by your ideas, and whatchew looking at, Soviet?
When watching a movie over several days, such as working out and exercizing the tape is better for this type of viewing with a shared resource. Also in the car, with a dvd player in the car, you have to go through the bs of the commericals and finding where you left off.
VHS tapes last much longer in my house than DVD's. My two little boys aged 2 and 4 mess up DVD's pretty fast, but our VHS tapes get thrown, stepped on and kicked many times before they break.
-- IV
http://www.LinuxMedNews.com Revolutionizing Medical Education and Practice.
...Samara kills the last ludite. Then, I believe she will target LaserDisc users. And rightly so.
I have a VCR and a DVD player in my entertainment center.
Why?
Because my crappy 19" TV only has coax input. So I need the VCR to use as a breakout box to move from the different cable types.
If it weren't for the TV I use every so often, I'd have tossed my VCR years ago.
Last time I watched a VHS tape by choice?
December 2000.
Pretty Pictures!
That's one reason why VHS is still around. Try finding Disney's Rocketman on DVD. I have and was unsuccessful.
with VHS?
They are either poor, cheap, uneducated or uninterested.
that make them continue to not get along. Thats how long VHS will be around. You can't just make a DVD and expect it to work on everyones DVD players. And thats just sad. There is no one to blame but the companies that produce the equipment.
Uh people have loads of taped material already. VCRs are much cheaper than DVD recorders. People know the technology - people who JUST mastered to program their VCR are less likely to make the switch.
..
So until DVD-R carries the same pricetag as VCRs, are easier to operate, are able to record over 5 hours in superior quality, AND there is an easy way to transfer VHS tapes to DVDs
duh.
A copy of A New Hope where greedo doesn't shoot if I buy DVD. Honestly, there are plenty of older movies that aren't available on DVD, but the real key for me is to never see revisionist films from Lucas or Speilburg. God I hate those guys almost as much as they hate their fans.
No lie. With DVD players out that are 30 bucks but don't work reliably out of the box, people will still keep their VHS around and stick to VHS tapes because they are more reliable.
First hand, mother experience.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
One of the main reasons I prefer to watch movies at home rather than the theater is because of the ads. I don't want to sit thru 15 minutes of ads before I watch a movie. Guess what? I've never bought a VCR tape of a movie that has ads on it. Guess what? I've never tried to fast forward through something at the beginning of a VCR tape and have my player tell me "NO! the maker of this DVD insists that you have to watch an ad first! Just because you bought it does not mean you can skip the ads! Sucker!"
I record TV shows to DVD and buy shows on DVD that I know don't have ads on them, but for the most part I prefer VCR. I'd rather forgo the convenience of not having to rewind if it means I am not supporting a system that will eventually be used to force me to play more ads in my home. I'm sick to death of all the inane chatter and insipid "buy me and you'll be cool" shit. I'm sure as hell not going to pay for more of it.
Oh yeah, and VCR tapes, despite being more expensive to manufacture, are cheaper (even if you factor in the cost of a blank DVD for me to encode it on).
Cassettes held on longer than people expected, along with mini cassettes for recording conversations. People liked to record things, pre-digital camera days.
So, logic tells us that they key to VHS being obsolete is....
being able to pull your Tivo recordings off for posterity to DVD. i.e. the next wave of technology will be the Tivo meeting the DVD burner, at speeds that don't suck. I should be able to Tivo something, and not move it off to my hard drive as is common now (that's for geeks, not for gramma) but rather pop a DVD-RW in the front of my Tivo unit, and have that disc pop back out in some reasonable time, say 5 minutes, for a 60 minute show.
Discs must be as cheap as tapes (they are already) and be easy to label and re-label (jewel cases meet this requirement), they should be able to use easy to follow software to amend stuff to, so you can pop the same disc in and add stuff to it.
Getting the MPEG off into Adobe or something, that's all gravy. It needs to work like I described. And to do that... well for one... DVDs burn slowly. 8x or 16x, it still takes 2 freakin hours to burn a DVD of 60 minutes. That has to go from 2:1 to something like 1:3. It should take 20 minutes. That means faster burners, more memory in these units, faster CPUs, etc.
That's the killer app for PS3 and Xbox 2, etc etc. A combined Tivo, game, and DVD burner.
Then, VHS is gone.
i totally agree. it's sony and their "betamax" format i'd be worried about. betamax is technically superior though, so we'll just have to wait and see.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Jesus! What's the matter with VHS? Tom Hanks used them to tie a damn raft together. He woulda died without em. Long live VHS
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
Oops. Didn't read carefully. OP is right, I'm going back to work. So much for my dreams of monetary dominance.
you think it is gonna get hard to get vhs tapes (blank or prerecorded), just think about DVHS (if you know about it).
The selection of movie tapes is reeealy slim (for D-Theater) and getting slimmer, and blanks are pricy and very hard to find in B&M stores. But as a tradeoff you get HiDef in all its glory. The picture of this format looks better than DVD, hands down.
I guess with a small slice of the market wanting/ willing to pay the premium, it will remain a niche product. I like mine tho.
DVDs are records, and records get scratched. A medium that gets damaged so easily, which can't be recorded on cheaply, which doesn't have all the stuff I've already recorded on videotape, which when sold with commercial content can so easily be pirated, and doesn't have the "recorded on" part protected by casing of any sort, can't survive. DVDs are a passing phase. They even used tapes on Star Trek, in the 23rd century.
"I am a fictional character."
Secondly, I expect more out of DVDs because you can put in seperate audio tracks, make menus, and other stuff like that, and you can't do that just from hitting the RECORD button. That takes real work to do - something you don't have to worry about with VHS.
Lastly, DVDs are great for archiving a final project and doing really cool stuff with, but doesn't seem optimized for doing general everyday recordings.
...has big sign up front: "All VHS tapes - $3 to $10." I'm guessing that even porn is going DVD - and sooooooo much easier to fast forward pass the "plot" and "acting" parts.
The thing with VCR is that when it first came out, there weren't any (or few) other options for people that wanted to record a tv show. But now, you have VHS, TiVo, DVDrecorders, multimedia PCs, bitTorrent, etc. The easiest and cheapest option right now, is still the VHS. All the other options, all the required hardware costs more than a cheap VCR.
I tried to stick a VHS tape a friend of my brothers had brought down to show him her Native Canadian TV show and the tape stuck inside.
Since then it doesn't matter who wants to use it, I'm not using VHS ever again.
I'll just use my PS3 to tape TV shows to drive, thank you very much.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I recently purchased a cheap DVR (Daytek P20) which works fine for recording directly onto blank DVD+R's. I think once these catch on and improve in quality and further go down in price, people will stop bothering with VCRs/VHS.
Meh.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
... why doesn't he just get a DVD player capable of playing DivX movies?
but isn't [porn] what the internet is for???
... and God help the guy who caught his unit on a centerfold staple.)
You may be too young to remember, but old farts such as myself used to watch porn on tape because there was no internet.
Hell, I remember before tape, pornography was actually printed on paper.
How we survived that dark age, I don't know. (Wait, yes I do -- a vigorous program of masturbation while closely scrutinizing the slick delights of Miss November
-kgj
-kgj
But in the Bronx, I've vaguely heard that TiVo is a bit like VHS.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
CNN initially ran a story that said Wal-Mart was going to stop selling VHS tapes... based entirely on an article in the "Hollywood Reporter" which cited "industry sources." Wal-Mart said to stop selling VHS. Apparently they think this news is so important that they just can't wait 24 hours to confirm the story.
I'd expect this from a blog, but not a news network.
(of course, blogs can still be worse, because you have people editing the stories on-line as they write them, covering-up their shoddy reporting and taking no ownership of their article until it is 'finished,' meanwhile people are spreading rumours like wildfire.)
... and playing recordings back. They're still reliable and cheap. I would get a DVR/PVR, but they are still expensive especially with the silly subscription stuff. I don't need TV guide, just a recorder. I don't watch that many shows (still use rabbit ears for a 20" TV).
;)
Also, I like to be able to record for hours unlike DVDs at decent quality (VHS tape sucks for quality) and be able to swap with people. With PVR/DVR, we cannot do that easily. DVDs, sure, but I don't know who else has a DVD recorder.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Have to satisfy the poor and destitute rednecks that have no intelligence or financial ability to be able to purchase and DVD player or use one for that matter.
Probably going to get Trolled for this, but, Cest La Vie.
"God of Rock, thank you for this chance to kick ass. "
"The emergence of affordable media without the durability downside will displace DVD and VHS soon enough, but DVDs will never succeed in eliminating their magnetic media competition. In addition to the durability issue, memory cards are easily recordable and reusable (a trait in which they surpass VHS's diminishing capabilities in this area)."
There's enough technological room for both to grow. Just look at computer backup tapes. Even more durable than VHS with it's all plastic contruction. Now look at USB sticks, and mini-hard-drives. At this point for people to move anyware there has to be an easy migration process. Were's the VHS to USB players? How about VHS to hard-shell tape? Next there's the cost issue, and VHS STILL beats all comers.
I'm guessing that even porn is going DVD - and sooooooo much easier to fast forward pass the "plot" and "acting" parts.
... lubricant for your data retrieval system.
Porn markup tags make the job so much easier. They're like
-kgj
-kgj
I just bought a great item for converting our home movie collection to DVD. It's the Sony DVDirect, VRDVC20. Unlike its predecessor, it accepts a Firewire input and can control a DV camcorder, in addition to accepting S-Video and composite inputs.
However, if you try to dub a commercial VHS to DVD, you get a nice friendly "Recording Prohibited" message. And all I wanted to do was transfer my kid's videos (that I BOUGHT) to DVD so they won't rot away after 'n' plays (where 'n' is much larger than any adult could ever stand). If I could convert to DVD I'd probably throw away the original tapes and save the space in my house.
RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
With a VCR, I can record as much as I want (for however many tapes I need), and *keep* those recordings - for as long as they will last. Case in point, my wife and I have *every* episode of X-Files recorded - plus every episode of Millenium. Sure, I could buy the DVDs, and the video would be better - but sometimes watching those old commercials can be entertaining by themselves. Plus, I didn't have to pay (again - because I already paid the cable company once).
I think that is why people aren't adopting "new recording media" - the new methods are locked down with DRM and such, or they aren't easy to share with friends, family, or even withing the same house (among sets in the house).
I think if a company came out and made a TIVO-like device (it wouldn't even need a program guide, but if it did, it would be great) that could record many hours of video, and easily network to any existing network or PC in your house, so that any PC (or any other of the same recording device) could "watch" the library of collected videos, and/or download them, etc - with NO DRM (ie, a straight MPEG2 or MPEG4 video) - to a fileserver (if you have one), etc - and make it all fairly easy to use (it wouldn't have to be dead simple - but making it very easy to use just for the machine and others on the network - maybe a built in wireless router or AP which would mesh network with other machines in the house?). Perhaps add USB2 or Firewire to make it easy to expand the hard drive size (or, make a "front load" hard drive bay for a hard drive upgrade option or something?).
Add on top of all that the ability to play MP3s from anywhere on the drive or on the network, audio/video inputs, ability to record audio to MP3, perhaps a DVD drive as well, plus web browsing, and give the MP3 player some nice visualizations for party use - you would have a killer box.
However, I don't expect to ever see such a thing, at least not in the near term, which I why I am planning on a custom box (right now centered on an old I-Cue PC Book PC box with a DVD drive, plus a small hard drive and networked to my Samba server - but maybe later if I like the setup, since it can't record, maybe building a Myth TV box).
Of course, as of late, for the past couple of weeks my wife and I have dropped even watching TV - we have started listening to books on CD from the library, so I think the TV is likely to become just "another monitor", mainly for movies and such...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
...about your FUCKING baby.
While perusing the various vendors at Erotica L.A. last weekend, I hardly saw any VHS tapes. New releases are DVD only AFAIK. Even the cut-rate video vendors were selling DVDs.
But isn't that the best argument for the death of VHS? More specifically, isn't pornography on the Internet the death knell for the VHS? Seriously, no longer do you have to stand the humiliation of having to go rent a pornographic video.
Two points here.
First, I've got favorite mix tapes on VHS. I'm too lazy or whatever to digitize them.
Second, I got over the humiliation, with practice. Stand tall, look the clerk in the eye, make your purchase -- it's just business. Moreover, it seems that while Americans are fettered by sexual shame, most Europeans have an open attitude about the matter. Granted, I'm an American -- but I'm no less a man than any Euro-porn-hound, I tell you what.
-kgj
-kgj
I still use VHS tapes to record Some of my CD and mp3 collection to. I have a very good quality Sony SVO 1610 HI-FI VHS VTR that records so well you more or less cannot tell if it's the CD or tape. This method works great for playing hours worth of music, and best of all there's NO DRM!I can even find butt loads of new blank tapes at thrift shops for $.25.
I even have tapes I recorded back in the 80's that still sound just as good as the day I recorded them, try that with a CD-R.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
Bought a VRC this year. It has a death simple UI, no RTFM required. The hardware and medium is cheap. You can buy VHS cassettes nearly everywhere. No format war, no DRM, highly interchangeable. Quality is not the best, but that doesn't bother me at all, because my cable network is analog too.
Tivo. Find show in guide. Hit record. Pay monthly fee. Be locked in to the success/failure of one company (Tivo). Done.
(Not to mention the environmental impact of junking the old tech and building new tech to replace it)
VHS will not die anytime soon. Case in point: DVD rentals. On more than one occasion, I have rented DVDs only to find out once I get home that they are too scratched to even play.
In those cases, I promptly return the DVD, and rent the VHS instead. For personal purchases, I choose DVDs, but for rentals, VHS is king.
Even though (pre-recorded) cassettes are much more expensive to manufacture they are cheaper than CDs to buy.
The same kind of price fixing exists with DVDs.
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
Netcraft confirms VHS is dying!
Even though Best Buy and other companies may no longer be sellign VHS tapes, are they not going to continue to sell VCR's?
I just bought one last year in fact and I have to think there are a steady trickle of people doing so. Even if you can not buy movies on them anymore, there simply is nothing even close when it comes to ease of recording things from TV.
I'll believe VCR's are dead when they stop selling them, not just the media.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
With all the media for data storage available to me I think DVD is a waste. I wouldn't be a bit shocked if DVD media died out in the next 5-10 years. I still don't own a DVD player. I play movies on VHS and why I never bought a DVD or DVD player, I do not know. Call it a dumb guys intuition for a failing media.
Perhaps one of the reasons that VHS is hanging on for awhile, is that most modern DVD players (which cost less than many DVD's), only have video out; a lot of perfectly good televisions (cheap ones, granted) that still work fine, do not have video in, only coax in. And RF converters can cost the same or up to 2x as much as the DVD unit itself.
Yes, TV's are cheap now, too; but replacing a TV just to watch DVD's is another barrier.
That being said, it's hard to imagine VHS being around for another 5 years. With DVD recorders becoming more prevalent, and undoubtedly soon dropping dramatically in price, the last functional advantage of VHS (cheap, quick, and easy recording) will have been equalled by DVD.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
The reason VHS is proving stubborn is that VHS is a tape; a comfortable metaphor for the oldies who are fondly familiar with 8-tracks and cassettes. They already know the interface: square, circle, triangle, >>, , ||. DVD players, of course, have this but aren't a tape in the physical sense. They're a disc that spins around, regardless of what button you press. How can you pause it if the disc is still moving? Obviously, you can't. With VCRs there is a lovely concordance between physical state and the button you press. If I press square, you hear a nice clunk that means it has stopped.
In all the years of renting movies on VHS, I almost never had a playback quality problem. When I rent DVDs, I'd say about 50% have areas that my players (I have 3, none of which was a $30 special at Walmart) can't read. This ranges from losing just a few blips in a 10-second space to having to skip entire chapters. Sometimes I can fix this by rinsing the DVD, but why the hell should I have to do that? Also, I've had several DVDs I purchased new with similar problems -- defects from the production process. I don't remember ever having to exchange a new movie I purchased on VHS. The upshot is, there are problems with DVDs that I never had with VHS.
VHS tapes are still around because it's still the default format for recording video without DVD equipment or Tivo. THere's a huge infrastructure built up...TV stations still use VHS tapes.
Look at 3.5" floppy drives and disks. There's no technical reason for them to be around anymore, with USB sticks out there at giveaway prices. However, some older PC BIOSs don't support booting from a USB stick, and certain peripherals don't allow firmware updates from anything other than floppies.
Tapes will be aorund until the whole videotape infrastructure has been replaced. Now that floppies are going away, the drives aren't included by default. In fact, the retail price of them has increased!
"Besides, what are you going to do when you can't rent Kentucky Fried Movie on VHS anymore?"
By then DVDs will either be so cheap that todays prices will seem expensive, or they'll already have been replaced with something else.
Disclaimer: I personally don't have a TV or VCR, but I watch DVDs on my computer.
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
Ever tried to listen to an audio book on CD? How about watching a long movie? Even if the CD/DVD player you use supports resuming from where you left off (usually though some sort of onboard RAM which stores the timecode IIRC), you can't pop a CD or DVD out of one machine, and put it in another, and just pick up where you left off. You can with audio cassettes and VHS.
- Just because we CAN do a thing, does not mean we SHOULD do that thing.
Maybe the future is going to be web-based applications, and it really won't matter what your computer runs, so long as it has a decent web browser?
People still watch TV? No, I know that people still unfortunately watch TV. But is there still anything on TV that's worth recording? From last time I watched a TV for more than 30 seconds while walking past one in a public space, I seem to remember it being all crap, and that was years ago. There was *nothing* worth recording (which is probably why I haven't watched TV in years). The only TV that I watch is a pirated copy of The Daily Show that I occasionally will download. So somebody help me out here... am I so out of touch that I don't even realize what I'm missing, or are people just as stupid as ever?
I don't respond to AC's.
Reasons to stick to VHS
No DRM
Hit STOP get food, hit RUN
and tape continues from stopped location.
On DVD, starts over again. Yeah, some pause
or other button would do the same- but I don't
always hit the right button.
Don't like the FBI or other warning in the front?
Fast Forward through it!
VCRs were still user friedly enough to go FAST
when you hit fast forward, DVD players are
ad-friendly and their FastForward is slow.
Now you know.
For many episodes sharing VHS tapes is the only way to see them, unless you resort to internet piracy in which case you risk --AA retalliation.
I suggest you read Slashdot
The user interface for most DVDs sucks! Half the time, I can't figure out whether the damn flower is the pointer that I'm moving from choice to choice or the dog is. How about some sort of standard interface?!?!
:-)
A two year old can put in a VHS tape and if the TV is on the right channel, it will play. Suddenly, with the "artistic" menus that DVDs use, half the time, I have to move the cursor around to figure out what the cursor is. Can I figure it out? Sure. But I've been working with computers for quite a while. God help the children that have to figure out how to play Barney DVDs. God help the old folks trying to watch Matlock DVDs.
On a diffrent rant (same subject really), Tivo and friends can just byte me. Charge me for equipment, monitor my usage, make me pay for a lifetime. Nahhh... I don't think so. The technology is obviously there to make a less intrusive PVR. It's more of that soul-sucking marketing at work. At some point, I'll put together a PVR and watch TV on my terms... or not at all.
Thanks Slashdot... for letting me vent.
DVDs are great, unless you have kids. My kids have magically found a way to scratch nearly every DVD I have either owned or rented. CDs too.
VHS tapes are cheaper, and don't get scratched. A kid has to get past the back-flap on the VHS to get at the tape, which - while not being Fort Knox by any means - seems to (thusfar) have prevented them from damaging any of my VHS tapes.
The day they invent the scratch-proof DVD is the day I stop buying and renting VHS. Until then, I only rent DVDs when either the VHS is unavailable, or the extra content with the DVD is extremely compelling.
One reason my sister still requires us to buy VHS is quite simple. The tapes dont get scratched. I have three nieces [9(today), 7 and 4]. I bought her a DVD-From-TV that she's been wanting. The kids arent old enough to handle the DVD's. Yeah, they try but any parent knows that kids have STICKY fingers and every surface in the house is sticky. The DVD's and CDs get scratches, crud and all sorts of goo on them. It's now to a point where I had to give them an old machine to put all their music on because I was duplicating a cd they either snapped in half, scratched or lost. My sister has a locked cabinent with all the DVDs that the kids cant touch, but then in the kids play room, there is a shelfs full of VHS. They add new ones every week, and thanks for TIVO.. Shes got so many series from Disney channel and Nickelodeon on tape. So until the girls are old enough to handle CDs with care, and lets face it.. even as adults we still scratch, crack and ruin these discs. So I can see why she wont go away from the medium completely.
It's not a VCR, it's my analog TIVO!
Once MythTV is stable, I'll probably put the VCR in the garage. Until then, the VCR is easier to configure and more reliable. Yes, I know MythTV is great and I'm working on getting it more stable.
That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere
Price of DVDR *machines* has come down to reasonable - when the price of rewritable dvd *media* can come anywhere near blank vhs tapes' cost, that will be one driver of my switching over...
Take the 90-Day Challenge! http://rwmurker.bodybyvi.com/
I live and work with mentally challenged individuals.
Cassette tapes and vhs are much more resistant to destruction. They last longer in some environments. Also, for individuals with severe dexterity problems or more crippling forms of arthritis, VHS and cassettes are easier to insert.
The Fisher Price type cassettes just simply work in my line of work. It keeps some people happy. And so does VHS.
Long live choice.
Peace,
VHS will eventually die out, it's only a matter of time.
But it is much easier to record something on a VHS than on a DVD.
You can rewrite VHS easily with new material too.
VHS are not region coded so you can play them anywhere. Region coded DVD's sucks.
Maybe VHS is easier to copy.
Still waiting - perhaps there is a lobby of owners of the LD who don't want a DVD version out because then the value of the LD drops like a rock...?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
You sure as hell can't scotch tape the foil back onto a DVD. Nor are there any region codes to prevent you from watching a movie you paid for on a VCR you paid for!
w00tcow!
They are around ~$150 and the cheapest model at bestbuy is $115. Compare that to a VCR which are usually around ~$70 if you can even find them(hell bestbuy only carries 2 models on their website). VCR is dead, only combo models(dvd/vcr) are selling.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
I just bought a new DVD titled "Your Bright Future in VCR Repair". It promises I can make a small fortune repairing people's broken VCRs. I can use a little extra spending money and it's clear the future is VHS.
VHS will disappear for the same reason that cassette and reel to reel tape are disappearing - fewer and fewer manufacturers are making blank stock.
Aside from that tape is inherently less reliable than digital technology, big thumbprints on the back side of a DVD notwithstanding.
Three Squirrels
VHS tapes and decks are more robust than DVDs which scratch easily and have to be handled with great care, lest the dirt and grime from your 4 year-old's fingers damage the disc or transfer grime to the laser damaging the player itself. A big portion of Walmart's target customer base is lower-to-middle income families with young kids. The kids aren't going to miss the "digital quality picture and sound".
Sure, you can copy a DVD but a) it is technically illegal (DMCA) and b) a royal PITA for your average Joe to get his hands on software that will do this, since most of the commercial shops have been sued out of existence. Easier to give the kids something they will have a hard time destroying by accident.
There is very little future in being right when your boss is wrong.
Better Off Dead on DVD? Guess you can get rid of that VCR now.
The single reason that VHS is still alive is the fact that there is not RF out on the back of most (ALL) DVD players.
This causes problems that most of us reading Slashdot do not even consider anymore:
1) Fear of breaking the TV/VCR/Cable system that is already working, and not being able to fix it. If the VCR breaks, most people can see how to replace it by examining the current set-up and connecting the replacement VCR in the same manor. The lack of an RF output and pass thru means that a new System configuration is required and this will intimidate some people out of the risk of switching.
2) Additional cost of a RF Adaptor / Converter and see #1.
3) People not understanding the benefits of DVDs and see #1.
4) Cost of replacing Content Library and see #1.
5) Learning a new control system, Where Fast-Forward doesn't always mean Fast-Forward and see #1.
6) Learning the difference between a DVD and a CD and why a DVD won't play in a CD player and why a CD doesn't play Video on a DVD player and see #1.
7) And see #1.
VHS is still the only cheap, easy to use, rewritable medium for recording TV shows, weddings, baby's first steps, and whatnot. That, along with the fact that there's absolutely nothing wrong with VHS, will keep it going for a long time. VHS is durable, CD/DVD can be destroyed very easily and unintentionally. VHS has a long shelf life, CD/DVD needs to be replaced every few years. Simple folk use VCR's with ease, but a DVD recorder would throw them for a loop. For VHS, there's one type of medium that does it all. With DVD you have to be bothered with the various forms of recordable DVD media.
Besides, Bubba 'aint tryin tah figger out which doohicky makes da DVD 'corder werk fer 'cordin "The Dukes uh Hazzard" and "Bass Fisherman" shows.
Fifty watts per channel, baby cakes.
Older manufactured equipment was simply made better, and some of us prefer it to spending more of our liquidity on the latest and greatest (which, as stated above, tends to be more poorly made and hence, more quickly replaced).
Well, love it or hate it, it is called "planned obsolescence."
The theory goes: why make something that will last for 20 years when "better tech" is going to come out in 5? There are plenty of 286XT's out there that will still run, but you would be hard-pressed to find real uses for it still when the newest tech can be had so cheaply and is much improved.
Now whether one feels this is a marketing ploy to drive consumerism or a way to help keep a society from stagnating technologically will depend entirely on where in the scale between the two views one sits.
Ultimately, the question of "is this on the whole good or bad?" is tied to how good we are at deciding what things should be phased out. It doesn't bother me that computer tech evolves quickly... but it does bother me that my refrigerator isn't designed to last 20 years anymore.
Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
Other than the simple, cheap recording capabilities already commented here, VHS offers another advantage - compatibility. I know you can take your DVD to anyone in the same region and play it, but that's not the compatibility I'm referring to. My parent's TV does not have SVIDEO or RCA inputs, only co-ax cable input. And I know many other people in the same situation. The majority of commercial DVD players only output via SVIDEO or RCA, and don't have any internal RF modulator to connect via the co-ax TV cable.
- James
I think that the main reason it will not die is that it is a safe media for children. How many parents have found a scratched DVD in their collection and knew that they would have to replace it? I think VHS and cartridge gaming systems will always have a place in our culture because they are harder for children to ruin and the replacement costs are a lot less. It is amazing how easy it is to ruin a disc when someone puts another in on top of it and tries to make it play.
just because somebody out there with a tin desk and a red tie thinks I should replace everything I own with whatever they decided to sell this year... is not a reason to do so.
there are two reasons that we still have vinyl records, analog tape, VHS, boring passenger cars, bicycles, trains, etc. etc. ad nauseum.
first, there is plenty of the old technology around, it still works, and folks still use it and like it.
second, there is not enough money around, folks want to use it in ways that are more important to them than to the fool with a tin desk and a red tie.
not to mention, my LPs sound better off the Linn than my CDs do, and I have absolute right of use within my user license (copyright law) without some little robot determining that I have made six copies of "Don't Worry, Baby" from the same album over the past 35 years, for alternate mode use with no overlap in real time between the different sources, and therefore I can make no more.
the more of that BS they roll out, the higher the prices for analog stuff get on eBay.
-0-
short version: I make the purchasing decisions around my house, not EIA.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I speak for many people: If I needed a DVD player then I would have bought one by now, but VCR's and VHS meet my needs. I watch movies from beginning to end - nothing else. I use my VCR to watch a movie on my 27" TV maybe once every month or two. I don't record anything. Ever. I don't "need" TIVO's timeshifting capabilities, and I don't care to spend hours upon hours watching different versions or "cuts" of the same movie or listen to rambling commentary about specific scenes... Nothing anyone says or writes can change this simple fact. Bottomline: I prefer functionality and simplicity over features and flexibility. "Upgrading" from a VCR to a DVD player seems pointless for me.
And BTW, I also do not "need" a cellphone with bluetooth, wifi, expandable memory, text messaging, email, and frigging GPS capabilities thank you very much. I want a phone and a network that works everywhere and all of the time!!
Well, I reckun if the WalMart be keepin with the VHSes I can keep on wachin my Vern tapes. I loves them boys! Always gettin into trouble, that Vern. Who needs no north fangled laser-type discuses when you gots yer Vern tapes at the WalMart?
I'd say that in the last 6 months 1 out of every 5 DVDs we've rented has had some sort of skip or scratch, some that we haven't been able to get rid of by cleaning.
Alternately, when we rent VHS tapes, which are cheaper to rent, we don't seem to have that problem.
Also there's a wider selection of movies on VHS at the library to be checked out for free.
Love DVDs but there are still some benefits to VHS.
I made a promise to myself, and a threat to the MPAA when the whole DeCSS fiasco erupted, and a poor European boy was arrested for watching DVDs on Linux.
I was already waiting until I could get the ENTIRE B5 series before I bought a stand-alone DVD player. But after the problems for DVDJon I decided I was never going to buy a DVD player until CSS was dead, or HD-DVD's came out. I've since had a PC-DVD player given to me from an old machine, and I kept it because my foolish relatives like to give DVDs as gifts. But I'm still glad that I've never given a donation to the MPAA just to watch these movies that I didn't even ask for.
Power to the blue-ray/HD/uberDVD peoples, maybe soon there'll be a good digital solution to my need to record Stargate Mondays on Sci-Fi that doesn't involve magnetic tape.
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity" --Lazarus Long
I don't want to "re-buy" all my VHS movies just because of a format change. I already spent money on them once. Unfortunately this is probably a major reason retailers are so eager to drop the older format - people spending money on the same thing twice makes their short term numbers look better. Look at all the whining the RIAA have been doing ever since their numbers came down from artificial highs after the vinyl-to-CD change.
Then there are the older films that would be a hassle to find on DVD, even if I did have money coming out my ears. Which I don't.
1) still looks decent on 27" TVs
2) easy to record without expensive hardware
3) tapes are cheap, VHS movies cost $5 less than their DVD counterparts
4) no encryption and being able to skip the junk
5) fast forewarding is much less jerky and easier to control than DVDs
rending
How many times have you gone to the rental store brought home a DVD and had to sit through the parts where the previous lender put the mucky fingerprints or scratched the surface. Your DVD player madly searches for some data it can recognize all the while giving you a stuck picture or some weird blocky digital effect when it can painfully extract partial data for a frame.
With VHS tapes you may get some fuzz but the program as a whole remain watchable. The same applies for watching broadcast TV or listening to a radio, there may be interference but your brain can learn to ignore it. A bad DVD or digital signal is unwatchable.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
I have a friend who spend good money on a Sony dual deck DVD/VHS and TV and he makes it a point to rent only VHS rather than DVD. His logic is that all the rental DVDs are scratched up and don't play as well as VHS. I've seen this and it holds 100% true on his deck. In fact, I can say that a new DVD will skip where the VHS plays flawlessly. I tried to point out that there was something seriously wrong with his deck, that he could get it replaced under warranty, but alas since the warranty falls under the sony VHS deck class and not a DVD you only get parts but not labor for a year, labor is a good deal less. I've met others who also have had bum DVD players did new DVDs ok, but rentals poorly, but most were smart enough to return them for another of the same model and get better results.
Even though I prefer DVD to VHS on all fronts I can agree that a VHS tape can take a bit more abuse than DVD and still be watchable. But don't take my word for it, watch a teething child with either and see the results for your self. Throw each out a moving car and see which one works better. Heck, sit on each one and see what happens.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Put in a tape, hit record. It's simple and always works the same way. Navigation is simple: backward or forward. No need for menus, etc. No VHS +/- R/RW SL/DL formats to choose from - just VHS. The only real downside as far as most consumers go is that a bad machine may eat a tape.
They think that something like this, costs this much.
(Yes, by posting this on /., WalMart should give me a commission.)
Other answers: Habit, fear that it's not simple, and comfort of using tape systems over the years.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
One reason and one reason only - Star Wars Trilogy BEFORE it became the special edition.
Older hardware *had* to be made better. That's how the world worked. A hi-fi stereo was an expensive thing to buy and it had to be built to last because it was so expensive.
We still have one from the 70's with 8-track, vinyl, and a cassette player. It still works.
With new technology came a change in the marketplace. Manufactures had to balance building quality products with the ability to sell them for less knowing that people will upgrade more often.
I bought a receiver in 2000 - 5.1 channel Dolby Digital Kenwood thing. It's lasted these past 5 years with only a few minor repairs required (mostly caused by moving every year). But you can bet I've been itching to upgrade to one with Pro Logic II and DTS (and 7.1 channels even).
That's a 5 year old receiver and the fact that the newer ones have more advanced technology in them makes me want to upgrade. That simply wasn't the case decades ago when a stereo was made...
I'm thrilled with something lasts... but sometimes I'm even more thrilled when something dies and I have a chance to upgrade to the latest and greatest.
Watching a great, well-told story on an old 19" television played back from a VHS tape is every bit as humanly compelling as seeing it on a 60" digital screen from a progressive scan DVD. From a human standpoint, there's litle difference and I've never met anyone who watches movies just to see the picture quality.
I think you're right about the money, but I think the money part is only right because there's no tangible gain from an entertainment standpoint. This is most likely the reason that the FCC and industry hasn't convinced any more people to buy into HDTV.
It's the poverty line and the amount of people living under it.
The movies released to DVD also goto VHS. Plus all the tapes being sold for around $1 coupled with the fact that anyone can buy a player for 50 cents from a pawn shop (just ask if they have any to get rid of. When DVD players became affordable to the lower middle class these pawn shops were stuck with thousands of VHS players)
True, with VHS you don't get the special behind-the-scenes videos and the bloopers and such but, for 90% of the movies out there the 'special stuff' isn't really that important
(Sorry if that shocked anyone)
The GEEK shall inherit the earth...
Play XVID, DIVX, DVD, MP3, SVCD, KVCD, etc etc all for $55 at walmart.
Then join groups.yahoo.com dvp642 and download one of the many hacked firmwares.
Region free, no macrovision, skip any previews, change the backround image, etc etc.
Cause it's affordable. When that new movie you've waited six months to see is finally released it's often $20+ for the DVD version, which usually only comes in widescreen format (some of us still prefer full screen). Whereas the VHS version is anywhere as cheap as $5 to an average of $8-10. Half the price of a DVD.
DVD prices are just too high. Sure, some the extras on a DVD sometimes justify the cost but most times I don't want extras, I don't need extras. Sure I'll pay a few dollars extra for a movie in DVD format, in DVD quality, stored on a CD-like storage system for smaller area usage, but you can't buy just vanilla DVD's such as that. And I sure as hell ain't paying $20 for some Ultimate Directors Unrated Unabridged BehindtheScenes Edition of some movie that's over twenty years old...
The day VHS "dies" is the day I stop buying movies and tv shows until a cheaper medium is released.
Aw Frell this
Techonology driven society is rather mad I would say. The averages consumers who toiled for livings and who spend his hard earned cash on his leisure seldom change his toys for something which promises to be better but we know better - they never end there, which make the state 'better' an undesirable place to be in. If the old VHS works as good as when it was made, the supply affords the consumers, who needs a change for the better DVDs?
Maybe record DVD to VHS for friends?
Maybe record TV shows to VHS?
DVD recorders are not that convenient.
Twice in the past 6 weeks or so I've rented a DVD and had to take it back because my DVD player couldn't handle the scratches, etc. VHS tapes certainly get banged up.. but you can usually play through the bad spots and not "lock up" or freeze.
i have a collection of over 1000 discounted vhs tapes. im not a videophile, i watch movies for their emotional content (2001 counts as emotional), i dont NEED widescreen to be moved. and movies are narratives, so i dont need the jump feature of dvd. thats good for music, or for a collection of video shorts. i dont need commentary on a movie. and i can still find lots of good vhs at thrift stores, etc. i do have a dvd player, and own 2 dvds: koyaanisqatsi, and orgasm: faces of ecstasy (got it for free as a participant, its a great movie, buy it!). so vhs will last a long long time, until everyone who actually has to live within a real world budget wears out their vhs collection. i of course refuse to tape movies at condensed speed. i used to do this, but now cant stand the loss of quality. i will buy the lotr on dvd eventually, but am in no rush. ive seen it already, and watching a movie over and over for me is a sign of addictive behavior. enjoy the experience, then move on (the 1000 vids is more addictive behavior, i know, but im only human) to summarize: dvd is overkill, the nonsequential nature is unnecessary for narrative structures, and its just more capitalistic hooey.
You hear about the person who didn't rely on anecdotal evidence to support his belief system?
ICLOD city? Come back tomorrow. Bwahahaha!
I wish my TV had DVI-in.
--
Random Signature #1
Generated by SlashdotRndSig via GreaseMonkey
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Clear and Present Danger is great when you rent it from the Library.
VHS will fade away as soon as DVD burners are mainstream read: standard issue and universally compatible
If memory serves correctly Edison's original light bulb is still burning.
Don't sell very many of them when they don't wear out.
"Lather, Rinse, Repeat" Doubled the shampoo's industries profits in a year.
I just got a car with a DVD player (the only minivan they had, I didn't really want to spring for it). I stuck in a DVD for my kid to watch on the road. Ten minutes of previews, no fast forward...
Then we stop for gas. Engine off, power off. Engine on - and we're stuck with the SAME previews for 10 minutes - WITH NO FAST FORWARD.
I can't begin to explain how much this pisses me off.
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
you can get a DVD burner within the $40 price point. If you know an SVID port from your ass and have a half-decent vid card, you can then do the same thing with your VHS tapes.
Another advantage of DVD is that media prices are falling into the quarter apiece range if you go with cheap brands and shop around. VHS tapes are still 2 bucks apiece. It's a big difference if you are converting or copying a collection of 200-500 films. As a matter of fact, backing up a collection of that size would justify itself in the media cost alone, even considering the purchase of a low-end burner. (200*2 = 400; 200*0.25 = 50 + 100 = 150)
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
How about that a VHS recorder (stero) can be had for $50 and since I record 6 channels the new technology is not cost effective. When I can get 6 tuners with a huge huge drive I will consider converting.
i've been patiently waiting for the day that VHS finally dies. it turned my Betamax into a $600.00 living room clock damn near overnight.
Serenity now, insanity later.
give a DVD + a recorder to a tech person ... you will spend hours to figure aout how to write a DVD that is actually playable everyehere....
..
....
.. as far as i know ...
... could never afford a decent one ....
... vell i put them all in a bag 5+ years ago -had around 300 audio tapes- and gave it to a friend ... ... that --shhhhh--- noise sooner or later appeared ...
...
... LPs are king, no synthetic sound like CDs ... then you have the krr-krr-krr sound ....
....
now press the REC button on a VHS
now give the DVD recorder to a non tech person
come on my wife cannot record a CD, nor her parents !! with NERO, not with linux cdrecors +looong params
i assume we are talking about Computer DVD recorders.... because the $100 range does not apply to press-a-button-and-record consumer devices
now about tape media : i love dat tapes for data
vhs, and audio casettes
no matter if i used metal,chrome,normal and a quality tape deck
yes i know listen to mp3, and that is not perfect quality, but whatever i record stays like that.. if it is really precious, I just use the CD
wish plastic did not degrade so fast
that is why people use VHS and other tapes, and that is why I do not
just my 2c.
It seems obvious to me why VHS thrives in Walmart. Walmart stopped selling Tivos. Think about it. My gut instinct was to say my dvd player doesn't record. Then I rememebered, oh yeah, I have a Tivo (it's just a part of my life, I don't think about it any more). Tivo is why I never use a VCR. Walmart is where I bought my steal-of-a-deal tivo when they closed them out. Think about the mentality of the walmart shopper and that they obviously didn't get tivo and what choice do they have left?
All of you confused by this aren't factoring in one major thing (and it's the same reason alot of people have moved from CDs to MP3s): PRICE!
If you can buy a new movie for $8 on video rather than $16 on DVD, well to alot of people quality is irrelevant. They work hard for their money and they'll be damned if they'll spend twice as much if they don't have to.
Still more existing vhs cameras than digital cameras.
You can be sure your product won't accidentally (or "accidentally") be shared to all the internets.
It's arguably easier to use a VHS camera.
Interestingly, digital still cameras are more secure than film still cameras (assuming you can't develop yourself), but film video is more secure than digital video.
The thought to ditch my VCR never crossed my mind until this discussion thread. I'm not aware of a mass-market DVR that doesn't require a monthly subscription. If such a product exists, how do I share or back-up recorded shows? Likewise, I've never even HEARD of a DVD TV recorder until this thread. My VCR fills my need. If VCR tapes will disappear, then I'll buy up a large supply of tapes and a couple spare VCRs before I'll consider crappy subscriber-based DVRs and DRM-crippled DVD recorders.
Because of the overwhelming number of consumers who got burned buying the DVD rewinder http://www.dvdrewinder.com/?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
I still use VHS on a regular basis. Of course, I have a DVD player as well, but the thing completely crapped out on me after only three years. My VHS deck is still going strong, with no signs of wear, after 12 years.
And in the last two years it's gone from 75% VHS/25% DVD to about 15% VHS/85% DVD. Probably a good 30% of the titles in any of the video bible books do not now, and will not in the foreseeable future, have a DVD released, so VHS is not going away altogether for some time to come. Conversely, most small/indy/foreign new releases are *only* released on DVD now. There are very few users that don't have a DVD player now, and in fact I see a growing number that don't have a VHS deck anymore.
Something most people don't know is that certain studios (like MGM & Universal (I think it was Uni - I stopped buying VHS last Oct) still charge between $35 and $50 per copy for a new release on VHS and at the same time charge the same as everyone else for new release DVD. This is why you never see VHS from some studios in the big box/Walmart type stores - they don't like getting screwed either.
Plug: We sell our overstock dirt cheap on Super Blue DVD
There are? There were only 20,000 XT 286 machines made, it's unlikely there are that many out there.
Unless you've got a secret cache of them hidden away, biding your time until their value goes up and you make a killing on the antique computer market?
I'd agree that much of the older stuff was indeed made better, but it's also largely just due to it being simpler. As time goes on and technologies advance, it's natural to become more concerned with issues like "size reduction", "additional new features and functionality" and ways to hold the price down while adding in the new features.
For example, I take a look at my dad's old tube AM radio. Still works! Great... but let's face it. It's a pretty basic device. You can build the same thing today on pretty much a single IC chip, and cram it into something the size of a ballpoint pen. Today's radios have a LOT more complexity. (For starters, you have that whole other band to receive called FM, and it does stereo. But you probably also want digital tuning so you're not fumbling around with a dial trying to get a station tuned in "just right", and loads of other things.) On top of that, I can see a repair sticker on the bottom of the tube radio too. So it did break down at least once before. (Most likely, needed new tubes.) You might just discard a broken radio today instead of having it fixed, but I bet the new replacement costs less than labor on a repair of ANY sort.
So I think we're not talking about a situation here that's helping drag down the net worth of current generations.
You had to actually GO to a movie theater to see Disney movies. This was before Disney put anything on tape (VCR's were evil in the early 80's). Disney used to re-release their movies in theaters. Oh and Super8! forgot about good ol celluloid (lol).
...and the results are already in.
Here in India, VCRs can be seen only in museums nowadays. When VCDs came into scene about 10 years ago they pretty much drove out VCRs overnight. One possible reason could be the very low level of penetration of VCRs to begin with. Most people rented a VCR (or VCP - the player only version without a recorder) from their video library, rather than buying one. But when VCDs came into picture it was like an explosion. Combined with very cheap - mostly pirated - VCDs they won the field without any competition. Even today, DVDs are not that much popular here when compared to VCDs.
It is true that the picture quality sucks; but hey, for Rs.99 (~ 2 dollars) for a movie in three disks most people don't care much for the picture quality. That is Rs.99 for a licensed movie - pirated movies might run even cheaper.
Coming from the duplication/distribution industry, believe me, VHS is on its way out the door.
The demand has decreased significantly, this was the yellow light for studios, who will now proceed with their "end-game".
Several of the larger studios already have plans laid out to end production of all new VHS within the next year or so (in North America at least). A majority of the smaller studios I've dealt with have already made this switch.
When production stops a studio generally "expires" the title shortly thereafter. This means a small quantity is kept on stock via the vendor and the resulting majority of retail returns are destroyed after a return credit is issued to the retailer.
The strategy is to expire the slowest moving titles in waves leading up to the "A" and "B"(fastest selling/most profitable) movers within a given period of time.
Soon after distribution channels dry, any remaining retail channels will be hard pressed to keep stock on hand and many will return their remaining product to the vendor before it expires and they can get credit for the return. Despite any residual consumer demand the masses have spoken and sunk this titanic.
To drive the point home, the business side of things are drying up now too. Our VHS duplication business (as well as rumors of others)will be winding down shortly and will be channeled to an outside source who will manage the remaining duplication business for North America.
To make a long story short, the profit is not there to continue this legacy.
Read my sandwich board...the end is near!!!
Don't expect me to get rid of my Vinyl record player any time soon either... There are a couple of records that took me years to hunt down in the 70's and 80's I have precious little hope of hunging down the CDs today.... Granted, it would be cheap for me to transfer to CD, but anybody who's listened to an analogue recording on a half-decent audio system will tell you that a little bit is lost when going to CD --- and I don't have a sound card with quality enough to make a higher resolution recording (on DVD) sound as good as a 12" piece of spinning vinyl.
Strangest thing is that the DVD player that I bought in 2000 is already dead, even though it got precious little use, but a 20 year old Technics turntable still works just fine. similarly, some of my 10 year old CDs are probably in worse shape than my 20+ year old records.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
I've spent some time watching the videos on www.boattest.com recently. These are reviews and walk-throughs of brand new, high end 50-100 foot motor yachts built this year. Most in fact nearly all had TV/VCR combo's. Apparently people with so much money they're burning it in the fireplace are really into VHS over DVD.
I'm Rick James with mod points biatch!
"Wal-Mart Stores will continue to sell VHS tapes for as long as its customers want them."
Heyo! WMT electronics associate here. VHS is on the way out, in that movies are not going to be distributed on them for long. DVD held out for a while in the children's movies sector. Stupendous X-Mas 2003 and 2004 sales of players means that many/most houses have them for multiple rooms. Dual DVD/VHS machines and blank tapes are still popular so obviously people are using the tapes for home recording.
Statistics (from memory) for my average store
VHS Shelf space
2002: 20+ feet & 2 four-way displays
2004: 12 feet & 2 fourways
2005: 4ft. & 1 fourway
VHS Recorders Offered (the machine)
2003: 5
2004: 3
2005: 1
My VHS player is about 15 years old, it still works fine. Two different DVD players (one 6 and one 5 years old have problems playing most disks. My parents bought a new DVD player last summer, but after failing to be able to watch 3 rentals, they've gone back to VHS tapes.
Nothing gets a rise out of my BP than trying to play DVD's. Some just won't play at all on either of 2 players -- it seems I can get them to work on a brand new DVD drive (2 older ones at about 3-4 years old failed). Too much dust in air, too much heat -- my VHS player isn't so picky. While I can get 5.1 sound out of the digital out my computer with the external USB DVD, due to the grand and glorious DVD-play & backup prevention technology, images on the computer's Video out don't display the DVD image! I see the DVD player frame and my desktop on the TV, but no image in the frame (while it is shown on the small screen of my computer -- it doesn't do much for a shared watching experience. It seems the Plextor-included SW player isn't seem compatible with the Dell video output.
These problems just don't happen w/the VCR. I had a newer S-VHS player from Sony, but it just stopped playing. Fortunately, the older tech VCR just keeps on working. Same w/my parent's VCR -- though their house is hardly dusty nor should it be too hot, but what is "too hot"? People are used to placing their players on top of their TV-sets, but that can certainly reach 80-90 degrees, which seems to be too hot.
I can see how my DVD's might be dusty...I have four dogs and a cat. I use a fireplace for heating in winter, and forced air (air intake from fireplace/living room in winter, into central air circulator, and gas forced air heating in spring/fall when it's too warm for fires). Still forced air blows around air, even with a 3M-Ultra-allergen filtrete, it's still above safe levels for a DVD player apparently.
However, my parents couldn't play DVD's reliably on a brand new player. They are in their 70-80's, and wouldn't be comfortable going through the gyrations I go through to get things to play. On a DVD, a blemish makes my Sony player jump chapters -- sometimes more than one, forward or back. On a VHS tape, it just affects a few seconds. Even CD's are more reliable in that way -- maybe a skipped track, but not 10-20 minutes of the movie just skipped.
It's *Great* video and audio quality (have 5.1 and DTS decoding and speaker setup) _when_ it works, but I dread renting and buying DVD's that I don't know will play when I get them home...
VHS's are disappointing in video quality...BUT...they do, just work...
-l
Why has nobody pointed out the obvious?
Well, first of all, I don't see a DVD version of my VHS tape speed rewinder. Why should I go and by a DVD player if I'm just gonna end up burning out the motor drive? Some people just have money to burn I guess.
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
My kids are pretty adept at entertaining themselvs with VHS, affording a few precious extra hours sleep on the weekends.
DVDs and, more importantly players, are too fragile for imprecise, sticky fingers.
When are they coming out with a player where you can insert the disk, instead of a tray, which can snap off?
Why do most people locked into thiking its "DVD v's VHS", why isn't it "DVD + VHS"? I still have a VHS recorder which is have kept and use, but wait... I also have a DVD player. OMG!!!! They both sit alongside each other and get along nicely without fighting.
I must be a real rebel, having the audacity to use both.
I can't say much about VHS, but I know that the higher-quality SVHS is still used by many TV stations which haven't upgraded to digital yet.
Besides the economic cost, there's also the time issue. With DV tapes, you always have to dub your tape then edit it. Linear editing (tape-to-tape) with SVHS allows you to edit directly from your field tape. Also, the editing is done directly to tape, so there's no need to convert the video at all.
So analog tapes still have some advantages, for both consumers and professionals.
a way to help keep a society from stagnating technologically...
This discussion would be inexistent if we didn't live in a period of very fast paced technological development.
FWIW, technology didn't always evolve that fast; and there will probably come a time when the speed will decrease again. Then "planned obsolecense" would be moot because quality will matter again.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
...in the electronics department I can personaly say that Target is currently not carrying any vhs tapes (with the exception of blank tapes and kids movies). I dont know of any plans to phase out vhs of any sort right now though.
I like the people that said that S-Video is so much better than RCA.
:-)
Yes it's true, but when you use the RGB connection, the S-video output looks like total shit, to the same scale that RCA look so bad compare to S-Video.
In europe we have RGB scart, and i will never exchange my expensive connection cable from a cheaper s-video one (that is the same quality according to marketing, yeah yea, marketing speaking).
The picture is far more stable, far more sharper and your eyes say thank you when you program (ZX Spectrum era
In fact, when you use the TV with the RGB signals, it acts as a cathodic monitor, but with a low refreshing frequency and very awfull pitch that make any font under 20pixel unreadable.
Try it, and you never come back, even the DVD movies looks better on RGB, the games on console, etc...
People are lying if they deny this. It's a fact.
The major reason people still stick to them? MONEY! Contarary to the PR, the monetary systems really slow down inventions. Look how long people stuck to MSDos because it would be expensive to change over. Or why Windows was crap because it had to be compatible.
If money was no object and people could toss out everything and go on to the next new thing, development would be a lot further along.
Ah, but how do you pay for this, someone is bound to say - well that requires a social reform and is a totally different story.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
the eurpoean male porno renters dont feel weird and shamefull when they walk to the clerk? please do a reality check and forget your current knowledge about Europe. Cause it was never knowledge.
1. Europeans who have visited America tell me that Europeans males can unshamefully rent various kinds of porn.
-Proviso #1, there *are* shameful forms of porn as well, e.g. Shit Porn in Germany.
-Proviso #2, Europe is a diverse place, not a monolith.
-Proviso #3, shy or shame-ridden men exist everywhere.
2. Americans friends of mine who have visited Europe tell the same tale.
Furthermore, Europe has public, legal brothels. Here in the states (outside Nevada anyways), prostitution is illegal. I haven't shopped around personally, but it seems obvious that a legal brothel arouses less shame (and less worry about diseases, etc.) than illegal hookers.
I could give detailed examples, but I dislike your condescending tone, so I'm done.
-kgj
-kgj
Frontline is nearly always worth watching. A few years back, they did a story about Mad Cow disease being caused by prions, and it was the scariest thing I'd ever seen on TV, and it was real.
Heck, I'm still running 3.11 and 95. If I need something more stable, I have NT 4. I have no use for, nor any desire to ever use the worst form of NT ever created, a.k.a. Windows XP.
As for VHS, I'm perfectly happy with it and continue to be able to buy movies for dirt cheap. They simply work. Period.
VCRs are silent when not recording. They don't have cooling fans, get virii, etc.
My VCR performs at least three functions. It acts as a remote control enabled tuner for my TV, records and plays back scratch tapes for time delaying programming, and it acts as a composite to RF adapter for my DVD player.
I've played with hardware based MPEG2 tuner/capture cards for my PC, but typically they don't receive broadcast worth a shit. I guess you can't expect to do a good job with weak radio signals when you have so much digital hash from inside the PC case.
If you fall asleep in front of a playing DVD, you end up hearing the menu music all night. (Unless you remember to set the stereo and TV sleep timers.) With VHS, the player stops at the end of the tape.
In defense of DVD, the non-linear home editing suite is much easier and cheaper to build for DVD than for VHS. And the results are a format that is easier to distribute over the internet.
How many folks out there have dozens, or hundreds, of tapes? Gonna toss 'em all out, and pay $$ for DVD versions... assuming you can *find* DVD versions?
Talk about no-brainers!
And yes, I have scores of audio tapes, and our vehicles *only* have tape players.
mark "of course, I also have 200-300 vinyl records, too....
mix tapes? What're those, exactly?!
You may be too young to remember, but old farts like me used to rent pornographic videos on tape. Using two videotape decks, we'd copy our favorite sex scenes (omitting the plot, acting, and so on).
Hell, I'm old enough to remember when pornography was printed on paper. Back in those days, we'd clip out the best pictures from Playboy, then "mix" the pictures using collage techniques.
-kgj
-kgj
Sure there are alternatives to VHS like the snazzy PVRs that have come out, but why buy one of those when you only have an analogue TV and don't care about the quality? VHS are the cheapest alternative when I already have a VHS recorder.
Do they pay to get these stories put on slashdot? I know this will be once again modded as a troll, but I increasingly don't care about slashdot anyway so it doesn't matter. How about this headline: Reports of Slashdot's Relevance Greatly Exaggerated.
What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?
I have not researched this extensively, but I contend that it's because a VHS tape is the only thing that fits into their VCR.