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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'!!!!
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
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?
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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...
Because "Erik the Viking" (or insert your favorite old movie here) is not out on DVD yet.
It also complements the Tivo.
When we catch a movie the kids like, they're perfectly happy to have it dumped in six hour mode onto blank tape so we can watch it later.
I generally used 2 hour before the Tivo, but that's probably a leftover from the monster 700 line screen (yes, it interpolated 400-450 lines to make the rest) upon which the long-saving fromat was unwatchable.
hawk
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 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.
You need a better DVD player. Mine remembers the 'last played' location of up to 40 discs.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
ROFL! While I know this post was meant to be funny, it's funny because it's definitely NOT true! My wife and I after seeing Star Wars 3 in the theater a couple of weeks ago decided to watch the "original" 3 movie series which I had on VHS (the extended version, hadn't watched those tapes much). Before the opening credits were done we couldn't take it anymore and went and bought the full-DVD box set. VHS just looked that bad in comparison to my component video hooked up DVD player. I don't even have that fancy of a DVD player! So your post was funny because the vinyl/CD argument might *just barely* be valid, but the VHS/DVD one is definitely NOT! Analog "ambiance" on a VHS tape equates to a crappy picture, not a "richer" one as goes the argument over vinyl records vs. CD's.
And some, minority I must add, are happy to use their existing technology as long as it works.
:/
You know, there are _A_LOT_ of people who actually have to save up for such purchases as new media players, computers and other not-so-critical-for-livelyhood appliances.
There's no reason to eat less for 6 months to buy a recording DVD-player, if the VHS still can do the timeshift required to see a show you wanna see.
And now contemplating on the minority... Is the real situation so that infact majority of our "first world" countries citizens can throw away the cost of a DVD player any time they want?
As of me... I gave my well served TV set which was older than me to a moving guy 10-years ago. Bought a Receiver card for my PC instead. VCR also started acting up, and gave it for free to a friend who had some weird use for it. (He was recording a lot of shows off the air)
Just about 6 months ago I finally bought a recording DVD drive for my PC. I also bought some 200 levy-free empty DVD's too, but have actually used something like 20 of them.
Two moths ago I moved and the antenna cable was cut with some quite unorthodox method. I still haven't got around about tidying it up, replacing the connector and taking it into use. I'm actually pretty content without broadcast TV!
Now... Losing my 4Mb/s DSL line would be quite a shock thou.
Umm... I don't actually know what the fuck I'm rambling about here. Maybe I had too much to drink already
Bot Assisted Blogging
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
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
They're cheaper. Seriously, I can find VCRs for about the same price as -1- new DVD movie release. I have a number of tapes I've recorded, and they are still convenient for recording new TV programs.
A DVD recorder costs about three times as much as a comparable quality VCR at the low end. Now they are a -lot- cheaper than they used to be, but many people probably figure it this way; they're going to keep dropping in price. Why rush to buy?
The people expecting that VCR's should have disappeared by now make the same errors as the folks that said floppy disks were going to disappear. At $6 (last time I priced one), they're cheap insurance (it's been awhile; I bought three as emergency backups; if one dies, swap a new one in).
I have a DVD player sitting in my entertainment center; but I also have a VCR, right under it.
If the price of low-end VCRs continues to drop, they'll probably stick around even longer. Will there be lots of high-end models on the shelves? Nope. But enough generic cheapies to keep the format going.
Do a google for magnoliafan and torrent. There is also "TR47," but the former are anamorphic transfers.
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.
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...
Those who don't know Lisp are doomed to reimplement it.
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.
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.
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!!!