Variety Declares VHS Dead

An anonymous reader writes "Variety has written an obituary for the VHS format only 3 years after it was surpassed in popularity by the DVD." While VHS is hardly the format of choice these days, there are still many, many home movies and other favorite recordings and commercial releases floating around in VHS. How long until VHS players themselves go the way of the 8-track player?

Comments

hey, wait a minute!

[yagu]

From the /. summary:

How long until VHS players themselves go the way of the 8-track player?

Did I miss the memo? Is there some danger around the 8-track and availability. Please... ... ... click

... ..., someone tell me this isn't so! Have I invested all this money on all these artists and their tapes... ... ...click

for naught? Sigh.

Re:hey, wait a minute!

[kabz]

What is this infernal light I see before me?

Will no-one rid me of this flashing clock?

the real question

[User 956]

How long until VHS players themselves go the way of the 8-track player?

With the cost of storage plummeting and the rise of digital distribution and on-demand services, the real question should be: "How long until physical distribution of media goes the way of the 8-track player?"

Re:the real question

[tverbeek]

My former boss has been predicting the death of physical media since the early days of the CD-ROM, when the internet started becoming commonplace. One of these years I'm convinced he's going to be proven right.

Re:the real question

[LindseyJ]

If you need an example of why we're not ready for a paperless society (or even an example of why it may just be completely unworkable altogether), look no further than Diebold.

Re:the real question

[El Torico]

Where's my flying car?

Re:the real question

[Linker3000]

Coming soon I believe - I have a VHS promo video somewhere round here...

Re:the real question

[rainman_bc]

Well only about 16.7 percent of the world's population has access to the internet. So a while.

and how much own a dvd player??

Re:the real question

[rynthetyn]

Yeah, that's for sure. I still don't know who my new US Congressperson is going to be, and it's all the fault of the county south of me thinking that touch screen voting machines were a good way to go. Now, thanks to the fact that there were 18,000 fewer votes in that race than there were people who voted overall, we're in for the loser putting us through the long protracted court battles that Florida is becoming known for. I might be the voting machines going haywire, it might be that 18,000 people decided they didn't want either bum (the reason I didn't vote for either of them), but since there's no paper trail, there's no way of knowing.

Re:the real question

[timeOday]

I wonder what percent have VCRs?

Re:the real question

[Da_Weasel]

VHS has been dead for at least 5 years. I distinctly remember having to explain the totally foreign concept of rewinding a tape so you could watch it again to my oldest daughter when she was almost 6 (5 years ago). After she finally understood why the tape retained it's state she simply replied "That's dumb!". I heard the VCR gasp, then it reached for its chest, and collapsed to the ground clinching its heart in its hand. It's clock flashed twelve faster. I leaned closer to hear what the VCR was mouthing to me. "B be be kind, rewind..." And then it's clock flashed no more...

Re:the real question

[RicktheBrick]

When do you think one can download a movie for less than the cost of renting one at a video store. I can rent a recent movie for $3 and keep it overnight. It will be viewed more than once during that time so unless they increase the speed of downloading so one can watch the movie instantly and have a price of say $1 per view than I would not be interested. I think that vhs tapes are better than dvd disks too. I can give my 4 year old a tape and not have to start it up for him. DVD's usually require a menu entry to start them and if they get dirty from handling they will freeze in the middle of the movie. One has to take the disk out and clean it and than try to fast forward to the point where it stopped. One can stop a tape and take it out and give it back when other things are done with and the tape will just continue at the point where it stopped. I would think that parents of young children should be enough demand to keep tapes going or so I hope.

Re:the real question

[Kelson]

Yeah, that's for sure. I still don't know who my new US Congressperson is going to be, and it's all the fault of the county south of me thinking that touch screen voting machines were a good way to go.

A lot of it has to do with the specific type of voting machine used. I've heard stories of some really bad designs from people who voted in different areas last week, but it can be done...not necessarily right, but at least better.

The machines that my district has used for the last ~2 years are pain to use (basically a click wheel, and the display is slow enough you can watch it drawing rectangles), but at least have some measures against fraud. For instance, activating the machine requires a single-use passcode that's generated by the control unit and handed to you by the official running that station, so you can't sneak into an unused booth when you're done and vote again. (Not that this would have been possible where I was. They were watching the booths like hawks waiting for one to free up so they could get people through the line as fast as possible. It was the most crowded midterm election I've seen since I started voting in 1994, unless you count the 2003 California governor recall.)

Most importantly, each voting machine has a roll of paper inside like the store copy in a cash register. When you finish your ballot, it first gives you a chance to review your choices on-screen, then it prints them out on the paper roll, which is visible through a plastic window. You have one more chance to confirm that the paper copy matches what you actually chose, then it accepts your vote and rolls the paper out of view.

With that type of machine, even if the memory gets wiped by a power outage, there's still a paper record that can be examined.

More like the cassette than 8-track.

[winkydink]

Still around, still useful, just not commonplace.

Re:More like the cassette than 8-track.

[gosand]

Still around, still useful, just not commonplace.

Hmm, I wonder how commonplace it is. I still use mine. Not so much to watch movies, but I will record things and watch them. I just don't have that big of a desire or need to get a DVR. I had a friend that used his VCR a LOT. He had probably 100 video tapes of things he had taped that he needed to watch. He upgraded to TiVO, and now he has a more compact way of recording things that he never watches. I honestly don't know what people are recording. I watch about 3 shows, and if I miss them, I miss them - whooptie doo. I just can't really justify the cost of a DVR. But then again, I don't understand why people spend $1200+ on a television, or $300 on a video card for their computer.

Re:More like the cassette than 8-track.

[LiquidCoooled]

Taping with the DVD recorder does not feel as "safe" as with VHS.
We have a recorder here and often I wonder if the old model was better designed for the task.
It was rare a tape just broke.
Sure, it would get slowly grainy and you could basically get one final watch out of them.
The DVDs suck because one error can fuck up the entire show.

I hope NTL hurry up and bring out a PVR.

Re:More like the cassette than 8-track.

[that this is not und]

But then again, I don't understand why people spend $1200+ on a television, or $300 on a video card for their computer.

These days, people spend $300 on a video card so that six months later they can replace it and wire the little fan from it onto an old USB cable and make a USB fan to blow cool air at them when they're playing whatever FPS is in vogue.

Re:More like the cassette than 8-track.

[Kyokugenryu]

You say this as if there's something wrong with it.

Re:More like the cassette than 8-track.

[LiquidCoooled]

Sometimes it can resync, sometimes it can't.
We have had programs showing up lasting -96 hours (or similar unrealistic figures) which were completely unusable.

Mind you, this seems no different to the experience I have had with dvd-rw's.
YMMV

Re:More like the cassette than 8-track.

[ben there...]

For some more anecdotes: I record shows on my comp using SageTV, and toss the DVDs in a pile, sometimes on the floor. Then step on them. Every single one of 150+ still plays without even skipping. Some take longer to read after popping them in, but no biggie.

Re:More like the cassette than 8-track.

[geodescent]

Once you see how often a crappy $100 recorder ruins a DVD, you'll know...

VHS? Dead?

[segedunum]

Well, as long as I have a huge collection of videos with films and stuff recorded off the TV, and until a usable alternative for recording from the TV that I own and control becomes available, VHS is going to be in my house for quite a bit longer.

I suspect that film studios would like to see the back of VHS and any format that allows easy recording, but it's what people want and why it really accelerated into such a popular format.

Re:VHS? Dead?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

So you can't own and control a DVD writing DVR? You can't control MythTV or any other open software PVR solutions?

Re:VHS? Dead?

[mr_matticus]

Much like existing DVRs, DVD recorders, cable boxes, and PC TV tuners. If you've got an analog source, none of it matters. There's nothing separating VHS from anything else out there that records from an analog input.

8-Track

[subreality]

I actually suspect VHS won't go the way of the 8-Track. 8-Track has a small cult following that's endeared to it because of it's impractical quirkiness. No fast forward, no rewind. You wanna hear your favorite song again? Wait for it to work its way around.

VHS, on the other hand, didn't have any cute annoyances. It wasn't a great standard, but it had no major drawbacks. And for that reason, I don't expect it's nostalgia to hang on nearly so long.

Re:8-Track

[jamstar7]

I've actually resisted becoming an 8-track fanatic. I've seen good 8-track recorders come up at auctions and just sat on my bidder's paddle to avoid ending up with them. I suspect there are spare tapes available somewhere. You could record tunes off CDs to 80-track. I recently got a 'bonus track' on a BlackCrowes album I bought at WalMart. The slip of paper in the jewel box said to go to the Walmart site and download it, so I did. It was a WMA file so I had to download and install Windows Media Player 9 on a machine here that still runs Windoze to burn the file to an audio CD. Now that Black Crowes track ("Lovin' Cup") is ready to rip to MP3, and if I had the gear, ready to record to 8-track.

I take it you're a penguinista. Yes, you can listen to .wma files in xmms, just need the xmms-wma plugin for it, readily available for Debian, Fedora, & Ubuntu, some assembly required for Gentoo, of course...

Yeah, but....

[Anonymous Coward]

VHS tapes are much more durable than DVDs. If you want a clear idea of the difference, try borrowing some high-traffic DVDs from the library and viewing those. VHS tapes are also handy when one needs to "tape" something to watch later.

Mass adoption

[Timesprout]

seriously hard to kill the peoples choice

VHS won't die until. . .

[kimvette]

VHS won't die until the HTPC appliance fully matures, and a DRM-free medium is adapted en masse, and can record both NTSC and ATSC. DVD recordable is almost there, but is less flexible than an HTPC and won't record high-def, so why bother upgrading? Tivo almost has it, except tivo decides how long you can keep recordings (in some cases at least), NOT you, PLUS it requires a monthly subscription and either a land line or ethernet connection to phone home. Also, Tivo makes it FAR to difficult to record say, Smallville or Desperate Housewives or whatever it is you and your friends all want to watch, then take that recording over to a friend's house or simply lend it out. It's FAR to difficult for the average joe to record a show for you while you're on vacation and then give you the timeshifted content.

I think that VHS will be around until the HTPC is easy to use, DRM-free, HDTV capable, AND the public is made aware of it. Myth is so close, and yet so far, because it is a royal pain in the ass to set up, and the easy-to-configure distribution (Knoppmyth) is fully two generations behind when it comes to chipset and video card support.

Re:VHS won't die until. . .

[rjstanford]

VHS won't die until the HTPC appliance fully matures, and a DRM-free medium is adapted en masse, and can record both NTSC and ATSC.

Most purchasers these days don't care about DRM and have no idea what NTSC or ATSC are. Those who do know NTSC don't know what ATSC is.

DVD recordable is almost there, but is less flexible than an HTPC and won't record high-def, so why bother upgrading?

I agree that DVD*R is pretty much DOA, mainly because it was just too complicated for a lot of people though.

Tivo almost has it, except...

tivo decides how long you can keep recordings (in some cases at least), NOT you

Well, it is a FIFO setup, at least for content that you select, although not all DVRs work this way. But that's usually okay, and given the choice many people would prefer dropping the oldest footage they've asked for rather than the newest. In any case, if you try to put 22 hours of content into a 20 hour space, 2 hours of it are going to be lost.

PLUS it requires a monthly subscription and either a land line or ethernet connection to phone home.

Well, that's for namebrand Tivo. Almost all cable companies offer DVRs. Besides, compared to the cost of cable/sattelite, most people don't care about a Tivo subscription fee if they make use of the Tivo-specific features.

Also, Tivo makes it FAR to difficult to record say, Smallville or Desperate Housewives or whatever it is you and your friends all want to watch, then take that recording over to a friend's house or simply lend it out

Yup. Turns out that most of your friends probably have DVRs too. Those who don't, generally don't care. Those who do care will come and visit you to watch it if its that important.

It's FAR to difficult for the average joe to record a show for you while you're on vacation and then give you the timeshifted content.

So what? With many providers, you can just go online and add it yourself. Besides, unlike a traditional VCR you've probably set up a Season Pass to record what you want before you leave the house in the first place.

I think that VHS will be around until the HTPC is easy to use, DRM-free, HDTV capable, AND the public is made aware of it.

DVRs are easy to use, HDTV capable, and the public is aware of them. And almost nobody outside of /. gives a damn about the DRM, like it or not.

Re:VHS won't die until. . .

[simishag]

VHS is dead because it's actually pretty easy to transfer your Tivo shows off the hard drive. All you need is a VCR, and...

Oh, wait.

Re:Edison Cylinders

[LurkerXXX]

Bah, They Might Be Giants recorded I Can Hear You on one of them. It's still a great format. ;)

VHS will die when...

[Vskye]

You can get movies that are only available on VHS. Or if you have a security system based on VHS recording and you actually get around to switching everything over to DVR. Or if your VHS player dies and you can not find a replacement.

maybe

[syrinx]

I have a whole drawer full of VHS tapes, but they all came from my wife when we got married. I was perfectly happy without a VCR.

We still have a VCR but it doesn't really work. My plan is to take it apart and build a PVR based on a Mini-ITX motherboard inside it, so it will still act like a VCR, only, you know, without the tapes.

This is shocking news

[palindromic]

To have this following so closely on the heels of last weeks "Variety declares that poop comes from butts" ? Variety truly is the son of Man.

Great source of a slashdot article

[east coast]

Why are we paying credence to the likes of Variety on a geek site? And frankly, who cares what they think?

The real answer

[NineNine]

It'll happen when broadband becomes as ubiquitous and as reliable as electricity. We have a loooong way to go before that happens.

Re:The real answer

[billcopc]

We ? Not quite. Our Governments have a long way to go before they wake up and lay down the adequate infrastructure to support nationwide broadband. They're still of the attitude that high-speed internet access is a luxury, that it's for geeks and gamers. Will someone smack them in the face and demonstrate that we can do a helluva lot more online, and could do even better if there were enough pipe to push content through. VOIP, IPTV, day-to-day business.. Hell I'd rather pay my bills online than physically walk down to an ATM, with the inevitable scum walking by, checking out how much cash I'm carrying, judging the risk vs benefit of trying to jump me. Or maybe I have a beef with the act of renting videos, only to pop them into a computer for playback, then returning them to the physical store... when it would have been faster and easier to just download it off the net, and that's with my current 5meg line - imagine 100meg like some european countries offer...

People are quick to shoot it down because they think more bandwidth will mean more piracy. I do consider piracy to be a direct competitor to traditional business, simply because the pirated material is usually more convenient and certainly cost-effective, because they take advantage of the latest technology advancements. We've had DivX for what, 6-7 years now ? Why doesn't Blockbuster or Jumbo Video offer video streaming ? Why do I have to spend an hour driving to the store, hunting down a box that's in no particular order and is probably already out, just to see a stupid movie ? Most cable companies now offer "digital cable", including video-on-demand... pay-per-view done better, and they're immensely successful. They'd be even better if they charged reasonable prices instead of the $6.99 average for movies (and godawful prices for porn - have they never heard of the internet?). Still at that price point, the convenience of not having to leave home and not having the risk of all copies being out, there is great value in there!

Now we need more businesses and services could learn to adapt to online-ness and harness it's potential. Some places offer telework over the net, which is fantastic when applicable. Why waste limited real estate just for a chair, desk and phone when we all have that at home ? I'd be happy to give up my physical work place, save the travel and lunch money and use it to rent a bigger residence, or maybe upgrade my office equipment to help me work more comfortably, efficiently. The costs saved to the employer could to to create more jobs, or offer better price competition, more value to the shareholders and the customers. So why the hell are we not doing this already ? Government barriers, financial barriers, tax barriers, and old-mentality brick walls.

Re:The real answer

[cheater512]

You can get faster electricity? Why didnt anyone tell me?

Re:The real answer

[zigziggityzoo]

This could be fixed with Internet over Power. Then broadband will be exactly as ubiquitous and reliable as electricity. It actually doesn't really take as much to implement; the infrastructure is already there.

Re:Audio

[WMD_88]

DVD simply cannot match the quality of audio signal obtained from a tape in good condition played on a quality stereo VCR.

Therein lies the problem: You need good tapes (and tapes will wear out, and with no new ones...), and a good VCR (many suck). On top of that, VHS HiFi stereo really isn't all that great. It's not as bad as VHS linear mono (shudder), but it's not like vinyl or anything. And there's no surround sound support (no, "Dolby 2.0 surround" doesn't count). Dolby 5.1 at 448kbps is not that bad, seriously. I don't know what everyone's problem is. In fact, I can't think of a single VHS tape I own that sounds better than a DVD. And all the tapes have horrible dynamic range, too.
Besides, why would *audio*philes care about a video format?

Re:Allready been there.

[jcr]

Well, what I take as a pretty serious indicator is the fact that the prices of VHS tape drives is rising, due to the economies of scale going away. Surveillance customers who were buying machines for $300/unit in January are paying upwards of $500/unit now.
-jcr

Re:VHS can never die, at least until...

[rjstanford]

Don't you think that you should wait more than 20 minutes before stealing other people's posts (not mine, but one I replied to) for Karma?

Reference : http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=207016&cid=168 78422 @ 6:25pm

And shame on you.

No problem!

[mogrify]

That's okay, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are dead too. Oh, and WoW is lame.

C'mon, kids!!! What'll die next? The Zune? The PS3? The PS2? The PS1? The PS4? The Dreamcast? CompactFlash? The mouse? Vista? Slackware? XP? Caldera? Slashdot? Digg? MSDN? Web 2.0? Web 1.0? Internet2? Token Ring? IPv6? Episodic gaming? Non-episodic gaming? In-game ads? The PowerPC? Cell? Core duo? Core trio? Earth? Caprica? The Death Star? SCO? Novell? Red Hat? Sony? IE? Firefox? IceWeasel? The Pirate Bay? Mmmm. Okay, I'm bored. Continue below if you wish.

VHS to 8 Track - Bad Analogy

[ThumperByTrade]

Comparing VHS and cassettes is a much better analysis. 8 track was never a popular medium for home recording like cassettes and VHS. Even today, a substantial portion of portable radios still come with cassette players. I say that VCRs will last until all forms of physical media are made extinct by on demand services.

I'm not dead yet

[mblase]

How long until VHS players themselves go the way of the 8-track player?

Until I can buy a DVD-RW recorder or a hard drive recorder for my TV that's under $50. Until then, I'll keep using my VCR to record my favorite shows every week.

The one thing I'll miss about VHS...

[meme_police]

...is that I NEVER had a bad rental tape. More than half the DVDs I've rented have had problems of varying impact. If VHS is dying please bring on convenient downloads because I don't think I'll ever rent a DVD again.

Cueing is easier on VHS

[Convector]

I found VHS superior to DVD when I wanted to show video clips in a class I taught. I can cue up a VHS tape to the exact spot I want, pop it out of my player, pop it into the classroom VCR and it's all set to go. No fiddling around with chapter selections or anything, I just hit Play. I also use a VCR to tape "Good Eats", and the occasional other program, since I don't have Tivo and (for complicated reasons) the DVR is not hooked up to the satellite receiver. Of course, no one will argue that VHS picture or sound quality is superior to DVD. Certainly I never buy movies on VHS. I got me a VCR/DVR combo, so I can copy my VHS collection of anime fansubs onto DVD, but so far I've been unimpressed with the quality of the copies.

Cassettes/VHS not dead for many

[mrraven]

A Nakamichi, Tandberg, or Revox tape deck IMO sounds better than any CD. There is still an active subculture maintaining these cassette decks because they sound so good and they are so simple and reliable to record with. See for example:

http://naks.com/

I imagine the use of video and cassette tapes is still very active outside the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

Re:VHS can never die, at least until...

[Anonymous Coward]

TrisexualPuppy has made a habit of stealing other people's posts and posting them as his/her/its own. On at least one occasion, they have taken multiple posts made by other people and tried to combine them in an effort to produce "originality".

Given their disrespect for other people's intellectual property, I suspect they're some sort of RIAA official.

VHS is still alive and well in our house.

[pixelguru]

My daughter figured out how to play the VHS tape of her choice when she was about 14 months old. The process was simple - just jam a durable tape into the big slot, and kick back and watch some Baby Einstein. If the tape won't go in, press the little eject button, remove the old tape and try again. Piece of cake!

6 months later, she's still working on DVDs. Getting one out of the package is a challenge in itself, and the discs must be handled gently with clean hands (usually we can manage one of those at a time). She knows which button opens the tray, but she's still working on getting the disc centered in the tray, and right side up. The tray is flimsy, and she's almost ripped it off at least once. Even if she gets a disc into the player, she still has to deal with the DVD menu interface or at least press the play button at the appropriate time. This whole process is far from toddler-friendly, but she is determined to figure it out, and I'm willing to let her keep trying as long as she's supervised.

She's fast though, and last week, before I could stop her, she jammed a DVD into the VCR with great satisfaction after getting frustrated trying to get it to play. For the record, a DVD will fit fully into a VCR, and it took me 10 minutes and a pair of needle nose pliers to get it out.

Don't worry

[tokenhillbilly]

You paid for the 8-tracks which includes a fair use license for the music. Just rip the music off to Audio Compact Discs or MP3s and destroy the 8-tracks. If you have any questions, just contact the RIAA which will assist you in preserving your rights.

Re:Don't worry

[tokenhillbilly]

So, in lawyer school didn't they teach you that "completely and creatively wrong" means the same thing as sarcastic?

Re:Consider the source... if you can understand th

[scaryice]

and yet you read slashdot

Ahhh, 8 tracks - good for at least 30 plays

[gondwannabe]

Dude, 8 tracks.

No offense to the late Bill Lear, but how long did he really think that an 'endless' 2 mil sliver of acetate could make that torturous hairpin loop without getting stretched into distortion?

It's '67, and I'm not sure what's scarier - bad Acid or riding in my buddies old chevy with the Association singing 'aaaannnnndddd thhheeeennnn aaaalllloooonnnnggggg coommmmmmessssss Marrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy'

Re:Consider the source... if you can understand th

[koreth]

I never thought I'd say this about anything, but Variety's mangling of English grates on me much more than anything I see in a typical day of browsing Slashdot.

Mostly because it's so gratuitous. Where normal people would use "comedy," they write "laffer," which in addition to not being an actual word, isn't even any shorter! They use the word "actioner," which my brain always interprets as "auctioneer" at first glance. But at least that saves some characters compared to "action movie," so I can sort of vaguely comprehend why someone might mistake it for a good idea.

Re:VHS can never die, at least until...

[CohibaVancouver]

VHS won't die until the HTPC appliance fully matures

You're bang-on there... They also have to fall in price. My parents 'program' their VCR all the time, and they bought it for $40 from Future Shop. VCRs have a huge anount of functionality for a very low price.