VHS, 30, dies of loneliness

[Hardrock69]

By DIANE GARRETT

VHS RIP
After a long illness, the groundbreaking home-entertainment format VHS has died of natural causes in the United States. The format was 30 years old.

No services are planned.

The format had been expected to survive until January, but high-def formats and next-generation vidgame consoles hastened its final decline.

"It's pretty much over," concurred Buena Vista Home Entertainment general manager North America Lori MacPherson on Tuesday.

VHS is survived by a child, DVD, and by Tivo, VOD and DirecTV. It was preceded in death by Betamax, Divx, mini-discs and laserdiscs.

Although it had been ailing, the format's death became official in this, the video biz's all-important fourth quarter. Retailers decided to pull the plug, saying there was no longer shelf space.

As a tribute to the late, great VHS, Toys 'R' Us will continue to carry a few titles like "Barney," and some dollar video chains will still handle cassettes for those who cannot deal with the death of the format.

Born Vertical Helical Scan to parent JVC of Japan, the tape had a difficult childhood as it was forced to compete with Sony's Betamax format.

After its youthful Betamax battles, the longer-playing VHS tapes eventually became the format of choice for millions of consumers. VHS enjoyed a lucrative career, transforming the way people watched movies and changing the economics of the film biz. VHS hit its peak with "The Lion King," which sold more than 30 million vidcassettes Stateside.

The format flourished until DVDs launched in 1997. After a fruitful career, VHS tapes started to retire from center stage in 2003 when DVDs became more popular for the first time.

Since their retirement, VHS tapes have made occasional appearances in children's entertainment and as a format for collectors seeking titles not released on DVD. VHS continued to make as much as $300 million a year until this year, when studios stopped manufacturing the tapes.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=20&cs=1

[blonddgirl777]

My Mom. still owns a VHS... and a turn table (with speakers that have fabric on them)...

We own a VHS too but never use it. How do you get yourself to throw away a perfectly good electronic device, when it's been such a good friend for years?
Sadly... soon, it'll have to go... it is looking bad there and we need the space!

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by blonddgirl777
My Mom. still owns a VHS... and a turn table (with speakers that have fabric on them)...

We own a VHS too but never use it. How do you get yourself to throw away a perfectly good electronic device, when it's been such a good friend for years?
Sadly... soon, it'll have to go... it is looking bad there and we need the space!

Putting them old VCRs is like throwing a whole era (and, to some extent, part of your own life) away, in a way.
I have myself lots of trouble when it comes to getting rid of just anything, including empty matchboxes, so, a turntable or my VCR - which I happen to have replaced 3 years ago for an excellent one (I still have dozens of VHS tapes that I would never give away or put to the trash) is just beyond me.
Besides, in my high school there's a TV set and a VCR in every classroom, but DVD players are still locked in cupboards so that you have to fetch them and reinstall them all the time...
And VHS is a pretty convenient format to use in class. OK, image resolution isn't quite the same, but well, you gain time by just sliding and playing your video passage, compared to having to let the Twentieth Century Fox trailer (that you fucking can't skip ) and also browse the still rather slow menus...

Furthermore, I don't feel like buying DVD reissues of every good old tape I have at home, or spend hours and hours downloading ripped copies.

Generally speaking, I never could understand people who will throw stuff away just like that, like saying, "it's over, fuck that, it's old, time for some new stuff".

"New", "new"... I've always waited for the newest technologies to get a little old before setting to them... I'll never be the one who'll dive into novelty head first. "New" is a word that pisses me off in many fields.

[blonddgirl777]

Originally posted by Jérôme Frenchise
... Generally speaking, I never could understand people who will throw stuff away just like that, like saying, "it's over, fuck that, it's old, time for some new stuff"....

O.M.G.!!!
You and my husband are the same!!!

So if I understand, we should keep everything we own (and ever owned), rent a storage space for it and make sure it all stays there until we die (knowing very well we won't use it anymore because the NEW STUFF is way better)?

You should see hou place... the attic is full, we have stuff over at my Mom's house, her country house... stuff EVERYWHERE!!!

I think that people that won't throw away old, useless stuff are afraid of letting go of their past...

[Vinnie Velvet]

RIP VHS.

You will NOT be missed.



Seriously though, I look back at the whole VHS thing with a lot of memories and fondness.

Much like LPs, its a product of its time (although I still think you get a better sound out of LPs than CDs -- or that its just a different listening experience).

But DVDs have made viewing movies, etc. that much better.

I haven't watched a VHS movie in some 6 years, however, I was still using the format for recording stuff off the TV.

But now we have DVD recorders.

[Hardrock69]

I have always had a pair of Hi-Fi Stereo VCRs. That way I could make copies.


I have one in my home entertainment center, and I have one other one that I use to mixsdown my recorded music when I am working on my long-time coming, way overdue first album.

The hard part for me is I have over 800 VHS tapes.

As I buy DVDs, if I have it on VHS, I will put the VHS in a growing pile of tapes I am going to give away or donate.

Then there are those things I want to burn to DVD.

Especially my VHS bootlegs.

I have so much analog stuff it will literally take me years to either get rid of it, or transfer to DVD.

[Lqskdiver]

RIP



Will always have Cheerleader Massacre and Amateur Girls 5.

[blonddgirl777]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
...a growing pile of tapes...

See... that's what I mean!
We've listened to those movies over and over again... can we just move on?

Haaa.... I guess it's a "man thing"!

[LoungeMachine]

No statment from 8-Track?

Used to love how'd change tracks in the middle of a song.

Reel to Reel was always too cool for the room.


You understand the day will come soon that we look back and LAUGH at the old school CD/DVD technology.

[blonddgirl777]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
No statment from 8-Track?...

Talk about "taking up SPACE"!!!

[blonddgirl777]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
... You understand the day will come soon that we look back and LAUGH at the old school CD/DVD technology.

That day will come for sure but will WE be there to see it?

Technology speeking (apparently), we have reached a plateau for a while...
What we have now will get upgraded, made more user friendly (for the growing boomer's population) and more affordable.
Same with communication technologies...

Seriously, if my MP3 player would be any smaller... I wouldn't be able to find it in my make-up case!

[Hardrock69]

It is already here. Blue-Ray and HD DVD are here....

Well, they are still DVDs.

Someday there will be some little fucking 1 inch square cube that will do anything we ask it to...

[LoungeMachine]

Someday "downloading" will entail swallowing a microprocessor that will be absorbed by your dna.

It will contain every piece of music and video ever recorded.

Playback will all be internal.

Ask yourself to play Beautiful Girls and it will play in your head.

Ask to see the Pretty Woman video and it will appear in your mind's eye.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
[B]


No services are planned.

Actaully a copy of the service is already on ebay

[bb64]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
No statment from 8-Track?

Used to love how'd change tracks in the middle of a song.

ka kunk...lol I remember it well

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
Ask yourself to play Beautiful Girls and it will play in your head.

It's already been working in my head just as far as I can remember.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by blonddgirl777
I think that people that won't throw away old, useless stuff are afraid of letting go of their past...

That's it, exactly! So what?!

[blonddgirl777]

Originally posted by Jérôme Frenchise
That's it, exactly! So what?!

I still own a lot of clothes from the 80's, that I will never wear! :p
Go figure...

[blonddgirl777]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
... Ask yourself to play Beautiful Girls and it will play in your head.

Ask to see the Pretty Woman video and it will appear in your mind's eye.

Scientific Medecine meets Electronics (for intertainment purposes)... that shall be interesting!

[Terry]

I've been burning from VHS to DVD like crazy for the past few months, but I'm still gonna scoop up a $100 VHS player at the end of the year and leave it in the box.

I've still got about VHS tapes, and only 60 or so of them aren't copyright protected/able to be duped onto DVD...I'm not gonna shell out 2K to upgrade 90 VHS movies to dvds, and there's no reason to chuck all my VHS tapes as long as they're still playable...

But that format has been dying off for a few years now. Thing that sucks is that you can get 8hrs of material onto a VHS tape, even at EP or SLP speed, and it's still watchable.

Am finding with DVD recording that putting anything more than 2hrs onto a disc makes the shit pixled as fuck.

[Nitro Express]

I have a JVC VHS player from 1984 that still works fine! Every DVD player I have bought has gone haywire. The mechanism that tracks the lazer seems to wear loose and then the player just runs and runs runs and never finds the track. I've even bought high end players like Bose and have had the same problem.

My main beef with the new technology is the products are not built well. The new cell phones are built cheap. My Blackberry is a piece of shit. Everything seems to break before you are done with it nowadays.

I wouldn't knock the old technology. I have a McIntosh stereo from the 1960's that I play vynle on and it still sounds great! I've never heard anything modern that can beat tube amps and good vynle recordings sound wise. The digital stuff sounds thin.

[Nitro Express]

I have litteraly thousands of dollars worth of instruction video on VHS and have not had the time to transfer it to a DVD format. Not te mention home movies.

Tape is amazing. I have and old reel to reel recording my dad made of me when I was three years old and it's a hoot! It sounds as good as it did in the 60's when it was made. I have old Maxell cassettes from the 80's that still sound good.

Will CD's and DVD's last that long? Black and white film lasts amazingly long if stored right. Will digital formats like DVD be as good as microfilm? What happens when the digital technology changes or is lost. With film, you just need to shine a light through it and magnify it.

I still use Zip Disks to backup my office computer on. CD's are a pain to burn to and I've never had a magnetic disk ever fail. I've had problems with CD's being read on other players.

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
No statment from 8-Track?

Used to love how'd change tracks in the middle of a song.

Reel to Reel was always too cool for the room.


You understand the day will come soon that we look back and LAUGH at the old school CD/DVD technology.

Watching a reel to reel recorder work in a dimly lit room with a great view makes me want to drink a martini and get laid! CD's just don't have that sex appeal.

[Nitro Express]

All I remember about 8 Track was I would constantly fuck with it in my parents Cadillac and get yelled at for doing so. I busted the track skip in my parents Oldsmobile Tornado by pushing the button too many times. LOL!

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
It is already here. Blue-Ray and HD DVD are here....

Well, they are still DVDs.

Someday there will be some little fucking 1 inch square cube that will do anything we ask it to...

Make the cube a vibrator and an electric toothbrush and all bases should be covered. LOL!

[binnie]

Can't say I'm gonna miss it, but it was the media that brought porn into the home, and thats an achievment....

[Revan]

It's really amazing how quickly new formats pop up. Ten years ago, who would have even conceived of a miniature piece of equipment that you could drop in your coat pocket, which would effectively carry your ENTIRE CD collection for you and be readily available at any given point?

Think of what ten years from now will have to offer.

[binnie]

Originally posted by Revan


Think of what ten years from now will have to offer.

A mute button for women?

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by binnie
A mute button for women?

[blonddgirl777]

Originally posted by binnie
A mute button for women?

The big majority of electronic researchers are men and they still haven't figured that one out yet...
Keep dreamin'!

[blonddgirl777]

On the other hand...
Women's "dream" is closer to come true...
Between a robot that can clean the house, the car, do the laundry, cook, take out the trash etc...
and the already existing vibrator...
Men are about to become obsolute!

[Nitro Express]

Nobody has come up with a fake sex doll that even remotely close to a real women. Because this is the case, women will still be manipulating blue balled men for a very long time.

[Steve Savicki]

Oh my, I better get a VHS player before stores run out.
I still have VHS tapes.

[blonddgirl777]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
... manipulating blue balled men...

Now, what kind of evil woman does THAT :confused: :eek:

[blonddgirl777]

Originally posted by Steve Savicki
Oh my, I better get a VHS player before stores run out.
I still have VHS tapes.

Stores???
We have 2 that are retired... I'll GIVE you one!

I'm sure there will always be someone around you, that will be happy to get rid of their's for free...

My old uncle drives an old car... in it, is an 8 track player (with about 10 cassettes that take up the whole back seat)...
Now, HE's screwed if that breaks!
L.O.L.

[Hardrock69]

I also have about a thousand casette tapes. Boxes and boxes of bootlegs.

Official releases dating back to the late 70s.

I need to get rid of some of this shit.

Ah well, someday.

[Polk High]

I don't think the VHS player will become as useless as a cassette player for another 2-3 years. I still have some movies on VHS that I will watch occassionally (one of course is the Roth videos.)