After years of dogged resolve, JVC will stop producing standalone VCRs. And there you have it: the last spider crawling out of the eye socket of the skeletal and long-buried video cassette format. Oh, sure, we’ll still see video cassettes: there’ll always be the niche gadget or two that crams a VHS slot into a Blu-Ray player either for kicks or to separate itself from the competition, just like we still see the occasional 8-Track player crammed into a CD deck. But if you are seriously intending on breaking out that box of old Something Weird compilation and watching them again, now’s the time to do it before the VCR goes the way of Cowboy Bebop.
JVC stops manufacturing VCRs [Trading Markets]
If leaving a record for the future, why would anyone leave it in Beta like Faye Valentine did in that episode of Cowboy Bebop? Is Beta still a popular format for the average consumer in Japan?
Knew this the last time I moved
all my tapes got too hot in the truck and now leave so much gunk behind on the play back head so as to declare them officially dead! I have not used a VCR since 2005.
@4: no. her family was just Affluent in the 80s (did you see her house?) and they could spend more on a higher-quality format. (also, the first home video cameras were Beta format.)
Having done television technical support in the not-distant past, I have two words: OLD PEOPLE.
Old people will let you have their VCR when it is pried from their cold dead hands (which will be soon). You cannot fathom the install base of VCRs with the incompetent, the infirmed, and the geriatric.
I pity the customer serive people over the next 10 years who over the next ten years as the last remaining vcr-dependent customers attempt to go to electronic stores to replace their worn-to-death box only to be told they really, finally stopped making them. Those whippersnappers wont know what hit them.
Plenty of physical letters will be generated to protests this monumental travesty that will result in thousands of elderly folks missing their 700 Huntley St, Soap Operas and O’Reilly factors as a result.
Thank you for your insight, GUY JIN. I missed that particular detail, and have now cast all memories of that fine anime series into doubt. Not that I mind re-watching it.
Richard Sandling will be devastated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB5jovkuF_o
Heard it before. VHS is dead. Yeah. I’ll remember that next time I buy a box of old Something Weird tapes.
I’ve recently been enjoying a personal VHS renaissance as my wife and I are transitioning into the full-time motorhome lifestyle.
yes, we have a dvd player, but we love how inexpensive the tapes are ($1-$2) the kitschy content, and the fact that some movies (NOT films) are just better lowfi. there’s just something special about watching a scratchy old copy of bloodsport.
I am not throwing my VCR away just yet.