Reports of VHS's Death Highly Exaggerated 624
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?"
VCR vs DVD Player (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:VCR vs DVD Player (Score:2)
Re:VCR vs DVD Player (Score:3, Informative)
Betcha Macrovision prevents any copying of your purchased movies in either direction. On any hardware I've seen, this dubbing only works for unprotected tapes or DVDs (meaning home videos or recorded from TV).
Re:VCR vs DVD Player (Score:4, Funny)
Re:VCR vs DVD Player (Score:2)
--
Evan
Re:VCR vs DVD Player (Score:3, Interesting)
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 "firs
Re:VCR vs DVD Player (Score:3, Insightful)
No, people just *think* they can. Wait until a credit crunch hits... much of the first world (especially US of Americans) will be broke. We're watching the beginnings of it now... it's exciting! Once this real estate bubble pops, everybody with those handy-dandy interest-only mortgages will be *fucked*. Then, because of massive mortgage defaults, credit will
Re:VCR vs DVD Player (Score:3, Funny)
Re:VCR vs DVD Player (Score:5, Insightful)
Blanks? (Score:5, Informative)
The advantages of the blanks should be clear enough... It's still not cheap/easy for most folks to record TV any other way.
Re:Blanks? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Blanks? (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Re:Blanks? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's also pretty annoying to fast forward a DVD when the stupid thing just puts up a big red X icon and forces you to watch crap you don't care about.
Re:Blanks? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Blanks? (Score:2)
Phillips DVP642 + Hacked Firmware = BLISS (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Why? (Score:3, Funny)
It looks nice in the back of their horse-drawn buggy?
the customer is always right (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:the customer is always right (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:the customer is always right (Score:3, Funny)
I dip into rec.audiophile every once in awhile to watch them blather on about burning in their digital optical cables...
KeS
Re:the customer is always right (Score:5, Funny)
Is that before or after they've determined the optimum direction for each such cable?
Re:the customer is always right (Score:2, Insightful)
Here's two good reasons (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Here's two good reasons (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Here's two good reasons (Score:2)
Twins, eh? Sounds like they'll have a breast apiece.
Re:Here's two good reasons (Score:2, Insightful)
Has the "video every moment of your kids lives" craze really gone so far as recording ultrasound videos for posterity?
What happened to the idea of the ultrasound as a medical diagnostic procedure?
Re:Here's two good reasons (Score:4, Informative)
It died earlier this year when companies started offering "recreational medical imaging" at the mall [forbes.com].
Cause... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Cause... (Score:2)
Yes, I know I didn't close my pseudotags.
Is this a serious question? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Is this a serious question? (Score:4, Insightful)
More accurate version:
VCR: Find show in guide. Enter show time information into user interface that has not been improved since mammoths roamed the Earth. Look for blank tape. Stare at tape and wonder what was on it. Put in tape. Hit record. Hope scheduled time for show does not change if it's a recurring recording for a series.
Tivo. Find show in guide. Hit record. Done.
Re:Is this a serious question? (Score:3, Informative)
manufacturers trying to obsolete what you got (Score:3, Insightful)
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 importan
Re:Is this a serious question? (Score:3, Funny)
Want to share it with a friend, no probl...
Oh, right.
Reason? Money. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Reason? Money. (Score:3, Insightful)
The original DVD's are placed in our storage room for safe keeping and we get to watch these great movies with little worry.
Of course there is always the problem where the kids were pulling the power plug on the Myth box. After the third time of being unable to watch watch "Little Mermaid" they decided to stop pulling the plug.
---
T
As long as its customers want them? (Score:2)
When exactly did journalism become merely aggregating press releases?
Re:As long as its customers want them? (Score:3, Informative)
In this case, it was a press release that corrects an earlier (apparently incorrect) news article that had been making the rounds. I'd say that this is one of those cases where the press release takes care of the reporting all by itself.
journalism as aggregate press releases (Score:2)
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
Different Definitions of "Customers Wanting Stuff" (Score:2)
Their definition of "Customers want stuff" is much different from, say, a mom&pop electronics store, or Weird Stuff Warehouse or HalTed Specialties [72.14.207.104].
Unfortunately, Fry's seems to have stopped
VHS is still useful (Score:2)
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.
Re:VHS is still useful (Score:2)
4) Many camcorders still use tape.
Re:VHS is still useful (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:VHS is still useful (Score:3, Insightful)
I didn't even know they still sold analogue camcorders.
Two reasons.... (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
I know a fanatic... (Score:5, Interesting)
Perverted, isn't it?
Because it works! (Score:5, Interesting)
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...
Satiric version before someone else does it! :) (Score:2)
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 awa
Re:Because it works! (Score:2)
the major reason (Score:4, Funny)
Pornography, of course.
-kgj
Re:the major reason (Score:3, Funny)
What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?
Pornography, of course.
The question was with not to .
the evolution of pornography (Score:3, Funny)
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
reasons for vhs porn (Score:4, Interesting)
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
Reason? (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:Reason? (Score:2, Interesting)
Why VHS? (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
VHS? (Score:2)
I'm just be worried when I can't be my favorite stuff on Beta [ebay.com] anymore!.
</obligatory>
Netcraft confirms it... (Score:4, Funny)
Erik the Viking (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Erik the Viking (Score:2)
VHS all the way! (Score:2)
Apparently this is not true yet, if you are using VHS! At least Wall-Mart says so.
One word: Recording (Score:2)
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 h
May major reason... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:May major reason... (Score:3, Interesting)
DVD players may be everywhere (Score:2)
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 pla
Why? (Score:2, Funny)
VHS is GREAT because.... (Score:2)
What is the major reason... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:What is the major reason... (Score:4, Insightful)
At one point, these were the equivalent of Tivo, media centres, DVD players, cable television, and 42" digital TVs - all of which you deride.
cheap, and 100% compatibility (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Sticking w/ VHS (Score:2)
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.
response to media durability? (Score:2, Interesting)
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
One thing VHS can do that DVD cannot do (Score:2)
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, a
Re:One thing VHS can do that DVD cannot do (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:One thing VHS can do that DVD cannot do (Score:2)
I can think of two BIG reasons (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
You need to ask????? (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
BETAMAX FOREVER! (Score:2, Funny)
Backup my Computer (Score:2)
Like Tivo? (Score:4, Funny)
Not really... (Score:3, Informative)
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 did
Why must we attempt to force upgrades on people? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Crappy low cost DVD players (Score:3, Insightful)
First hand, mother experience.
ads (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
Two good features of VHS (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Two good features of VHS (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Two good features of VHS (Score:4, Informative)
DVDs are great, unless (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
The reason is a simple one ... (Score:3, Interesting)
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)
Fast Forward (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:well... (Score:2)
Re:well... (Score:2)
There are lots of reasons.
Re:well... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Your 20 year old VHS tapes should have suffered significant quality loss by now. It doesn't have to be defective to go bad; VHS slowly goes bad on its own.
But this is talking about 2006... (Score:2)
They've broken the $100 price point
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?produc t _id=3610576 [walmart.com]
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'
Re:well... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Whats a VCR? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wal-Mart is evil (Score:2)
Because thier retail sales account for 9% of GDP alone. Hell, if they want to set foreign policy they could get away with it (which they kind of do, in a way, since they also represent 12% of US imports from China).
Re:fuck the gernal public (Score:5, Funny)