death to vhs??

[ollie]

just thought i'd post this,

Dixons to stop selling VCRs
The death of the video recorder came a step closer when the country's largest electrical chain said it is stopping selling them.

Dixons has decided to phase out VCRs after more than a quarter of a century to concentrate on their successor, the DVD. The move signals the beginning of the end of VHS (video home system), the technology which revolutionised viewing habits around the world when it allowed people to leave the house without missing their favourite programmes.

But the humble VCR, with its clunky tapes and habit of chewing up precious recordings, has fallen victim to the speed and superior quality of DVD. Dixons say demand for video cassette recorders has fallen dramatically since the middle of the 1990S. Meanwhile sales of DVD players have grown seven-fold in the past five years.

As a result DVD players now outstrip sales of VCRs by a ratio of 40 to one. The final nail in the coffin for VCRs is the rock-bottom price of DVD players, from as little as £25 and the cost of DVD recorders dropping to a level within reach of many consumers.

Dixons expects to sell its remaining stock of video cassette recorders by Christmas. John Mewett, marketing director at Dixons, said: "We're saying goodbye to one of the most important products in the history of consumer technology. The video recorder has been with us for a generation and many of us have grown up with the joys and the occasional frustrations of tape-based recording."

The first video cassette recorder went on sale at Dixons in 1978 priced £798.75 the equivalent of more than £3,000 today. It was made Japanese electronics giant JVC, which invented the VHS format, and had a slot in the top to insert the tape and piano-style keys. A similar model was branded the Ferguson Videostar. The early 1980s saw a battle between VHS and its main competitor Betamax, from Sony. VHS eventually won, largely because it was the format favoured by rental shops which many households used because the machines were still too expensive.

By 1990 more than 200 million video cassette recorders a year were sold worldwide. Dixons saw sales of VCRs peak in 1993 and by 2002 almost 90% of UK households owned at least one. However the days of the video recorder were numbered with the arrival of DVD (digital video disc).

But the pace of change means even DVD is now facing new competition. Hard disk drive recorders can store more than 400 hours worth of TV and allows owners to record a programme while at the same time watch one from earlier.

Andy Hain, a VCR collector who runs a website dedicated to the machines, said: "I knew the end was near when I saw shops dropping the price of VHS tapes to get rid of them. I would have thought that by this time next year, if you wanted to buy a VCR for Christmas, you would have trouble."

There is still hope for die-hard fans of VHS or those with tape collections. Currys, the sister company of Dixons, will continue to sell the machines for the time being. And department store John Lewis said it had no plans to phase them out.

cheers Ollie.

[DB7]

A bit premature just yet, maybe they're hoping to steer customers to recordable dvd players.

I suppose I'll have to one day put all my vhs collection on dvd.

[Steve Crook]

I've noticed a lot of the reports have referred to the "superior quality" of DVDs. In what way is a DVD intrinsically "superior quality"?

Yes they're more convenient and it's easier to jump to where you want to go to and they don't catch the tape in the drive mechanism (although they can fail mechanically in other ways). DVDs also have the advantage that there's no loss of quality when you copy them.

But "superior quality"? I think not. If anything they reduce the quality (slightly).

Steve

[Steve Crook]

DB7: A bit premature just yet, maybe they're hoping to steer customers to recordable dvd players. I suppose I'll have to one day put all my vhs collection on dvd.

I wouldn't rush to do that if I were you. I hear that one reason the shops are pushing the DVD players (& recorders) is that the next generation isn't too far away.

DVDs are still heavily reliant on a mechanical process which can break down.

Steve

[Rob Compton]

Interesting thread - but Steve: what is the "next generation?"

rgds
Rob

[Steve Crook]

Rob Compton: Interesting thread - but Steve: what is the "next generation?" rgds Rob

Just a chunk of memory. Like the "memory stick" available with digital cameras - but a bit bigger with a LOT more capacity.

Nothing mechanical to break down in there.

Steve

[DB7]

Isn't it HD DVD next with huge gig capacity?

[Steve Crook]

DB7: Isn't it HD DVD next with huge gig capacity?

I'm not sure what it'll be called, but yes, that's the beast. Just a big chunk of solid state memory.

Available as read-only (for commercial releases), write-once, read-many (for single shot recording) or full read/write (for regular home recording)

Steve

[glyn horton]

Re the 'death to VHS' stories. In my view, it reminds me of the early 1990s when everyone predicted the death of vinyl LPs with the rise of the CD. OK, you can't buy vinyl in your local Virgin or WHSmith but there remains a healthy collectors market for old LPs, singles etc. Go to any record fair or specialist dealer and you'll find a good selection of vinyl, very often more than CDs, plus they give a lot of help/advice re record player care/spares. A lot of the reason for this continued interest is that a lot of LPs and singles have not been officially issued on CD and I believe the same will apply with VHS/DVD. It's very unlikely that every film,TV,documentary ever released on VHS will get a DVD release so there will always be a need to obtain a VHS tape if you are looking for some obscure classic. Never underestimate the power of the second hand collectors market! True, you can convert to tape to DVD but then there is that DVD rot thread:eek:
Anyway that's my opinion, what do you think?
PS I've read somewhere that there is a specilaist business in the US that still sells/repairs beatmax machines
And on that note...

[DB7]

SteveCrook: I'm not sure what it'll be called, but yes, that's the beast. Just a big chunk of solid state memory.

Internal soft copy is fine but the retail trade and anti-piracy demands will ensure hard copy disks remain available. The trouble as always will be competing brands/studios fighting to make their's the format of choice.


Hopefully they'll have the sense to make the next gen backwards compatible. smash
First Blood in the New DVD War

[Steve Crook]

glyn horton: Re the 'death to VHS' stories. In my view, it reminds me of the early 1990s when everyone predicted the death of vinyl LPs with the rise of the CD. OK, you can't buy vinyl in your local Virgin or WHSmith but there remains a healthy collectors market for old LPs, singles etc. Go to any record fair or specialist dealer and you'll find a good selection of vinyl, very often more than CDs, plus they give a lot of help/advice re record player care/spares. A lot of the reason for this continued interest is that a lot of LPs and singles have not been officially issued on CD and I believe the same will apply with VHS/DVD. It's very unlikely that every film,TV,documentary ever released on VHS will get a DVD release so there will always be a need to obtain a VHS tape if you are looking for some obscure classic. Never underestimate the power of the second hand collectors market! True, you can convert to tape to DVD but then there is that DVD rot thread:eek: Anyway that's my opinion, what do you think? PS I've read somewhere that there is a specilaist business in the US that still sells/repairs beatmax machines And on that note...

Also, it's hard to scratch on CDs or tapes.

Steve

[DB7]

Film studios take sides over new DVDs

Gary Gentile in Los Angeles and Associated Press
Tuesday November 30, 2004
The Guardian

Three Hollywood studios have thrown their considerable weight behind one of two competing formats for the next generation of DVDs, citing in part the need to stem piracy.
Paramount Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros, which includes New Line Cinema and HBO, said yesterday they would start releasing films in the HD-DVD format by next Christmas.

The announcement escalates the battle between HD-DVD, developed by electronics makers Toshiba and NEC, and Blu-ray, backed by Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial, which makes the Panasonic brand, and Philips.

The agreement is non-exclusive and the companies said they may produce DVDs in both formats if consumers demand it. But it also puts pressure on electronics makers to produce devices that support both formats. Privately, entertainment industry executives say they cannot afford a format war, reminiscent of VHS v Betamax in the early days of video.

While the Blu-ray format can store more digital programming than HD-DVD, proponents of the latter say it will be cheaper for manufacturers because it is uses technology that more closely resembles that used in current DVDs.

Blu-ray has the support of Columbia Pictures, which is owned by Sony, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which was recently bought by a group led by Sony. Other studios, including News Corp's 20th Century Fox and Disney, are still to decide on which format to support.

Both formats promise increased storage capacity and movie resolution superior enough to get the most out of high-definition TV sets. Both would also contain stronger anti-piracy protection.

[David Challinor]

Has anybody had as many problems with DVDs as me? I have a perfectly respectable DVD player (Matsui), and often rent from Blockbusters...often, 6 out of ten times I'd say, the picture freezes, and the sound goes. Sometimes it moves on OK - as it did on saturday when I saw a Nicole Kidman/Anthony Hopkins film, annoying but OK but in other cases (cold mountain) I had to turn the whole damn machine off, start again, only to find that 'bad disc error' had moved the film on several scenes. That happens with at least a quarter of my viewed discs...I'd happily keep renting/buying videos, but my DVD preference is through its ability to provide subtitles (I'm not deaf, though many a script these days is mumbled). Any help/comments?????

[sanndevil]

Playback of commercial DVDs will stall for a second or so when your player changes between the two layers on the disc. It is a shortcoming of the technology - nothing you can do about it I'm afraid.

Clever use of software during the mastering process can limit this effect (e.g. make sure there is no layer change during a fast action sequence / dialogue sequence) but many discs these days are created using cheap software without that facility.

Can't help you with the 'bad disc error' issue; unless the laser head needs cleaning? You need to buy a special disc to clean the head periodically. Should cost less than £10

Cheers
Nigel

[Wetherby Pond]

Originally posted by sanndevil@Dec 2 2004, 02:42 PM Can't help you with the 'bad disc error' issue; unless the laser head needs cleaning? You need to buy a special disc to clean the head periodically. Should cost less than £10

The one time I've ever had a recurring problem with DVD playback, a head cleaner sorted it out pretty much instantly - I bought the bog-standard Virgin Laser Lens Cleaner: can't remember the price but it was well under a tenner. If you're getting similar problems across a wide range of discs, it's almost certainly the fault of the player - either that or you're implausibly unlucky!

(I must have run over a thousand DVDs through my player over the past five years, and I can honestly count the number of significant disc-related problems on the fingers of... well, maybe both hands)

On the subject of the death of vinyl, I read somewhere that the 1991 Gulf War and the resulting surge in oil prices did as much as anything to kill off the format - sales were falling anyway, but the sharp increase in the price of a crucial raw material for the manufacture of vinyl LPs didn't exactly help.