RIP VHS

...
The video cassette has died, although not suddenly and not unexpectedly:

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.

Full obit here.

I bought my first VHS VCR in 1986 from JC Penney. It was their bottom-of-the-line model. In fact, it was being discontinued so I got a good deal: only $350. And that was 1986 dollars. I had to buy it on credit since that was about 1/3 of my monthly take-home pay at the time. It was a two-head machine that weighed what, 20 or 25 pounds? It didn’t even work very well in conjunction with cable TV. But wow, I was the 20th Century Man when I got it.

As for the VHS tape, the first one I saw was in 1980 or 1981 when I was a broadcasting student at SIU Carbondale. The blank tapes were used in at least one course in the Radio-TV Department. I was told they cost $25 a piece and you needed two for the class. I avoided that course.