TIME TO PLAY TAPS FOR VHS VIDEO TAPE!
TIME TO PLAY TAPS FOR VHS VIDEO TAPE!
LAST VHS DISTRIBUTOR – CA BUSINESSMAN – NO LONGER SHIPPING MOVIES ON TAPE!
In this age of DVD Blu-Ray Discs NetFlix Video-On-Demand and Online Streaming of Feature Films it’s hard to remember where this trend all began – with Video Tapes!
Well now – VHS is gone not likely to return. With rare exception the tapes are not manufactured anymore nor distributed – even to those seeking old movies at deep discounts!
If you come to think of it the advent of video tape recorders and the VHS Tapes (and earlier BetaMax Tapes) that ran on them changed the entire entertainment industry.
Before movies-on-tape the only way to see a feature film was to go to a movie theater – or wait months until it came out on TV. Not available for the TV Replay – more waiting until it was aired once again.
After video tapes became popular mom-and-pop rental stores followed by large chains such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video competed for our entertainment dollars as much as large movie houses and dance clubs. Recent releases along with classic motion pictures were now available to view in the privacy of your own home on your own Analog TV Set anytime – and often for far cheaper than admission to the theaters!
The proliferation of videos vastly expanded our personal entertainment options as never before.
Entrepreneurs and small business people used VHS Tapes in business – I just found (and threw out) about 50 of our Chicago Real Estate Team’s Video Brochures recorded in the early 1990’s on VHS Tape. Back in the day I would drop off these videos to prospective listing clients before I met with them. I wanted prospective listing clients to know a bit about me before we met in person so I would not have to come to their door dog and pony show in hand.
Today even those mini-business-card-sized DVD’s are out of fashion. Live streaming video via the Internet is what agents use now for introductions. And who knows – that might not even be around a few years from now!
According to a story in last Saturday’s Chicago Tribune by Geoff Boucher the last distributor of VHS Tapes Southern California Businessman Ryan Kugler shipped his last tapes around Halloween. He plans to liquidate his existing small VHS inventory within the next couple of weeks – and throw out the rest. At that time across the U.S. VHS will be virtually non existent – with the exception of those old wedding videos and home-recorded vintage TV shows of many years ago.
It’s tough to even find a stand-alone VHS player these days!
Japanese electronics giant JVC who introduced VHS (Video Home System) tapes back in 1977 and one of the largest manufacturer of video tape recorders stopped making the units last October. The company along with other manufacturers still manufactures hybrid VHS/DVD players but how long these products will be available is unknown.
In a post from Chad Berndtson on The Channel Wire Blog he reminds us the last major motion picture to be released on video tape was "A History of Violence" and that came out over two years ago. Larger retailers including Target Wal-Mart and Best Buy began phasing out video tape sales in their stores several years before that.
DVD Movie Rentals surpassed VHS rentals for the first time in 2003. By 2005 only a dwindling fraction of movie rentals were made available on the analog tape format.
At the end of 2008 the discount racks in convenience and grocery stores are filled with older non-blockbuster movies as before – but all are DVD’s there’s not a large boxy VHS tape to be found anywhere!
And few are shedding a tear!
DEAN MOSS & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO
