REQUIEM FOR VHS
I don’t normally do this, but I liked Jen Chaney’s post on the demise of VHS so much I decided just to post the entire thing here.
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Posted on Thu, Sep. 01, 2005
REQUIEM FOR VHS
The clunky video cassette fades off into the sunset
BY JEN CHANEY
Washington Post Service
the beloved videotape format that bravely won the war against Betamax and charmed millions of Americans by allowing them to enjoy mindless Hollywood entertainment without leaving their homes — has died at the age of 29. It passed away peacefully after a long illness caused by chronic technological insignificance and a lack of director’s commentary tracks.
No one knows exactly when this once-valued objet de home entertainment began its journey toward that previously viewed-video bin in the sky. Some say it was March 1997, when the slimmer, sexier DVD was introduced to American consumers. Others pin the time of death to the week of June 15, 2003, when DVD rentals first topped those of VHS. And there are some — technophobic, time-warped souls — who argue that VHS isn’t deceased at all. It’s just, well, resting its eyes.
In fairness, the remains of VHS haven’t been interred yet. After all, 94.7 million American households still own VCRs. And more than $3 billion was spent on video rentals and purchases in the United States last year, according to Home Media Research. But if VHS isn’t quite dead, it’s at least on life support, comatose, all industry signs indicating it will not be resuscitated.
Many of the major studios, including Buena Vista Home Entertainment (which issues Disney titles), Fox and Warner Bros., are phasing out VHS releases. Circuit City and Best Buy stopped selling them online earlier this year, having removed the bulky cartridges from their store shelves in 2002 and 2003, respectively. (Wal-Mart and Amazon.com, on the other hand, have not announced plans to stop carrying the tapes.)
”I would think 2006 is the last year that there are major releases on VHS, and there won’t be many of those,” confirms Bo Andersen, president of the Video Software Dealers Association, a trade group for home video retailers.
The following might be the ultimate proof of VHS’s demise: When Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith comes to home video on Nov. 1, it will be available only on DVD, marking the first time an installment in the Skywalker saga is not on VHS. As Yoda himself might say, the life of VHS clearly close to ending is.
And while the prevailing attitude toward this turn of events for most might be, ”Gee, that’s too bad. So, what has TiVo recorded for me tonight?” it’s important that we pause to mourn the loss of this clunky cassette and celebrate the many good times we shared. Wait and we might get charged a late fee.
The VCR in our minds slowly rewinds to the early 1980s, when the video rental business first exploded. You may have frequented a rental store where the shelves were filled with movies. On one side of the store: all Beta. The other: all VHS.
VHS captivated us because its personality contained so many facets. It was mysterious: How much tape was actually in there? What would happen if you lifted up that plastic flap across the top? If you left a VHS tape on top of the VCR, would it, as your father always insisted, get demagnetized?
VHS was instructive. It taught us how to feel the burn with Jane Fonda, dance like the zombies from Michael Jackson’s Thriller and, later, do Tae Bo with Billy Blanks.
VHS was maddening. No matter how many times we tried to fast-forward to a certain scene — the moment when Leonardo DiCaprio sinks underwater in Titanic, or the fava beans line in The Silence of the Lambs — it never stopped exactly where we wanted. Inevitably, by the time we hit ”play,” Leo was already dead and Anthony Hopkins was already saying a breathy “Chianti.”
Still, even with its perversions, its personality quirks, you have to feel some love for the VHS tape. Had it never been born, there might not be DVD, or TiVo, or pay-per-view or microwave popcorn. Without it, 29 years’ worth of rainy weekends would have dragged on ceaselessly, movielessly.
As we prepare to bury VHS, we can take solace in the knowledge that its memory will live on. In the current clash between the developing high-definition DVD formats Blu-ray and HD-DVD, we will still hear the echoes of VHS vs. Beta. At every yard sale where a neighbor tries to sell us an aging copy of When Harry Met Sally for $1, we will still see VHS’s black, plastic face. And on the streets of Manhattan, wherever bootleg videos are being illegally hawked, the wind will whisper the name: VHS, VHS.
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So that was it. Deep. Meaningful. Rectangular. We (me) at Kiosk.net wish to join Ms. Chaney in her heartfelt salute and fond remembrance of VHS cassettes. Dead, but not forgotten. And now, a moment of silence.
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