Hold on to your VHS tapes; the last known active VCR maker has officially shut down; rendering the format to true obsolescence.
Fun fact: the humble VHS cassette rolled off the production line nearly 40 years ago in 1976 in Japan. Today marks the requiem mass of the format – the last known VCR manufacturer, Funai Electric, has formally closed its doors.
Funai Electric will cease all operations at the end of July after 30 years of production. The company began producing VCRs in 1983 after the launch of its own format, CVC, failed.
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In its heyday, Funai Electric sold over 15 million VCR players per year – last year, in 2015, the manufacturer only sold 750,000 units.
The news marks the official extinction of the humble VHS as a storage medium; VHS – and VCR players by extension – were knocked out of the mainstream market by the likes of DVD and Blu-Ray discs circa 2002.
VHS itself was seen as the successor and victor of its war with Betamax, a similar cassette format which didn’t offer the longevity its rival did.
Another fun fact: one of the reasons VHS succeeded where Betamax failed was the fact that the former allowed its publishers to distribute pornography on the format.
While VHS will likely persist as a legacy format for years to come, collector interest in VHS tapes continues to rise; some are as valuable as a reported sum of £1,500 GBP.
If you’re worried that your children might one day never get to have the joy of rewinding or fast forwarding a VHS tape in a VCR player, the Museum of Endangered Sounds will preserve the format for all its visitors to reminisce upon.
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What are your thoughts on the demise of the humble VCR player? Be sure to let us know your opinion in the comments below!
Follow Bryan Smith on Twitter: @bryansmithSA
