If you were holding onto hope that VHS tapes would one day make a comeback, it's time to let that dream die. That's because there will no longer be a way to play those tapes, unless you still have an old and still functioning video cassette recorder lying around.
The Japanese consumer electronics company Funai Electric announced that it will no longer make VCRs. After 30 years of production, it is throwing in the towel when it comes to manufacturing the product at the end of this month.
This means that the VCR — and subsequently, VHS tapes — are finally dead.
It seems a bit obvious why Funai Electric decided to stop making VCRs: there just isn't a market for them anymore.
The company cited difficulties in getting parts to make them as the main reason why it will stop production. It can also include declining sales to the list of reasons why it will no longer make the Video Home System machines.
While Funai Electric is not a name many U.S. consumers might associate with VCRs like they do with Panasonic or Sony, the company sold them under the brand name Sanyo in the U.S., as well as in China.
The company began making VCRs in 1983, selling as many as 15 million units per year in its golden days. Last year, it was only able to sell 750,000 units — which is still kind of impressive, if you think about it.
VCRs were the way to watch home movies that were sold and rented (remember Blockbuster?!). The machines used an electro-mechanical process to display what was on the film of what is known as a VHS tape. The machines featured a motorized system to load and eject the tapes — which meant said tapes would often get jammed or the film would get destroyed.
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VCRs became popular in the '80s and were the first way to control what viewers watched on their TVs, as well as record what was on TV using blank tapes.
Then, the DVD and DVD players came along. VHS tapes stopped being produced in 2008, and Panasonic stopping selling VCRs in 2012. Blockbuster went out of business, and then Netflix and other streaming platforms entered the scene. The rest is modern-day history.
It's actually quite sad to think there are generations that will never know how annoying it was to put a tape into the VCR, only to find it wasn't rewound beforehand, or watching in horror when the machine would eat it up and ruin your favorite film forever.
Even though it might be considered a movie-watching relic, some people might still have one in their possession in case it ever made a comeback like turntables and vinyls have. There are even people who collect VHS tapes, with some Disney ones selling for thousands of dollars. You just won't be able to buy a new VCR on which to watch your old-school tapes anymore.
Rest in peace, VCR.
Source: The Telegraph
Photo: Rachel Hinman | Flickr
