Wal-mart finally says "goodbye" to VHS
There are now 4 significant dates in the history of VHS: September 1976 - the VHS tape was launched, June 2003 – the DVD became more popular, November 2006 – the Motion Picture Association of America announced commercial films will no longer be released on VHS, and now, February 2007 – Wal-mart abandons the VHS as the last movies leave the shelves.
For our younger readers, the VHS is an analog video cassette that was adopted well before you were born; it was about twice the size of a 30Gb video iPod, and was held together by screws. Consumers would use devices known as VCRs to record/playback video, which was similar to a DVR, with an occasional tape jam.
We can safely assume the death of the VHS has arrived when Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, pulls the plug on it; and we’re glad to see they finally took notice.
“The digital age has been here for awhile, and America has overwhelmingly embraced the transformation to DVD with its convenience, picture quality and affordability,” says Gary Severson, senior vice president of Wal-Mart’s Entertainment division. “Now our goal is to make the next generation of home entertainment, whether that be BluRay, HDDVD, video downloads or other, more accessibility and more affordable for all consumers, just as the DVD is today.”
To ease the blow for the few who still use a VCR, Wal-Mart announced that they will be bringing back movie classics – previously released on VHS – that some consumers would prefer on DVD. Wal-Mart has hand selected over 40 award-winning movies which will be introduced on DVD as their Academy Award selection.
In addition, many of these titles, along with most of this year’s Oscar nominees, can be purchased through Wal-Mart’s new video downloading service at walmart.com/videodownloads, powered by HP Video Merchant. While currently in beta, this site includes over 3,000 movies that users can download and watch on their PC.
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