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Although VHS largely disappeared from view a few years ago when leading retail chains stopped carrying conventional video content, the format has managed to persevere via cheap discount distribution – until now.
The sun finally sets on VHS. Image: Dan Taylor/Flickr.
More pointedly, a report in the L.A. Times has outlined that VHS bargain bins everywhere will likely be empty this time next year as discount distributors are also now beginning to turn their backs in favour of DVD.
One such provider, Florida-based Distribution Video Audio, has said it is pulling its support for VHS and is on the brink of tossing out any and all VHS tapes in one final format purge.
“It’s dead, this is it,” said president and co-owner Ryan J. Kugler (34). “This is the last Christmas [for VHS], without a doubt… I’m done.”
Mr. Kugler also added that Distribution Video Audio is prepared to “give away or throw away” any remaining warehouse stock as it turns its focus towards DVD.
The shift of support away from VHS tapes comes only a few months after JVC, the last major manufacturer of VHS players announced it is ceasing mass production.
It’s hardly surprising that the sun is finally setting on VHS and its 30 years of scratchy and largely unreliable service, not least because the last major feature film to be released on tape was director David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence” way back in 2006.
And what of the future? Well, according to Mr. Kugler, the superiority of DVD will soon give way to Sony’s high-definition Blu-ray format, which will make DVD obsolete “in three or four years, no doubt about it.”
“The days of the DVD are numbered,” he said in relation to the digital format becoming his next profit vein. “And that is good news for me.”
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