Earlier this year, Japanese electronics giant JVC announced that it would cease production of standalone VHS video cassette recorders. While a few companies continue to produce VHS-DVD combo machines, JVC was the last company that made standalone boxes.
So it was only a matter of time before companies stopped selling pre-recorded VHS tapes, too. And that happened this week. Distribution Video Audio (DVA), the last major distributor of pre-recorded VHS cassettes, announced that it will stop shipping tapes by the end of the year, and that any stock left over after January 1, 2009 will either be given away or tossed in the dumpster.
The last major Hollywood film to be distributed on VHS came out in 2006. Since then, DVA has distributed previously-viewed, overstock, and public domain VHS tapes to libraries, dollar stores, military bases and cruise ships. But now this will cease, and Luddities everywhere will be forced to upgrade to DVRs or recordable DVD decks.
Read more about it here.