40 years of video recorders and still not a classic
08/23/2016
Around 40 years ago, JVC launched the video recorder based on the VHS system. VHS was one of three cassette and recording methods and was eventually able to assert itself against Betamax and Video 2000 (pictured above).
For decades, we recorded films and television programs on VHS cassettes; some of us probably still have a box somewhere with such cassettes and labels like "Pretty Woman" or "Grand Prix Deutschland 1994" or something like that.
Now the last VCR manufacturers are obviously no longer producing these devices. The technology has long since been overtaken by more modern methods (hard disk recording or recordable DVDs).
In contrast to the automobile, video cassettes and their players are unlikely to have a blessed future as "old-timers"; only a few collectors will still rewind an old cassette from time to time to prevent it from sticking and the magnetic layers from levelling out too much. For the rest of us, the old devices remain a memory of when we still had to deal with complicated timer programming and incompatible recording formats ...
(The picture of the Philips VCR comes from Wikipedia and was provided by Colin McCormick (CC)).
