The End Of The VCR
from the who-needs-it? dept
People spend so much time on new up-and-coming technologies, but not much attention is paid to technologies as they die out. That DVDs caught on at an amazing rate is not news. However, plenty of people are still using VCR machines - even if they can't figure out how to program the clock. Still, with DVD players being sold at $50, it's tough to see how the VCR has much of a future. Pioneer has now decided to end production of their VCR products and focus on other areas. Of course, this will annoy those who still have large videotape collections, but over time people will gradually move on to DVDs, writable DVDs and PVR-type solutions.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
The End of the VCR?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The End of the VCR?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The End of the VCR?
My vcr only had fast forward and rewind, while my dvd allows me to skip to a particular chapter, fast forward slowy, or superfast.
I don't think I've ever seen a vcr with the ability to skip to a certain segment of the film.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
not surprising
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: not surprising
AOpen is still selling CD burners for about $30-40. For those unfamiliar with AOpen, they also build CD-Rom, DVD-Rom, and DVD Burners, and are used by a majority of the standard hardware companies. However, some may be more familiar with their old name, Acer (their parent company), which holds a very special place in my heart for those companies with really, really bad products that seem to be sold everywhere, have a 30% failure rate out of the box, and is so much more inexpensive than any other company out there.
Of course, AOpen has gotten better...I've only had about a 4% failure rate on AOpen hardware during the first 90 days of usage, which is about par with everyone else. And, yes, I thought the name change from Acer to AOpen (for their consumer hardware products) was a good move.
Liteon and MSI still sell theirs too, and these are well known companies too. And you can still buy Plextor drives if you are interested in paying twice as much for half the capabilities/speed as AOpen, Liteon, and MSI, if you are so inclined.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anyone make B&W TVs?
My guess we'll see the same thing happen to tube TVs in my lifetime as ONE DAY, everything will be a flat panel of SOME sort.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: not surprising
My point exactly. Most people have never heard of that company. Hewlett Packard and Sony and all of the major suppliers got out of the CD burner market and into the DVD burner market. Now the markup on DVD burners is getting slim and soon the major players will lose marketshare to the knockoff brands and bail out of that market too.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The End of the VCR?
I have never had this happen to me, even after throwing many DVD's, CD's, CD-R's and CD-RW's at my player(Pioneer). I've never had to bring a DVD back to the rental store because it wouldn't play - but I have with VHS. Nor have I heard complains of "frequent" failures. Perhaps the problem is with your player?
"...the robust nature of tapes over DVD. Tapes are tough."
VHS tapes are based on magnetic media, which is fragile. The media in a VHS tape degrades every time you watch it. The spools degrade every time you watch, rewind or fast forward. A DVD has no moving parts to wear out. A VHS tape is way more sensitive to heat, humidity and impact that a DVD. Try leaving a VHS tape and a DVD on the dashboard of your car during a hot sunny day. Take them inside and play them both. You can watch the DVD while you scrape the VHS tape off the play head of your VCR.
It's true that DVD's do scratch, but again, you will never have to unjam a DVD player.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: not surprising
And taken completely out of context, wow...
I've bought one HP and one Sony device in all my life, partly because they are crap. The HP had far less capabilities and speed for far more of a price than any other burner I've purchased. And the Sony only worked well under Windoze (which I try not to use much, even though I have several Windows machines lying around.) So, I can see why both got out of the market quickly, it is called product darwinism. Those that made good, cheap products tend to stick around, while those who don't either need to evolve or die out.
The only people who buy HP, Sony, or Plextor products either don't mind or care about spending a lot more for less, or don't know any better. Next you will tell me that Dell, HP, and Sony all made their own parts (when they sold CD-burners,) and didn't buy "knockoff" brands from other countries and slap their label of them (as a former computer repair person who worked with the likes of Compaq, Dell, HP, and the like, I can tell you definitively that these companies bought parts from AOpen, Liteon, Toshiba, Teac, etc., and slapped their label on them and marked up the price.)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The End of the VCR?
Now everybody's happy!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The End Of The VCR
Show me where I can get a $50 DVD unit which lets me timeshift, or archive something to tape. Show me a digital recorder, like TIVO, and tell me how I can archive something which is on the unit unless I dub it off to videotape.
Oh, writeable DVDs? Well, now we're way way way beyond the $50 for a set-top unit, aren't we. I know where you can get good VCRs for $50, though.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
You can have my VCR when...
* timeshift
* record one program while watching another
* archive on a medium I can watch on another TV
(emphasis on cheap)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
End of the VCR?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The End of the VCR?
[ link to this | view in thread ]