there's no going back

so, going on this article, video tape, in particular VHS, seems to have finally died. all that's left is the boxes of them you have stored somewhere, as well as the one or two kicking around on store shelves.





this is no bad thing at all, really. long overdue, in fact. whereas the audio CD was unable to capture the quality and beauty of a vinyl record, DVD smacked tape into the middle of nowhere with superior quality on every level.


it's hard to imagine that there will ever be a nostalgia market for video tape. who on earth would want to go back to dirty heads causing snowing pictures, wonky sound after the tape had been played a dozen or so times, rewinding the things or having the things either get chewed up in the machine or just snap?

of course, DVD isn't perfect in that regard - surface scratches, fingerprints and the like can soon cause a disc not to work. but it's a piece of cake to clean a disc and try again; not something you could ever do with tape.


many people, myself included, keep a VHS machine around. this is mostly for the sake of it. sure, i mean, i have about 20 - 30 tape titles that i haven't found on DVD yet, but then again i've not played them for years, and i've not been inclined to convert the tapes myself!

there's a lot of talk about DVD being obsolete in a few years, with this blu ray business taking over. i somehow doubt that this will be the case - blu ray remains incredibly expensive compared to the ever decreasing cost of DVD, and there's no immediate vast improvement in the quality either to the average viewer - certainly not enough to go out and spend a fortune on upgrading an entire collection again straight away.

goodbye, then, VHS. thanks for years of fun, and being the first thing to bring movies into our homes and bedrooms. you served us all rather well!!!!!!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!