The World's Last VCRs Will Be Produced In Japan This Month

[Peter_J]

You can keep the cloud. Call me a Stone Age primitive but when I buy something I want to own it.

That may be the most interesting thing: even if folks in the VCR heyday could have predicted that tapes would become obsolete and be replaced by discs, I doubt they would have guessed that ownership of movies would in time seem like a passe concept.

 

[Edmundus1581]

You can keep the cloud. Call me a Stone Age primitive but when I buy something I want to own it.

I like to own it, and I like to have the physical version of it.

The CD or DVD in my house is my reminder to play it some time. The collection of them is a picture of my tastes and aspirations. When the unplayed pile starts to build up, it is a reminder to stop buying and start playing/watching.

The same goes with books.

 

[oldgraymare2]

Atlas Obscura:

I had no idea they were still being produced. I do have a combo DVD/VHS player and probably 3-4 dozen movies on VHS.

I didn’t know that they were still being made, either.

We have one that is probably about sixteen years old now, and it was new when we got it.

I haven’t used it for some time. We do have a lot of VHS tapes.

We’ve used our DVD player more, though.

 

[oldgraymare2]

I like to own it, and I like to have the physical version of it.

The CD or DVD in my house is my reminder to play it some time. The collection of them is a picture of my tastes and aspirations. When the unplayed pile starts to build up, it is a reminder to stop buying and start playing/watching.

The same goes with books.

You’re not alone.

I still have music CDs, too.

I have a little portable CD player that my husband bought for me a few years ago, that I can carry around with me, or just use at home if I want to, when I want to listen to a CD without disturbing him if he’s sleeping, etc. I’ll use it with a pair of headphones.

 

[oldgraymare2]

It really doesn’t matter all that much since there are probably already tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of VCRs in the world. If you ever wanted one, you could probably just go to a tag sale or a thrift store.

Yes, you are right about that.

I have a friend that will buy electronics from yard/garage sales.

She bought some nice TVs this way.

There wasn’t anything wrong with them, where they didn’t work. They were still in fine working order.

People were just upgrading to the larger flat-screen TVs, so they just wanted to get rid of the older, larger TV that they had, so they put it up for sale in their yard sale.

 

[mikekle]

Yes, you are right about that.

I have a friend that will buy electronics from yard/garage sales.

She bought some nice TVs this way.

There wasn’t anything wrong with them, where they didn’t work. They were still in fine working order.

People were just upgrading to the larger flat-screen TVs, so they just wanted to get rid of the older, larger TV that they had, so they put it up for sale in their yard sale.

Me too, I bought a 36" CRT type tv from Goodwill for $20.! worked fine, picture was great… I remember when I got married back in 1996, we bought a 32" CRT and it costs us near $350.

Those larger CRT tvs may be heavy, but they are dependable, although once you get up past 36" screens, the older big screens dont give a good picture for too long, there are numerous 48’, 54", 65" older big screens, people are giving them away due to some malfunction, and the picture isnt good anymore, and usually the repair is more than the tv is worth.

 

[Ojo_Feliz]

I need to go and buy one, got all kinds of tapes (really good Disney films) but no VCR

If you are willing to consider a used VCR, you might want to check thrift stores such as Salvation Army. They still accept VCRs as donations, and I saw some for sale in my local branch when I moved last year. (BTW, they no longer accept those heavy old CRT televsions, so those may become scarce)

 

[Joe_5859]

I bought my first DVD player in about 2002. At that stage there was a mixture of VHS and DVD in the video stores.

And there was a video store in every suburb!

In the mid 90’s, just before DVD came out, there was a new format on a large disc, like an LP, which was meant to replace VHS. There were some expensive players and hi-fi buffs started switching to it, but it never took off and was overtaken by DVD.

Same here (2002! ). I bought my first DVD and DVD player solely because the first Lord of the Rings came out on physical media. But, back then, DVD players weren’t even close to being ubiquitous.

I knew one person in the 90s who had a laser disc player. They were like CDs as big as a record that had to be flipped half way through the movie. I understand why they never caught on. Way too bulky.

 

[Peter_J]

I knew one person in the 90s who had a laser disc player. They were like CDs as big as a record that had to be flipped half way through the movie. I understand why they never caught on. Way too bulky.

Not really related, but I’m reminded of a dozen years ago when a friend of mine was saying that he had a real nice bunch of movies on VCDs, but was having a little trouble in terms of what to do with them.

 

[angelic06]

Heck…my family still has Betamax (uses a smaller cassette than VHS). Whether or not it still works I don’t know.

 

[Maxirad]

The situation may not be as dire as people think. Check this out.