http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...last-ever-vcr/

Sad?

Not really, VCR died many years ago

Not really sad. More just a passing of another technology which has been replaced with something better.

Not so good if you're a repair shop, since I'm sure VCRs provided a steady stream of income for many years until they became so cheap people would just chuck them and buy a new one.

But from a user perspective, to record off-air programmes a PVR / SKY+ box is immeasurably better from an ease of use and flexibility point of view.

For watching pre-recorded media - a DVD or Blu Ray player offers vastly better picture and sound quality and better ease of use.

The VCR was great in its time, but its time has now passed.

The DVD and Blu-ray player are not far behind in their passing.

I wouldn't be too sure - there's a lot of people who don't "do" streaming, yet happily use a DVD / BR player.

There is still a place for pre-recorded media until everyone has a suitable high speed internet connection.

Nah. There's a good few years of life left in them yet, especially now 4K UHD blu ray is already here.

If it's downloading and streaming you're thinking about, an analogy is that CD is still here (even vinyl is making something of a comeback!) despite the fact we've had mp3 download services like iTunes for years (and more recently streaming subscription services like Spotify as well).

That said, I think streaming and downloading will ultimately become dominant.

Perhaps not as people have always enjoyed collecting things.

I think it is a number of years before we get sufficient high speed broadband countrywide.

Goodness i thought they discontinued them in 2006. Perhaps that was just commercial VHS tapes themselves. They still sell blank VHS tapes in Tesco. Don't they still make those VHS to DVD recording machines?

More to the point, if you have any cherished personal recordings on video tapes you have been putting off copying to digital media then prevaricate no longer.

There are some comments in this thread
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...8#post83261428

But the professional tape recorders stopped in April this year
SMPTE UK Held a meeting to hear the history and mark its passing
https://www.smpte.org/sections/unite...ife-video-tape
There is a good article linked there,

Iv still got a Panasonic DVD/Video and I hope it doesn't give up. Still got about 80 videos.

Im pretty behind the times though, Iv never even looked at Spotify and only ever bought two things online.

I still have some tapes, one being Diana's funeral and another one being the whole Freddie Tribute Concert. Sure they are being stored horizontally though so will have spool sag and are probably knacked.

I regret not transferring my complete Freddie Mercury concert to dvd before getting rid of the tapes....and I regret not recording the whole of live aid too!

I recorded live aid on betamax sadly the tapes are long gone.

What VHS did has now been vastly improved on, but one very good reason to keep a VCR still is if you have any tapes you still want to play or you have tapes you want to convert to DVD to be ripped to MP4 or straight to a capture device. I've found some off air recordings of things like Granada or Channel 4 from the 90's and have put them on Youtube, and converted tapes like "Best of Jack Dee's Happy Hour" that were never released on DVD so I can watch them digitally.

The VCR I used for this sort of thing was only £15 off Ebay, the vast majority of machines were second hand by the end and so that will continue.

VHS was also useful for things like recording a long radio show, because the audio quality was better than cassette if you had a Nicam Stereo 4 head type model.

I still have got my JVC SVHS VCR which is about 12 years old, just lost the original remote control for it, a universal remote control replaced it bought from Poundland. my mother still has her Orion Double Deck VCR which is now 17 years old, both still work great, they both play NTSC tapes no problem and a about 150 + tapes between us, we had loads more but binned a few due to a house move.

It's good to have a VCR if you have many old tapes that you would like to watch, family videos etc. On the other hand, even if you still have many VHS tapes, it's quite easy to transfer everything into digital for more convenient viewing and better quality.

VHS was a great prof technology back in the 80s and early 90s, but as the world moved to digital A/V, VHS became obsolete, bulky and not so convenient.

I understand why people brought back vinyl records, because records are still superior to CD Audio if listened on quality equipment, but it's completely unjustified to continue to make VCRs and VHS because it offers nothing it can be measured to what we have today- HD and 4K video.