Death of a format

When will VHS die? It was a question apparently answered by inventor and sole remaining maker of standalone VHS equipment, JVC, when it announced the end of production in October. The last remaining video tape distributor then ran up the white flag last week.

Stuff's Linsey Fryatt reckons, however, that the format may never die, due mainly to its massive install base and no-nonsense appeal to older people and kids. She makes the partly valid point that these groups:

don't care about upscaled High Def image quality, surround sound and extras - they just want a cheap, easy way to record and watch TV and movies.

Fair enough on the first part, but these people and millions like them are likely to find that the VHS format will cease to offer such hassle-free functionality once their part of the country switches over to all-digital terrestrial telly. At that point, those millions of beloved VHS recorders will still be able to tape what's on at the time, but that'll be about it. If you want to record one channel while watching another - something video recorders have been able to do from the earliest days - you'll be needing a hard drive PVR. My guess is that once that becomes apparent, the VHS format will go out of fashion faster than spandex.