Show's over for the video recorder
LONDON, England -- Video recorders have taken a step closer to extinction after Britain's largest electrical supplier said it would stop selling VCRs to concentrate on their successor, the DVD.
Dixons said on Monday demand for video cassette recorders had fallen dramatically since the mid-1990s while sales of DVD players, which cost as little as £25 ($46) had grown seven-fold in the past five years.
The chain said sales of higher-quality digital DVD players now outstripped sales of VCRs -- with their clunky tapes and habit of chewing up valuable recordings -- by a ratio of 40 to one.
The move signals the beginning of the end for VHS (video home system), the technology that revolutionized viewing habits when it meant people could leave their house without missing their favorite TV program.
Dixons said it now expected to sell its remaining stock of VCRs by Christmas, although other electrical retailers said they would continue to sell them for the foreseeable future.
John Mewett, marketing director at Dixons, said: "We're saying goodbye to one of the most important products in the history of consumer technology.
"The video recorder has been with us for a generation and many of us have grown up with the joys and the occasional frustrations of tape-based recording," he told the Press Association.
The first VCR, made by JVC, went on sale at Dixons in 1978, costing almost £800, the equivalent of more than £3,000 today.
The early 1980s saw a battle between the VHS and Sony's Betamax. VHS eventually won because it was the format favored by video rental shops.
By 1990 more than 200 million VCRs a year were sold worldwide. But its days were numbered with the arrival of the DVD, which offers digital quality, space-saving discs and instant access to recordings instead of having to wind through a tape.
However, even the DVD is facing new competition from hard-disk drive recorders that can store more than 400 hours of TV.
Collector Andy Hain paid tribute to the VHS. "It's hard to imagine today, but once upon a time you had a simple choice: you would stay home and watch TV or you could go out which meant missing your favorite programs.
"But gradually the VCR crept into our lives until it was hard to imagine life without them," he told PA.
