December 23, 2008

R.I.P. VHS

The VHS tape – the format that popularized the copying, replaying, sharing and storing of media and ushered in the era of the home theatre – is no more.

According to Geoff Boucher, writing in the Los Angeles Times:
Pop culture is finally hitting the eject button on the VHS tape, the once-ubiquitous home-video format that will finish this month as a creaky ghost of Christmas past.

After three decades of steady if unspectacular service, the spinning wheels of the home-entertainment stalwart are slowing to a halt at retail outlets. On a crisp Friday morning in October, the final truckload of VHS tapes rolled out of a Palm Harbor, Fla., warehouse run by Ryan J. Kugler, the last major supplier of the tapes.

"It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt," said Kugler, 34, a Burbank businessman. "I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away."

Read VHS Era is Winding Down.

[via gizmodo.com]

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