VHS - Decline

Decline

The VHS VCR was a mainstay in the TV-equipped living room for more than 20 years from its introduction. For time shifting (off the air or cable/satellite taping), hard-drive based digital video recorders have replaced the VCR as the time shifting device of choice, especially in households with subscriber-based TV services. The home camcorder market, one which VHS shared with alternative formats, has already transitioned to digital-video recording. But the largest impact on the VHS format was the introduction of the DVD format to American consumers in March of 1997. For home-video (that is, pre-recorded commercially-released movies, etc.) rental and sales, DVD has taken the place of VHS.

At most electronics retailers, choice among VHS equipment has shrunk dramatically. New sales are focused on DVD-recorders and subscriber-based DVRs (such as TiVo). Most electronics chains have stopped stocking VHS home-video releases, focusing only on DVD and Blu-ray Disc technology. Major Hollywood studios no longer issue releases on VHS. The final major Hollywood motion picture released on VHS in the United States was David Cronenberg's 2005 film A History of Violence.

On December 31, 2008, the final truckload in the USA of recorded programming on VHS tapes rolled out of a warehouse owned by Ryan Kugler, the last major supplier of VHS-recorded videos. Kugler is President and co-owner of Distribution Video Audio, a seller of distressed goods such as VHS tapes. According to Kugler, "It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt. 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."

However in 2009, the Hayao Miyazaki film Ponyo received a VHS release in Japan alongside DVD and Blu-ray. Home-video VHS tapes can still be found in many second-hand shops, and are sometimes very cheap due to the lack of demand.

In 2010, The House of the Devil received promotional distribution on VHS and is available exclusively on Amazon.com with a DVD copy of the film. At the back-end of the same year, Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers (which was shot and edited entirely on VHS) was released onto DVD and in a limited run of 300 VHSs directly from the official website. Also in 2010, the movie Paranormal Activity was released on VHS in the Netherlands.

Although VHS quickly faded from mainstream home-video, a VCR is still owned in many US households. The Washington Post noted that as of 2005, 94.5 million Americans still owned VHS format VCRs. Many people hold on to their VHS-VCR for nostalgic reasons, because many movies only exist in that format or because their wedding movies or videos of other personal events in their life are still in VHS. In May 2012, the New York Times reported that VHS stays popular in immigrant communities since movies are still available for next to nothing.

The last standalone JVC VHS-only unit was produced on October 28, 2008. JVC, like many other manufacturers, still makes combination DVD+VHS units.

Several retail chains in the United States and in Europe planned to stop selling VHS equipment in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Despite these plans, VHS recorders and blank tapes are still being sold in major stores worldwide. As an acknowledgement of VHS popularity, in 2009 Panasonic announced the world’s first dual deck VHS-Blu-ray player.