Death Of VHS
Dear Gary: You’re a little premature about the death of VHS, at least for households that routinely time-shift regular entertainment TV programs. We currently run four VHS tape decks––three for recording up to three shows aired at the same time (which happens once a week or so) plus another for viewing. With decent VHS decks available for around $60 that is not a terrible financial burden. TiVo-type systems to do the same job would cost well over $1,000, plus fees, and even then wouldn’t provide the same flexibility as tape (record in one room, view in another). And right now four DVD burners would cost about twice the TiVo bill. Until DVD tuner-recorders get down to the sub-$100 range, VHS will still be king in this household.
Ed Perkins
Editor-In-Chief Gary Reber Comments:
I agree with your perspective that there is no question that the VHS format offers the best bang for the buck when you want to record off-air or cable programming, as well as the most flexibility for multi-room viewing. The point I was making is that the format is ‘headed to nichedom,’ particularly in the realm of new prerecorded releases and stores selling and even renting VHS titles. Most frustrating to me is the painfully slow pace of new D-VHS D-Theater releases, which currently are the best high-definition offerings available to serious home theatre enthusiasts who have invested in the HD-capable displays. Not only is this format fully backward compatible with standard VHS and Super VHS in both recordability and playback, but it offers unprecedented capability to record in true high-definition and playback of prerecorded movies. I just want to see the studios dramatically step up their release schedules to match their DVD releases, at least with respect to their “A” titles.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ mailto:editorgary@widescreenreview.com