So Long, VHS

VHS Cover Scans: French

Via Rest In Peace VHS

VHS Cover Scans: The UK Edition

A painted cover is a  beautiful and economic way to advertise a videocassette.   
Click on these VHS scans to see larger size.

Scandinavian's Largest Collection of Video COVER ART

Thank You to Ole Saga for emailing me a link to his incredible website: Filmplantasjen 
You can find hundreds of scans of VHS cover art, video catalogs, advertisements and more.  Here are a few gems from his site:




More Scans....

20/20 Video Madness 1984 Plus Interview With A Video Pirate

More Video Madness, this time from 20/20. 
1/Great clips on video stores, self proclaimed video maniac, video piracy and Jack Valenti.
2/Look for a Scopitone like device at a Vegas convention, and a Beta/Vhs VCR overview.

Today Show, Video Explosion 1985

Here's more from my new favorite Youtube poster videoholic2008
A 4 part Today Show story on the video explosion from 1985.
The rundown:
1/ Shoutouts from Vestron Video and Thorn Emi near the end and into part 2 is worth the wait for music videos.
2/Continuation of the music videos, featuring David Bowie and Pete Townshend.  Also a story on the
Stand Up Comedy video market.
3/How To video market and their X-Rated segment!
4/Looks like an encode error a repeat of the last segment from part 3, but it's a replay from the "controversial X-rated entertainment  market".

George Carlin On Fuji Video Tapes

Saved From The Garbage Dump VHS Cover Art

Forget the VHS BETA war it's time for SelectaVision

For the complete story of the RCA SelectaVision VideoDisc go here:
Memories of SelectaVision from rise to fall of the manufacturing plant and its losing battle to VHS.

Via Video Thing
More Old Sad Things Vintage Video

Bonus Clip:

A Visual History Of Video Companies

Critical Condition has a beautiful gallery of VHS tapes.  Here is just a small sample.

LINK                                                                  




via Bitter Cinema

VHS, 30, Dies of Loneliness

Via Variety
After a long illness, the groundbreaking home-entertainment format VHS has died of natural causes in the United States. The format was 30 years old.

No services are planned.

The format had been expected to survive until January, but high-def formats and next-generation vidgame consoles hastened its final decline.

"It's pretty much over," concurred Buena Vista Home Entertainment general manager North America Lori MacPherson on Tuesday.

VHS is survived by a child, DVD, and by Tivo, VOD and DirecTV. It was preceded in death by Betamax, Divx, mini-discs and laserdiscs.

Although it had been ailing, the format's death became official in this, the video biz's all-important fourth quarter. Retailers decided to pull the plug, saying there was no longer shelf space.

As a tribute to the late, great VHS, Toys 'R' Us will continue to carry a few titles like "Barney," and some dollar video chains will still handle cassettes for those who cannot deal with the death of the format.

Born Vertical Helical Scan to parent JVC of Japan, the tape had a difficult childhood as it was forced to compete with Sony's Betamax format.

After its youthful Betamax battles, the longer-playing VHS tapes eventually became the format of choice for millions of consumers. VHS enjoyed a lucrative career, transforming the way people watched movies and changing the economics of the film biz. VHS hit its peak with "The Lion King," which sold more than 30 million vidcassettes Stateside.

The format flourished until DVDs launched in 1997. After a fruitful career, VHS tapes started to retire from center stage in 2003 when DVDs became more popular for the first time.

Since their retirement, VHS tapes have made occasional appearances in children's entertainment and as a format for collectors seeking titles not released on DVD. VHS continued to make as much as $300 million a year until this year, when studios stopped manufacturing the tapes.