DVD killed the video star

fjon

Is it just me, or is there something very sad about this article?

It's the digital age as DVD star kills the video recorder

VIDEOS will see their last Christmas this year, before being consigned to ye olde curiosity shop along with vinyl records, cassettes and typewriters.

Electrical goods store Dixons yesterday announced it was ending sales of the video player, and expected the last to leave its shelves by the time Santa climbs down the chimney on Christmas Eve.

Recordable DVDs and personal video recorders, like the Sky+ Box which learns its owners' favourite programmes and stores them, have rendered the faithful, unwieldy video player obsolete.

"We're saying goodbye to one of the most important products in the history of consumer technology," said John Mewett, Dixons' marketing director.

The company owns 15 Dixons, Currys and PC World stores in Ireland, sounding the death knell for the 28-year-old video player which revolutionised people's viewing habits by allowing them to record shows for the first time.

"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," continued Mr Mewett.

"We are now entering the digital age, and the new DVD technology represents a steep change in picture quality and convenience."

Currys, which operates independently of Dixons, said yesterday it had no immediate plans to stop selling video players but believed the market had all but died off.

Colm Casey, project manager at Currys Blanchardstown, explained: "The dramatic downshift in prices for DVD recorders has virtually phased out video recorders.

"You can copy 1,000 times on a DVD player and the picture would never deteriorate as a video would, and it's much better quality.

"But there is always going to be a small market for video players, as people have archive pictures of weddings, birthdays and parties they will want to see. If their machine has gone belly up, they will come to us."

Mr Casey said DVD players now started at €39.99 and DVD recorders at €299.99, while video recorders were on sale for €99. A top-spec DVD recorder, with the capacity to play DVDs direct from a camcorder, would cost €999.99.

He said the top DVD machines now also contained a hard drive of up to 160GB, so up to 270 hours of recording could be saved without a disc.

Video hire shops may also need a name change in the coming months, as the leading stores also make the shift to DVD. Paul Cashman, manager of Advance Vision, Dun Laoghaire, said the only significant market for video hire and sale was children, as the tapes were more robust than DVDs.

No videos are bought for sale to adults by the company, and only the major films are hired out on video. Even then, DVDs are more popular to hire than videos by a ratio of five to one.

"We don't market video to any great degree any more. Only the main cinema releases are hired, not the straight to video tapes, which is another phrase that's going to have to change," said Mr Cashman. "I would predict that 2005 will see the end of video."

Also on the way out this Christmas are the traditional cathode ray televisions (CRTs), making way for digital LCD TVs with double the resolution, according to Currys.

"We expect to have sold out our existing range of traditional televisions by Christmas, and as prices come down on digital televisions and plasma screens they will take over next year," said Mr Casey.

Helen Bruce
Irish Independent 23/11/04

Zombienosh

yeah i seen that article,
have to say it was coming though wasnt it? videos are too old at this stage and lose thier quality too easily. soon there wont even be dvds :eek:

ixoy

Umm what's the reusability like on these DVD Recorders? Because if you're recording 7-8 hours of TV each week, you can keep reusing the same videotape where, as I understand it, a DVD recorder will require a new disc every time. How come this isn't mentioned for the heavy duty recorder who isn't interested in keeping their recording? Sure HD recorders might circumvent this but for us non-Sky+ users, they appear even rarer.

fjon

I believe there are DVD +/- R discs, but also more expensive DVD-RWs, which can be used a good few hundred times. Although I'm no expert on this...

seamus

It's about time really, but if anyone stops selling them, there may be a bit of a vacuum in the recorder market - since DVD recorders are quite expensive still, and for at least 15 years, all VHS players have been recorders as standard.

But I'm curious - who still records stuff? When I was younger, definitely, new shows were recorded all the time, so one could go back and rewatch it if you missed it, but it would seem that this has become less popular. Certainly, it's been years since I felt the need to record a show I'm going to miss - it'll always be on within a week or so, and if not, then *meh* not that big a deal anyway. Perhaps TV isn't as "must see" as it used to be? Or perhaps it's just me

Maybe those who are interested in recording shows have invested in things like Sky+ or TiVo.

Lump

I dont think it's sad, I haven't used my video player in 3 years... and I only used it twice before that

John

ixoy

seamus wrote:

Certainly, it's been years since I felt the need to record a show I'm going to miss - it'll always be on within a week or so, and if not, then *meh* not that big a deal anyway. Perhaps TV isn't as "must see" as it used to be? Or perhaps it's just me

I record frequently, because I don't like to miss my shows if I go out or somesuch. Or when there's two programs on simultaneously.

Or maybe it's just a movie off of the TV (e.g. I've got "Sling Blade" to watch from last week). Most of these I only want to watch the once so hence the question about re-usability of DVD recorders versus traditional tapes. I thought even DVD-RWs were only designed to be reused several times.

Maybe those who are interested in recording shows have invested in things like Sky+ or TiVo.

I'm not interested in forking out extra for Sky+ subscription just to record and TiVo.. I don't think that's available here really. There's a couple of other HD recorders but the price is still prohibitive for now..

mike65

I think its sad and also a bad idea anyway, as seamus notes quality DVD recorders are much more expensive than a good VCR. There must still be a market for a good solid Nicam video deck for ppl like me (I bought one last week!) who are waiting for DVD-Rs to hit the 200 euro mark. Hard disk recorders are more expensive again so I'll happily continue to use my VCR.

Mike.

Makaveli

I don't think it's sad, it's a crappy format anyway.
Like alot of people I never use my video recorder anymore.
In fact Seamus pretty much summed it all up in his post.