Written by James Fohl

Around this time last year, I was talking about how I still used my VCR pretty much every day. You see, a year ago I could still go to my local Wal-Mart, and find a lot of VHS movies for around six dollars each. These were not older movies either, they were some what new releases. I bought a bunch of these video tapes, because the DVD versions of the same films were around ten dollars more.

Here I am a year later, and well a lot has changed. First off, it seems that I can not find new movies in the VHS format anywhere. The small selection of VHS video tapes my Wal-Mart had is now gone; replaced with yet another rack of DVD movies. Another thing that has changed is the fact that while last year, my Wal-Mart had three different VCR decks, I was completely shocked when I noticed that there were no VCR decks; only a couple combination DVD / VCR decks.

But then again, a lot has changed in my house too. My VCR is not even hooked up to my television right now, mostly due to the fact that new movies are not released in the VHS format anymore. Not only that, but I do not even have to use my VCR to record my favorite television shows anymore.

Instead of using a VCR to record my favorite television shows now, I either just buy from online from the iTunes music store for a modest two dollar fee, or I use my new DVD recorder to record the shows onto inexpensive DVD-R discs. A lot of people think it is kind of stupid to buy a television show from the iTunes music store for a couple of dollars, but I have to disagree for a variety of reasons.

Topping the list is convenience. All I have to do is start up the iTunes computer program, search for the television show, and with a couple ofclicks I am watching the show. If I choose to record the show to a DVD recordable disc, I have to mess with all the settings of the DVD recorder, and make sure I have a blank disc available. In the end, it just seems that the two dollar iTunes solution is much easier.

I still have my VHS video collection; probably over a hundred tapes now. I do not know exactly what I am going to do with these tapes though. I have not watched any for a couple of months now, and those new DVD rental services allow me to watch all the new movies I could want for the price of one DVD a month. So, instead of buying new movies on the DVD format, and since I can no longer buy new movies on the old VHS format, I simply go online to the Net Flix website, find the movies I want to see, and a couple days later I am watching the movies on my DVD
player.

Since I can keep the movies as long as I want, I am not rushed in to watching the DVDs, and ultimately it is kind of like I own the movies, since I usually only ever watch a movie once or twice (which is oddly enough the reason why I have not touched my VHS video collection for a couple of months).

Yes, it seems very odd that just a year ago I was bragging about how I preferred the old VHS video format over the DVD format. But, in a mere year all sorts of things have changed. I can no longer go out and purchase new movies for six dollars in the VHS format; heck, I can't even go out and purchase any newly released movie in the VHS format. Not only that, but instead of recording my favorite television shows on bulky, cheap VHS tapes, I have several options that I now use. In the end, I really do not use my VCR anymore for anything.

I want to say that I am going to start getting attached to my DVD player, but with the new HD DVD and Bluray formats coming from around the corner, I guess it is safe to say that the DVD format will probably also slowly start to fade in the next year or so. In the end, all I can say is goodbye VCR, you were great for so many years.