Last Known VCR Maker Stops Production

[W3WN]

Funnai Electric (who use the brand name Sanyo in North America), the last known VCR manufacturer announces today that they will cease production, 40 years to the day after the VHS format was launched

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/1016/07/vcr-vhs-production-ends/

14803

And for those who were wondering... Betamax was discontinued in 2002, and Sony announced in November 2015 that they would stop manufacture of Betamax tapes.

http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2015/11/sony-finally-kills-betamax-13-years-since-it-last-made-a-player/

[KK4AMI]

That is sad. VCRs were around my whole life. We still have a VHS/DVD recorder that we used until our VHS tapes were transfered to DVD or we just replaced the commercial stuff with DVDs. I probably won't have the heart to throw it out, who knows when that once in a life time VHS tape will pop up.

[KG4CGC]

Had an old one that finally died 20 years ago. It was actually beaten with a beisball bat but I digress.

It had the old tuners. Actually, it had 10 (13?) tuning pots which could each be set with its own small switch with 4 positions beside the thumb wheel tuner. Remember back when cellular was analog?

[HUGH]

I notice on Epay that many old VHS machines are commanding quite a high price, I didn't check to see if there were any buyers though. There is even a Betamax on sale for a phenomenal sum so, if you have the storage space, why not hang on to the old cassette recorders for a few more years?

[K4PIH]

I use VHS to record audio. Most of them are good at that and the recording times on a VHS cartridge is pretty long.

[WØTKX]

My high end VCR crapped out a few years ago. I didn't care then, but I still have some great concert tapes.

Guess I'll look at the second hand stores and find another unit so I can transcribe the good stuff to digital files.

Just like I have done with most of my CDs and quite a few LPs. Gotta save that Yessongs concert tape, etc.

[NQ6U]

That is sad. VCRs were around my whole life.

Get off my lawn, kid. I used pro-level VTRs some but was pushing 30 before I ever saw a consumer VCR.

[K7SGJ]

Get off my lawn, kid. I used pro-level VTRs some but was pushing 30 before I ever saw a consumer VCR.

I worked for Sears service in the 60s-80s. Their first table top VCR was made by Sony and was par for the course at the time. However, prior to that, they had a console TV that had a VTR in it. A bigger POS was never made. I believe it was made by/for Warwick Electronics. They also sold a video disk player that used a huge flexible Mylar looking disk. This joined many other failed products on the pile of Sears, and they had many.