It is finally official: VHS is dead.

JVC has officially pulled the plug on stand-alone VHS players, and as they were the last one manufacturing them, that pretty much kills the format.  You will still be able to buy VHS/DVD combo machines for playing the tapes you still have, but I wouldn’t count on those being around for all that much longer since pre-recorded VHS tapes are no longer being produced by the movie studios.

The format has been around for 32 years, and, oddly enough, was invented by JVC.  All told, it is estimated 900 million VHS machines were sold over the years, with 50 million of those being of the JVC brand.  While it is doubtful the format will full disappear for some time (you can still buy blank audio cassettes), it is going to slowly disappear into a distant memory in the wake of DVDs, high definition formats, DVRs, digital downloads and more.

As we wrote earlier this year, please do not just throw away your old VHS tapes.  I recently donated the bulk of the left over inventory from my families comic book store and personal tapes we no longer needed to the local library.  All told we donated over 1400 tapes and they have been selling very briskly for them to help raise some much needed money.  I get a tax write off, they get needed funds, everyone comes out a winner, and the local landfill doesn’t have to contend with them (yet).