VHS finally dies as last major distributor gives up business

It's the end of an era as VHS finally heads into the West along with Frodo, Ronald Reagan and Roy Rogers. The final shipment of the once ever-present tapes has left the warehouse of the format's last major supplier. The business's owner claims that the same will happen to DVD within a few years and that it'll yield completely to Blu-ray... but I kinda doubt it. The same was said of VHS more than twenty years ago when laserdisc enjoyed a brief rise in popularity as premium home entertainment. But Blu-ray's attraction is only going to really take off once the capability of recording discs becomes more common, and that ain't happening yet. And there's always gonna be a need for cheap data storage, and just about every Blu-ray player is backward compatible with DVD anyway.

But for the VHS, it is indeed "Farewell, my lovely". It cannot be said that it did not have a good run though. And between you and me Faithful Reader: nothing will ever tear me apart from my beloved - albeit outdated in more ways than one - VHS set of the original Star Wars Trilogy :-)