Cassette Store Day took place this past 7 September. On that day, over 50 audio cassettes were released by major musical acts like The Pastels, The Flaming Lips, and Suicidal Tendencies. Unfortunately for video cassette fans, Cassette Day was a strictly audio observance. For whatever reason, Cassette Culture (or the cassette underground), which lovingly embraces audio cassettes for whatever reason treats the word “cassette” as if it only applies to the audio variety. As if that weren’t offensive enough, just two days after Cassette Store Day was the 37th birthday of the VHS VCR. Now that a couple of weeks have passed and the sting has subsided a little, perhaps we can do a bit of reflecting on the video format that dominated the 1980s and '90s (but was born in the '70s).

The inauguraltook place this past 7. On that day, over 50 audio cassettes were released by major musical acts like, and. Unfortunately for video cassette fans, Cassette Day was a strictly audio observance. For whatever reason,(or the), which lovingly embraces audio cassettes for whatever reason treats the word “cassette” as if it only applies to the audio variety. As if that weren’t offensive enough, just two days after Cassette Store Day was the 37th birthday of the. Now that a couple of weeks have passed and the sting has subsided a little, perhaps we can do a bit of reflecting on the video format that dominated theand(but was born in the).

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The year 1976 was marked by several serious technological milestones. The year of the' bicentennial saw America landonand introduce the first space shuttle -- the. In the computer world,introduced the first laser printer -- the-- andandlaunchedOn 9 September,passed away inand across thein, the first VHS video cassette recorder (or VCR), the, was introduced. It wasn’t the first example of magnetic videotape technology -- that had first been demonstrated in 1951.had introduced the pre-recorded tapes of theirsystem for sale and rental in 1972. In 1975had launched therecording system but it would be VHS that would conquer the home video market.Although I'm not sure how it was chosen for the honor, the first theatrical film to be commercially released on VHS was adrama,(aka), which had been released to theaters in 1972. It was directed by-- the one who made the daikaiju classic,as well a less-well-known-outside-Korealike(1964) and not thewho helmed such internationally acclaimed films as(2003),(2004),(2001), and(2006).The VCR wouldn't come to the US until 4 June, 1977, when it was introduced at a press conference before thestarts in. Despite Betamax having better picture quality than JVC's VHS, Betamax tapes could only hold an hour's worth of recorded material whereas the capacity of JVC's standarddoubled that. Furthermore, whilst Sony maintained tight control of the Betamax format, JVC immediately licensed out its technology to companies likeand. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, JVC embraced, which Sony shunned. By the end its first year, VHS had eroded 40% of Betamax's market share.When my father bought our family's VCR in 1978, he chose RCA's. Its heft and fake wood grain paneling matched the aesthetics of our living room TV. It didn’t quite have a remote control -- there was a portable control panel connected by maybe a ten foot long cable. The machine also had a dew indicator because supposedly humidity could make it stop working although I don't remember that ever happening even in the swampiestsummers of my childhood.VHS surpassed Betamax in sales in 1981 -- the same year the doomed, phonograph-likewas released after fifteen years of delay. Other rival technologies would follow.debuted in 1993 and quickly became the format of film producers and consumers in the developing world. In 1997, a popular weather drama,, was the firstfilm made available on. The awful and evil) was introduced in 1998 (and had its plug pulled none-too-soon the following year). All of these formats boasted potentially superior image and sound quality to that of magnetic tapes (although VCDs often looked worse andoften trumped all other contemporaneous formats).VHS still had at least one major leg up on the competition – the ease with which it allowed users to record (and re-record) content from their video cameras and televisions. Who among those alive back then didn’t amass a collection of, episodes of, and collections of? My music promo compilations – laboriously culled from programs like’sand’s, and’sand(and interspersed with selected) remained among my prize collections for many years.likewere introduced to the market in 1999 but were slow to catch on. By 2006 were still only present in 1.2% of households.And, as withvs, there are still thousands (maybe millions if you consider porn) of films that have never been released on digital formats – classics like(1986) and(1979) (which, of course, can both easily be watched online as can most others). Finally, if it weren’t for VHS, there would probably be no, no, and no, and no...noandhit the markets in 2006, pleasing people who felt that the problem with movies was that their resolution wasn't high enough -- but far more ground-breaking and detrimental to the popularity all physical was theand the launch ofandin 2005. Although in their early days, shared video content was regularly taken down as quickly as it was put up, over time they and other video-sharing websites were part of the rise of online streaming. In 2006, advertising-supported free porn hosting service websites based on the YouTube appeared.In 2006 thefilmwas the last “Hollywood” film to be released on VHS. In 2008, JVC produced its last standalone VHS VCR. Then, signaling that there was at least nostalgia for the format, promo copies of the independent(2009) were released on VHS to giddy response. So how about it Cassette Store Day people? Maybe next year exclusive video cassette releases!