Getty Images

Funai Electric, the last company in Japan to continue making video cassette recorders, has said it will stop making the devices this month.

Unsurprisingly, the company cited a general fall in demand as the reason behind the decision. While heyday years saw it sell up to 15 million, it sold around 750,000 last year, primarily into China and other markets in the Far East.


VHS' long-time format rival Betamax was put out to pasture by Sony last year in terms of shipping cassettes, despite no recorders being made for them in more than a decade by the company.

In all likelihood, much of the reason VHS and VCRs have survived this long is the nostalgia attached to both the format itself and its particular foibles, like its endearing (but ultimately awful) image quality and having to wait while the tape rewound. All problems you'll likely never have experienced if born after 1995 and the advent of the DVD.

If you do have a collection of old VHS' sitting in a corner of your basement, you'll need to take steps to protect them if you want them to remain usable.