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The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard developed by Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) and launched in Europe and Asia in September 1976, and the United States in June 1977.
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Encyclopedia
The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard developed by Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) and launched in Europe and Asia in September 1976, and the United States in June 1977. By the 1990s, VHS became a standard format for consumer recording and viewing, after competing in a fierce format war with Sony's Betamax and, to much lesser extents, Philips' Video 2000, MCA's Laserdisc and RCA's Capacitance Electronic Disc.
VHS initially offered a longer playing time than the Betamax system, and it also had the advantage of a far less complex tape transport mechanism. Although VHS and Betamax were competing formats, several of VHS's critical technologies are licensed from Sony. Early VHS machines could rewind and fast forward the tape considerably faster than a Betamax VCR because they unthreaded the tape from the playback heads before commencing any high-speed winding. Most newer VHS machines do not perform this unthreading step, as head-tape contact is no longer an impediment to fast winding, owing to improved engineering.
DVD rentals surpassed VHS rentals in the US in 2003, surprising some industry officials. By 2006, most major film studios stopped releasing new movie titles in VHS format, opting for DVD-only releases. Many leading retailers have stopped selling pre-recorded movies on VHS, although VHS pre-recorded cassettes are still popular with many collectors, mainly because there are thousands of titles that are still unavailable on DVD or other newer formats. In developing countries, the VHS is still a major medium to distribute home video. On December 23, 2008, the last major supplier of pre-recorded VHS tapes, Distribution Video Audio Inc. of Palm Harbor, Florida, shipped its final truckload.
Technical details
The VHS cassette is a 7?" wide, 4" deep, 1" thick (187 mm × 103 mm × 25 mm) plastic clamshell held together with 5 Philips head screws. The flip-up cover that protects the tape has a built-in latch with a push-in toggle on the right side, as seen in the Bottom View. The VHS cassette also includes an anti-despooling mechanism as seen in the Top View, several plastic parts near front label end of the cassette between the two spools. The spool brakes are released by a push-in lever within a 1/4" hole accessed from the bottom of the cassette, about 3/4" in from the edge label. There is a clear tape leader at both ends of the tape to provide an optical auto-stop for the VCR transport mechanism.
The recording medium is a ½ inch (12.7 mm) wide magnetic tape wound between two spools, allowing it to be slowly passed over the various playback and recording heads of the video cassette recorder. The tape speed is 3.335 cm/s for NTSC, 2.339 cm/s for PAL. A cassette holds a maximum of about 430 m of tape at the lowest acceptable tape thickness, giving a maximum playing time of about 3.5 hours for NTSC and 5 hours for PAL at "standard" (SP) quality. Other speeds include LP and EP/SLP which double and triple the recording time, for NTSC regions. These speed reductions cause a slight reduction in video quality (from 250 lines to 230 lines horizontal); also, tapes recorded at the lower speed often exhibit poor playback performance on recorders other than the one they were produced on. Because of this, commercial prerecorded tapes were almost always recorded in SP mode.
As with almost all cassette-based videotape systems, VHS machines pull the tape from the cassette shell and wrap it around the head drum. VHS machines, in contrast to Betamax and Beta's predecessor U-matic, use an M-loading system, also known as M-lacing, where the tape is drawn out by two threading posts and wrapped around the head drum (and other tape transport components) in a shape roughly approximating the letter M.
VHS tapes have approximately 3 MHz of video bandwidth, which is achieved at a relatively low tape speed by the use of helical scan recording of a frequency modulated luminance (black and white) signal, with a down-converted "color under" chroma (color) signal recorded directly at the baseband. Because VHS is an analog system, VHS tapes represent video as a continuous stream of waves, in a manner similar to analog TV broadcasts. The waveform per scan-line can reach about 160 waves at max, and contains 525 scan-lines in NTSC (486 visible), or 625 lines in PAL (576 visible). In modern-day digital terminology, VHS is roughly equivalent to 320 pixels of horizontal resolution with a signal-to-noise ratio of the image at 43 dB.
JVC would counter 1985's SuperBeta with VHS HQ, or High Quality. The frequency modulation of the VHS luminance signal is limited to 3.1 megahertz which makes higher resolutions impossible, but an HQ branded deck includes luminance noise reduction, chroma noise reduction, white clip extension, and improved sharpness circuitry. The effect was to increase the apparent horizontal resolution of a VHS recording from 240 to 250 lines. The major VHS OEMs resisted HQ due to cost concerns, eventually resulting in JVC reducing the requirements for the HQ brand to white clip extension plus one other improvement.
In 1987 JVC introduced the new format called Super VHS which extended the bandwidth to over 5 megahertz, yielding 420 lines horizontal (equivalent to 560x486 in digital terminology). For comparison DVD is 540 lines (720 pixels) horizonal. The chroma resolution remained the same at approximately 0.6 megahertz bandwidth or 30 lines horizontal, as was common across analog tape standards from Umatic to VHS to ED Betamax. Even a live NTSC broadcast is limited to 120 chroma lines maximum. (For comparison DVD is 240 chroma horizontal.)
Audio Upgrade from Lo-Fi Monaural to Hi-Fi Stereo
In the original VHS format, audio was recorded as a baseband (unmodulated) in a single linear track, at the upper edge of the tape. The recorded frequency-range was dependent on the movement of the tape past the audiohead, which for the VHS SP mode, resulted in a mediocre frequency response of roughly 100 Hz to 10 kHz. The signal-to-noise ratio was an acceptable 42 dB. Both parameters degraded significantly with VHS's longer play modes, with EP frequency response peaking at 4kHz.
More expensive decks offered stereo audio recording and playback. Linear stereo, as it was called, fit two independent channels in the same space as the original mono audiotrack. While this approach preserved acceptable backward compatibility with monoaural audioheads, the splitting of the audiotrack degraded the signal's SNR to the point that audible tape-hiss was objectionable at normal listening volume. To counteract tape-hiss, decks applied Dolby B noise-reduction for recording and playback. Dolby B dynamically boosts the mid-frequency band of the audioprogram on the recorded medium, improving its signal strength relative to the tape's background noise floor, then attenuates the mid-band during playback. Dolby B is not a transparent process, and Dolby-encoded program material will exhibit an unnatural mid-range emphasis when played on non-dolby capable VCRs.
High-end consumer recorders took advantage of the linear-nature of the audiotrack, as the audiotrack could be erased and recorded without disturbing the video-portion of the recorded signal. Hence, "audio dubbing" and "video dubbing", where either the audio or video are re-recorded on tape (without disturbing the other), were supported features on prosumer editing-decks. Without dubbing capability, an audio or video edit could not be done in-place on master cassette, and requires the editing output be captured to another tape, incurring generational loss.
Studio film releases began to emerge with linear-stereo audiotracks in 1982. From that point onward nearly every home-video releases by Hollywood featured a Dolby-encoded linear-stereo audiotrack. However, linear-stereo was never popular with equipment makers or consumers.
Around 1985, JVC added HiFi audio to VHS (in response to Betamax's introduction of Beta Hi-Fi.) Both VHS HiFi and Betamax HiFi delivered flat full-range frequency-response (20 Hz to 20 kHz), excellent 70 dB S/N ratio (in consumer space, second only to the audio compact-disc), and studio-grade channel-separation (more than 70dB.) This method of VCR audio, known as audio frequency modulation (AFM), recorded each of the 2 stereo channels (L, R) on a frequency-modulated carrier, embedding the modulated audio-signal pair into the video-signal. To avoid crosstalk and interference from the primary video-carrier, VHS's implementation of AFM relied on a form of magnetic recording called depth multiplexing. The modulated-audio carrier pair was placed under the luminance carrier (below <1.6MHz), and recorded first. Subsequently, the video-head erases and re-records the video-signal over the same tape-surface, but video-signal's higher center-frequency results in a shallower magnetization of the tape, allowing both the video and residual AFM-audio signal to coexist on tape. (PAL versions of Beta HiFi use this same technique.) During playback, VHS HiFi recovers the depth-recorded AFM-signal by subtracting the audiohead's signal (which contains the AFM-signal contaminated by a weak image of the video-signal) from the videohead's signal (which contains only the video-signal), then demodulates the left and right audio-channels from their respective frequency-carriers. The end result of the complex process was audio of outstanding fidelity, which was uniformly solid across all tape-speeds (EP or SP.) Since JVC had gone through the complexity of ensuring HiFi's backward compatibility with non-HiFi VCRs, virtually all studio home-video releases contained HiFi audiotracks (in addition to linear-stereo.)
The sound quality of HiFi VHS stereo was, for most listeners, nearly or totally indistinguishable from the quality of a CD, particularly when recordings were made on prosumer VHS machines that had a manual audio recording level control. This very high quality attracted the attention of amateur and hobbyist recording artists. Home recording enthusiasts occasionally recorded high-quality stereo mixdowns and master recordings from multitrack audio tape onto consumer-level HiFi VCRs. However, because the VHS HiFi recording-process is intertwined with the VCR's video-recording function, advanced editing functions such as audio-only or video-only dubbing are impossible. Some VHS decks also had a "simulcast" switch, allowing users to record an external audio input along with off-air pictures. Some televised concerts offered a stereo simulcast soundtrack on FM radio and as such, events like Live Aid were recorded by thousands of people with a full stereo soundtrack despite the fact that stereo TV broadcasts were some years off.
The considerable complexity and additional hardware limited VHS HiFi to high-end decks for many years. While linear-stereo all but disappeared from home VHS decks, it was not until the 1990s that HiFi became a standard feature on VHS decks. Even then, most customers were unaware of its significance and merely enjoyed the better audio performance of the newer decks.
Tracking adjustment and index marking
Another linear control track, at the tape's lower edge, holds pulses that mark the beginning of every frame of video; these are used to fine-tune the tape speed during playback and to get the rotating heads exactly on their helical tracks rather than having them end up somewhere between two adjacent tracks (a feature called tracking). Since good tracking depends on the exact distance between the rotating drum and the fixed control/audio head reading the linear tracks, which usually varies by a couple of micrometers between machines due to manufacturing tolerances, most VCRs offer tracking adjustment, either manual or automatic, to correct such mismatches. The control can additionally hold index marks. These are normally written at the beginning of each recording session, and can be found using the VCR's index search function: this will fast-wind forward or backward to the nth specified index mark, and resume playback from there. There was a time when higher-end VCRs provided functions for manually removing and adding these index marks — so that, for example, they coincide with the actual start of the program — but this feature has become hard to find in recent models.
Comparison to other video formats
Below is a list of modern-day, digital-style measurements (and traditional analog TV lines per picture height) for various media. The list only includes popular formats, not rare formats, and all values are approximate since the actual quality can vary machine-to-machine or tape-to-tape. For ease-of-comparison all values are for the NTSC system, and listed in ascending order from lowest quality to highest quality. (For PAL systems, replace "480" with "576".)
- 350×240 (250 lines): Video CD
- 330×480 (250 lines): Umatic, Betamax, VHS, Video8
- 400×480 (300 lines): Super Betamax, Betacam (professional)
- 440×480 (330 lines): Analog Broadcast
- 560×480 (420 lines): LaserDisc, Super VHS, Hi8
- 670×480 (500 lines): Enhanced Definition Betamax
- 720×480 (520 lines): NTSC DVD, NTSC MiniDV, Digital8, Digital Betacam (professional)
- 720×480 (400 lines): Widescreen DVD (anamorphic)
- 1280×720 (720 lines): AVCHD, Blu-ray Disc, D-VHS, HD DVD, HDV
- 1440×1080 (810 lines): AVCHD, HDCAM (professional), HDV, XDCAM HD (professional), PAL DVCPro HD (professional)
- 1920×1080 (1080 lines): AVCHD, Blu-ray Disc, D-VHS, HDCAM SR (professional), HD DVD, XDCAM EX, XDCAM HD 4:2:2
Variations
Super-VHS / Digital-VHS (high-definition) / ADAT
Several improved versions of VHS exist, most notably Super-VHS (S-VHS), an analog video standard with improved video bandwidth. S-VHS improved the luminance resolution to 400 horizontal per picture height (versus 250 for VHS/Beta and 500 for DVD). The audio-system (both linear and AFM) is the same. S-VHS made little impact on the home market, but gained dominance in the camcorder market due to its superior picture quality.
The ADAT format provides the ability to record digital audio using S-VHS media.
The other improved standard, called Digital-VHS (D-VHS), records digital high definition video onto a VHS form factor tape. D-VHS can record up to 4 hours of ATSC Digital Television in 720p or 1080i formats using the fastest record mode (equivalent to VHS-SP), and up to 40 hours of standard definition video at slower speeds.
VHS-C / Super-VHS-C
Another variant is VHS-Compact (VHS-C), originally developed for portable VCRs in 1982, but ultimately finding success in palm-sized camcorders. Since VHS-C tapes are based on the same magnetic tape as full size tapes, they can be played back in standard VHS players using a mechanical adapter, without the need of any kind of signal conversion. The magnetic tape on VHS-C cassettes is wound on one main spool and uses a gear wheel to advance the tape; the longest tape available holds 40 minutes in SP mode and 120 minutes in EP mode.
Sony Betamax was unable to shrink that form any further, so instead they developed Video8/Hi8 which was in direct competition with the VHS-C/S-VHS-C format throughout the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Ultimately neither format "won" and both continue to be sold in the low-end market (examples: JVC SXM38 and Sony TRV138). Super VHS-C camera recordings can be played back in standard VHS VCRs with SVHS-ET technology.
Use as PC backup devices
Devices have also been invented which directly connect a personal computer to VHS tape recorders for use as a data backup device. Most notable of these devices was ArVid, widely used in Russia and CIS states. Also available in the United States were similar systems manufactured by Corvus, Videotrax, and Alpha Microsystems. Also available was Backer from Danmere Ltd. of England.
Also HP develops a backup system that uses VHS tapes and stores 5 GB in every tape.
W-VHS
W-VHS caters for analog high definition video. Discontinued and replaced by D-VHS.
D9
There is also a JVC-designed component digital professional production format known as Digital-S, or officially under the name D9, that uses a VHS form factor tape and essentially the same mechanical tape handling techniques as an S-VHS recorder. This format is the least expensive format to support a pre-read edit. This format is most notably used by Fox for some of its cable networks.
Signal standards
VHS can record and play back all varieties of analog television signals in existence at the time VHS was devised. However, a machine must be designed to record a given standard. Typically, a VHS machine can only handle signals of the country it was sold in. The following signal varieties exist in conventional VHS:
- SECAM/625/25 (SECAM, French variety)
- MESECAM/625/25 (most other SECAM countries, notably the former Soviet Union and Middle East)
- NTSC/525/30 (Most parts of North and South America, Japan, South Korea)
- PAL/525/30 (i.e., PAL-M, Brazil)
- PAL/576/25 (most of Western Europe, Australia, many parts of Asia such as China and India, some parts of South America such as Argentina and Uruguay, and Africa)
Since the 1990s, dual- and multi-standard VHS machines have become more and more common. These can handle VHS tapes of more than one standard. For example, regular VHS machines sold in Australia and Europe nowadays can typically handle PAL, MESECAM for record and playback, plus NTSC for playback only. Dedicated multistandard machines can usually handle all standards listed, some high end model can even convert a tape from one standard to another by using a built-in standards converter.
S-VHS only exists in PAL/625/25 and NTSC/525/30. S-VHS machines sold in SECAM markets record internally in PAL, and convert to/from SECAM during record/playback, respectively. Likewise, S-VHS machines for the Brazilian market record in NTSC and convert to/from PAL-M.
A small number of VHS decks are able to decode closed captions on pre-recorded video cassettes. A smaller number still are able, additionally, to record subtitles transmitted with world standard teletext signals (on pre-digital services), simultaneously with the associated program.
Tape lengths
Both NTSC and PAL/SECAM VHS cassettes are physically identical (although the signals recorded on the tape are incompatible). However, as tape speeds differ between NTSC and PAL/SECAM, the playing time for any given cassette will vary accordingly between the systems.
In order to avoid confusion, manufacturers indicate the playing time in minutes that can be expected for the market the tape is sold in. It is perfectly possible to record and play back a blank T-XXX tape in a PAL machine or a blank E-XXX tape in an NTSC machine, but the resulting playing time will be different from that indicated. SP is Standard Play and LP is Long Play at 1/2 speed for both NTSC and PAL regions. EP/SLP designates Extended Play/Super Long Play at 1/3rd speed for NTSC regions. (PAL does not have an EP speed.)
- E-XXX indicates playing time in minutes for PAL or SECAM in SP speed.
- T-XXX indicates playing time in minutes for NTSC or PAL-M in SP speed.
Common Tape Lengths in minutes (hours) | Tape Label | Tape Length | Rec. Time (NTSC) | Rec. Time (PAL) |
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| ft | m | SP | LP | EP/SLP | SP | LP |
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| T-120 | 812 | 247.5 | 120 min (2 h) | 240 min (4h) | 360 min (6h) | 169 min (2:49 h) | 338 min (5:38 h) |
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| T-180 | 1210 | 368.8 | 180 min (3 h) | 360 min (6 h) | 540 min (9 h) | 253 min (4:13 h) | 507 min (8:27 h) |
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| T-210 (rare) | 1421 | 433.1 | 210 min (3:30 h) | 420 min (7 h) | 630 min (10:30 h) | 294 min (4:56 h) | 592 min (9:52 h) |
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| DF480 (T-240 equiv) | 1624 | 495.0 | 240 min (4 h) | 480 min (8 h) | 720 min (12 h) | 340 min (5:40 h) | 680 min (11:20 h) |
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| E-120 | 570 | 173.7 | 83 min (1:26 h) | 172 min (2:52 h) | 258 min (4:18 h) | 120 min (2 h) | 240 min (4 h) |
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| E-180 | 851 | 259.4 | 129 min (2:09 h) | 258 min (4:18 h) | 387 min (6:27 h) | 180 min (3 h) | 360 min (6 h) |
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| E-240 | 1142 | 348.1 | 173 min (2:53 h) | 346 min (5:46 h) | 519 min (8:39 h) | 240 min (4 h) | 480 min (8 h) |
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VHS vs. Betamax
VHS was the winner of a protracted and somewhat bitter format war during the late 1970s and early 1980s against Sony's Betamax format.
Betamax was widely perceived at the time as the better format, as it offered a slightly higher horizontal resolution (250 lines vs. 240 lines in PAL & NTSC), lower video noise, and less luma-chroma crosstalk than VHS, and was marketed as providing pictures superior to VHS's, however the introduction of B-II speed (2-hour mode) to compete with VHS's 2-hour Standard Play mode, reduced Betamax's horizontal resolution to 240 lines. The extension of VHS to VHS HQ produced 250 lines, so that overall a Betamax/VHS user could expect virtually identical luminance and chrominance resolution (~30 lines across), wherein the actual picture performance depended on other factors, including the condition and quality of the videotape, and the specific video recorder machine model.
Betamax held an early lead in the format war — but by 1981, U.S. Betamax sales had sunk to only 25% of all sales. VHS was gaining market share due to its longer tape time (in 1981, 9 hours maximum, compared to just 4 hours for Betamax in USA) and JVC's less strict licensing program. The longer tape time is sometimes cited as the defining factor in the format war, allowing consumers to record entire programs unattended (recording time between VHS and Betamax were similar in areas where VHS entered the market several years after introduction, such as the UK in 1978). Sony ultimately conceded the fight in 1988, bringing out a line of VHS VCRs of its own.
The format war and the "marketing over technology" claims have taken on a life of their own, and continue to be used as analogies in battles within the computer industry, including Apple vs. IBM, Macintosh vs. PC, and HD DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc. Other formats such as 8 mm video cassettes and MiniDV have emerged since the post-battle era, although these formats did little to erase VHS dominance in the home.
Both VHS and Betamax manufacturers created professional video formats built around the same cassette shells. The professional derivatives of VHS were M and then MII whereas the professional derivative of Betamax was Betacam which has gone on to spawn digital variants. In a complete reversal of the domestic VHS-Betamax battle, in the professional arena the Beta format has been hugely successful, and the VHS derived formats became obsolete. Occasionally this causes some confusion, in that people believe that Betacam is a professional studio version of Betamax. In reality Betacam is only superficially similar. Although the tapes used may look the same, and the first generation Betacam tapes could be used for recording in Betamax machines, in Betacam they are run at a much higher linear speed, and the recording system is completely different. The same applied to the VHS based-professional formats.
Slow Decline of VHS
The VHS VCR was a mainstay in the TV-equipped living room for more than a decade, but was replaced by newer technologies. For time-shifting (off the air or cable/satellite taping), hard-drive based DVRs have replaced the VCR as the time-shifting device of choice, especially in households with subscriber-based TV-services. The home camcorder market, one which VHS shared with alternative formats, has already transitioned to digital-video recording. But the largest blow to VHS was the March 1997 introduction of the DVD format to American consumers. For home-video (that is, pre-recorded commercially-released movies, etc.) rental and sales, DVD has completely taken the place of VHS.
At most electronics retailers, choice among VHS equipment is increasingly shrinking. Sales are focused on DVD-recorders and subscriber-based DVRs (such as TiVo). Most electronics chains have stopped stocking VHS home-video releases, focusing only on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc technology. Major Hollywood studios no longer issue releases on VHS.
The last standalone JVC VHS unit was produced in 2008. The final major Hollywood motion picture released on VHS was David Cronenberg's A History of Violence.
Although VHS has quickly faded from mainstream home-video, the VCR is still used in many US households. The Washington Post noted that as of 2005, 94.5 million Americans still owned VHS format VCRs. Usable VHS equipment can still be purchased secondhand from auction-sites and used equipment dealers. Likewise, home-video VHS tapes can still be found in many second-hand shops, and are sometimes very cheap due to the lack of demand.
In December 2008, the final truckload in the USA of home-video VHS tapes rolled out of a warehouse owned by Ryan Kugler, the last major supplier of those tapes. Kugler is President and co-owner Distribution Video Audio, a seller of distressed goods such as VHS tapes. According to Kugler, "It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt. I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away."
Optical disc-based technologies
The DVD-Video format was introduced first, in 1996, in Japan, to the United States in March 1997 (Test Marketed) and mid-late 1998 in Europe and Australia.
Despite DVD's better quality (up to 576 lines versus 250 lines horizontal resolution), VHS is still widely used in home recording of television programs, due to the large installed base and the lower cost of VHS recorders and tape. The commercial success of DVD recording and re-writing has been hindered by a number of factors including:
- A reputation for being temperamental and occasionally unreliable, as well as the risk caused by scratches and hairline cracks.
- Incompatibilities in playing discs recorded on a different manufacturer's machine to that of the original recording machine.
- Shorter recording time: Up to 6 hours on a single-layer disc (with high compression) versus 10.5 (NTSC) or 10 (PAL/SECAM) hours on a T-210 VHS-EP tape (although newer machines can now record to 10 hours or more on a disc).
High-capacity digital recording technologies
High-capacity digital recording systems are also gaining in popularity with home users. These types of systems come in several form factors:
Hard disk-based systems include TiVo as well as other digital video recorder (DVR) offerings. These types of systems provide users with a no-maintenance solution for capturing video content. Customers of subscriber-based TV generally receive electronic program guides, enabling one-touch setup of a recording schedule. Hard disk-based systems allow for many hours of recording without user-maintenance. For example, a 120 GB system recording at an extended recording rate (XP) of 9,800 kbit/s MPEG-2 can record over 25 hours of video content. VHS and other removable-storage require physical management of the media, if the viewer's recording-schedule exceeds the media's capacity, as it often does. Just like VHS, DVD-recorders technologies still rely on tangibles, such as blank discs.
PC-based media centers serve a niche but growing market in the homes of tech-savvy users. A media center can not only handle the timeshifting duties of a DVR set-top box, and a DVD/Blu-ray Disc player, but also as a home library. A media center is attractive to technical-savvy consumers who are looking for special functionality not found in a pre-boxed DVR.
VHS in popular culture
- Toei produced a motion picture called Hi wa Mata Noboru (2002), starring Toshiyuki Nishida. Toshiyuki plays the role of Shizuo Kagaya, the head of the video department at Victor. In the process of developing a home VCR, he basically invents VHS. Although the movie is based on a true story, it was produced purely for entertainment and not as a documentary, which explains some of the over-dramatizations of its characters and events. Several important events are covered, such as the unification of VCR standards by Japan's Ministry of Trade, who favored Sony's Betamax format, and the importance in Victor bringing Matsushita on-board as a partner to build VHS units.
- In the 1987 film Spaceballs, a library of VHS tapes is browsed for a copy of the film, which is in a process called "instant cassettes" ("They're in stores before the movie is finished!") by Lord Dark Helmet to discover the location of the heroes. They then fast forward through earlier parts of the tape (which include the traditional FBI warning displayed at the very beginning of the tape), then upon witnessing themselves at that exact moment in time, go into a ridiculous and redundant question-and-answer session on "Now" before fast forwarding to finding the heroes' location.
- The finishing track of Radiohead's 2007 album "In Rainbows", Videotape, concerns its usage in recording memories.
- The 2008 film Be Kind Rewind concerns a video rental store employee (Mos Def) who finds that his friend (Jack Black) has accidentally wiped all the video cassettes in the store (which is losing business due to its obsolete format), and they resort to acting out the films in front of a video camera to avoid disappointing customers. The film features many references to the format, and even includes a VHS tape on one of the posters.
- The plot of the 2002 film The Ring, (Ringu in Japan), revolved around a homemade VHS tape that, when watched, would kill anyone seven days later.
- In the 1983 film Videodrome, the main character Max Renn suffers a body mutation where his chest turns into an entrance to VHS tapes, which control him to do tasks such as kill people.
External links
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- by Marc Wielage & Rod Woodcock
- covering the history of VHS and other vintage formats
- Tracking the death of the VHS format
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