The last VCR manufacturer in Japan will close shop next month
OREANDA-NEWS. July 22, 2016. When Sony announced plans to end production of Betamax videocassettes last year, we knew that VHS tapes would eventually succumb to the same fate, and now the 33-year-old format is officially dust.
According to a report in the Nikkei newspaper, the last remaining Japanese manufacturer of video-cassette recorders will finally close down operations next month.
Funai Electric has been making VCRs for larger companies like Sanyo since 1983 and sold 15 million units a year at the height of the media format's popularity.
Those numbers have been in steady decline over the last few decades, punctuated by the introduction of DVDs in 1997 and more recently, streaming Internet video services like Netflix and Hulu.
With only 750,000 VCRs sold last year, the demand is so minimal that Funai Electric has reportedly been struggling to source the smaller parts needed to build the players.
Be sure to check out our how-to video below if you've been seriously procrastinating on transferring your old VHS home movies to digital.
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