Hollywood (CA) - High definition discs became the second most popular video medium in the first half of 2007, officially overtaking legacy format VHS.

According to a research piece from trade publication Video Business, sales of Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs combined in the first half of 2007 beat VHS.  During the last six months of 2006, the now-archaic format was still edging out the high definition newcomers.

By 2005, VHS's market share in the home video market had fallen to around 15%, and has continued to fall ever since.  Blu-ray and HD DVD overtaking the dying format was more or less expected, but through the end of 2006 the high-def competitors were still behind.

With the highly contentious battle between Blu-ray, fronted by Sony, and HD DVD, backed mainly by Toshiba and Universal, there was mounting concern that wary consumers would back off of both until a winner was decided.

However, both formats have already made significant marks in the home video market.  Blu-ray's Casino Royale reached 100,000 units shipped in March, beating the 11 months it took DVD to reach that milestone.  Meanwhile, HD DVD took a hold with the first high definition disc box set to be on Amazon.com's list of top five DVDs with the documentary series Planet Earth.

Warner's short-titled "300" is the most recent newsmaker, selling 250,000 copies on Blu-ray and HD DVD in a single week.

It's still a long way before the two formats really begin to chip into DVD, though.  By comparison, over five million copies of the DVD version of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest were sold in its first 24 hours.

vhs

Aug 09, 2007 13:25     

Vhs is still around? Roflmfao
me report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Behold!

Aug 09, 2007 14:26     

Behold the power of People Who Are Resistant To Changes In Technology! The PWARTCIT will defeat all of your fancy-shmancy new-fangled technology and return VHS and 8-track tapes to their rightful positions as the entertainment media of choice for everyone! Seriously, though, WTF? Who the hell is buying VHS tapes now?
Andrew report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

re: vhs

Aug 09, 2007 14:42     

Hey, old people still watch movies too! :P
al report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

.......

Aug 09, 2007 14:50     

who still buys VHS? And is this really something worth bragging about? "Hey we beat out sales of a 30 year old format, Woopeee!!!"
... report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Are you serious?

Aug 09, 2007 15:49     

Who the hell still buys VHS? Hell the local retail stores around here (bestbuy, CC, etc) doesn't even stock them.
Adam report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

VHS Dead a Decade ago

Aug 09, 2007 18:00     

I'm 44 yrs. Old, my Dad stopped buying VHS over 7 years ago. Who in there right mind would even consider a VHS tape today???? I say fine any retailer $ 50.00 for every VHS tape they have in stock.
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VHS still has a niche...

Aug 09, 2007 18:02     

Owners of Minivans/SUVs made before ~2003. Car entertainment systems have been factory options since, I believe, the 1997 model year. DVD players really didn't beat the price of VCPs (not VCRs) until like 2003, so car manufacturers didn't offer DVD-based entertainment systems until fairly recently... Think about it, most people wouldn't rewire their 120,000-mile 1999 Chevy Venture minivan's entertainment system so the kids can watch DVDs on the 7" screen--they'd just stick with buying VHS tapes.

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Rumor

Aug 09, 2007 20:00     

I heard a nasty rumor that dvd, hddvd, and blueray have beaten out 8mm film reels! Say it ain't so. What am I supposed to do without super hot bulps, vacuum tubes, and the satisfying sound of film hitting the floor:) Big news here.
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I still use it

Aug 09, 2007 20:46     

Why pay bundles of money for essentially the same thing, but storing it on a hard drive rather than a VHS tape. Still have mine, still use it for recording shows. Works good transferring to my computer too. :/ It's long from a dead format, unless you've got the cash to buy stuff you don't need or can do cheaper.
Will report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

ROFLAMO!!!

Aug 09, 2007 21:46     

What a hollow victory when your million dollar R&D project beat the dead medium that everyone forgot! VHS? Really? I seriously didn't know that it was still being sold _and_ tracked! And now that I think about it, I can't even recall seeing a VHS for sale in the last 3 years.
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VHS niches

Aug 09, 2007 23:23     

I still buy VHS tapes for my 4 kids who are all between 2 and 8 y/o. We are always throwing away scratched and broken DVD's, but the VHS tapes take a beating. This is a serious problem with DVD's and kids! And what 2 or 4 y/o cares about quality?
Terry Shepherd report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

What about VCD's? :D

Aug 10, 2007 06:13     

Yeah, what about'em? Also: I guess it is not possible to beat DVD's until they start to dumb down DVD versions of the movies, to the point they would make the images blurry on purpose so they can boars how good the blue ray version is! But they won't dare to do it until hd sets penetrate the market a lot more than this. To be frank, while the picture quality of HD video is so good, I find the quality of DVD fairly sufficient. Also, the difference is not all that much until people can afford 1080p sets. 720p is indeed visibly better than SD video, but not by a great margin.

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HD IS much better than DVD

Aug 10, 2007 10:06     

In order to get a decent picture quality, you need an HDTV, if you use a SD TV, of course you won't notice much difference with an HD device ;) The only way to make a dvd look good on a HDTV is a decent upscaler or use your PC with ffdshow to do the upscaling, and it won't beat a real HD source, not even on a 720p HDTV (I've got one and I tested that a lot) BTW, 720p res is 1368x768, a lot more than DVD's res, which is 720x480

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RE: HD IS much better than DVD

Aug 10, 2007 13:01     

Thank you Captain Obvious
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720p = 1280 x 720 != 1368 x768

Aug 10, 2007 13:20     

your screen would have to stretch the image to use every pixel.
EU critic report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I still like VHS

Aug 10, 2007 22:30     

DVD and HD-DVD/Blue-Ray look too dark. It also looks like a blue or green filter has been applying, making the whole affair look depressing. In contrast VHS seemed brighter, more colorful. I don't care about the resolution - VHS works differently to digital and it is easier on my eyes.
William report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Yet another format

Aug 10, 2007 22:34     

I still prefer Mini-DV to these formats, because it's cheaper and you can edit it with relative ease. These new formats cost the earth as far as media is concerned, and will not doubt be replaced pretty soon. With a DV tape you have fantastic quality that can be recorded 'down' to other formats.
William report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

what studio

Aug 10, 2007 22:42     

what studio still produces VHS? None that I am aware of. The last studio title was released like November 2006. Are these Dollar Store leftovers that are being tracked?? www.cooltidbits.net
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Re: I still like VHS

Aug 14, 2007 02:09     

"DVD and HD-DVD/Blue-Ray look too dark. It also looks like a blue or green filter has been applying, making the whole affair look depressing." VHS had color? I thought all those old tapes were in black and white. :) What kind of TV do you have? What Kind of player? From my experience, the first blue ray movies had great sound but lousy picture. They got better fast. As to the picture being green and dark, where you watching The Matrix?

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Blu-Ray = Betamax

Aug 23, 2007 20:01     

'nuff said.
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Disk Drives Are Obsolete Already

Aug 24, 2007 19:25     

Just wait about three years when the next form of memory comes out. High capacity scalable random access memory is the new wave. It's not like optical media can be rewritten nearly as many times as non volatile flash memory anyways. Just check the development of NAND memory by Samsung or Adtron and you will see where things will evolve. If any one of you out there are worried about price let's just say that keeps creeping down exponentially.

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Re: Re: I still like VHS

Aug 29, 2007 18:29     

"VHS had color? I thought all those old tapes were in black and white. :) " Are you like 7 years old? I mean VHS lost it's status in 2000. And did you know that there was color movies, videos after 1960s ?
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