End Of An Era: Final VCR To Be Manufactured This Month

The company which claims to be the world’s last VCR manufacturer, has announced they will make the final unit this month.

At one time, Japan’s Funai Electric, who began manufacturing video-cassette recorders in 1983, sold 15 million units a year. Besides lack of demand, the company says it is becoming increasingly difficult to find parts.

A Funai spokesperson said that customers have been the company and asking where they can find the last few products. VCRs for home use were introduced in the 1960s, gaining traction after Sony brought lower-priced models to market. Other Japanese manufacturers, including Panasonic, RCA, JVC and Toshiba, were also instrumental in developing the VCR. The electromechanical device records, stores, and plays back television programs using a magnetic tape cassette. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that home use of VCRs to record television didn’t constitute a violation of copyright law, paving the way for an explosion of the technology in American homes. For a time, a battle ensued between Sony’s Betamax and JVC’s VHS — both VCR tape formats — but VHS eventually won out. h/t cnn

In recent years, the VCR has been superseded by DVDs, Blu-ray, and most recently, internet streaming services.