Local FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015

Internet killed the star

By Nawara Fattahova

he world is changing at a rapid pace, Tand many things we liked or were A hunt for VHS cassette tapes in used to are being replaced with new- er and more modern innovations and technologies. One of these is the video recorder, which is considered obsolete Kuwait turns up dwindling options. these days. Nevertheless, a few people are still using this outdated technology, and watch movies, cartoons and other stuff on sold VHS tapes and video recorders are no which began to offer better quality than videocassettes. Video rental shops that longer selling them. An older electronics . The earliest of these formats, were wildly popular in the 1980s shut store in Salmiya had only four VHS video- LaserDisc, was not widely adopted. down a few years ago, but some enthusi- cassettes in stock. The salesman at this However, after the introduction of the asts are still holding on to videotapes. store told Kuwait Times that they stopped DVD format in 1997, the VHS market share Fans of this technology use video receiving this product a few years ago, began to decline. By 2008, DVD had recorders and tapes to record content although they were the agents of the most achieved mass acceptance and replaced from TV. Electronics stores all over Kuwait popular brand manufacturing this prod- VHS as the preferred method of distribu- used to sell these, but they don’t anymore. uct. tion. Even popular supermarkets and hardware The Friday Market in Rai that sells But even these discs are not much departments of co-ops used to have them, almost everything may have some stalls used anymore. Almost near each co-op, but no longer. So these users are now selling VCRs and videotapes, and some there used to by a guy selling of struggling to find blank VHS tapes. bazaars selling used items also sold them movies, plays and cartoons, but today until recently. Apart from these, some they are rarely to be seen. Ditto for roam- History individuals on social media are selling ing vendors carrying suitcases with DVDs, The Video Home System (VHS) is a stan- video recorders, but none of them have who once could be found almost every- dard for on videotapes. It mentioned selling videocassettes. where. Yet these discs are still available in was developed by Victor Company of Another option may be some of the few the market and DVD recorders are still Japan (JVC) in the 1970s. The first video- music shops around the city. sold, but we don’t know until when, as cassette recorder (VCR) to become avail- Replacement most people now watch everything able was the U-matic system, released in VHS was replaced by optical discs, online. Sept 1971. U-matic was designed for com- mercial or professional television produc- tion use, and was not affordable or user- friendly for home or . The first consumer-grade VCR to be released was the N1500 VCR format in 1972, followed in 1975 by ’s . This was quickly followed by the competing VHS (Video Home System) for- mat from JVC, and later by Video 2000 from Philips. Subsequently, the Betamax- VHS began in earnest. Sony stopped manufacturing Betamax tapes many years ago and announced that it will stop selling the remaining quantity by next year or earlier if stocks sell out. It already stopped manufacturing the recorders playing these tapes since 2002.

Where to find it Scouting various electronic stores around the city, it turned out that the biggest and most popular ones that once