DVD players finally overtake VCRs in US

We can't remember the last time we even used a VCR (nor did we ever figure out how to program the clock on those blasted things), but apparently we (and probably you, too) are just a little ahead of the curve. According to a recent Nielsen study, there are finally more American households that have DVDs than have VCRs. Translated into statistics, that means that 81.2 percent of all households in the good ol' US of A have DVD players, surpassing the 79.2 percent that have VCRs. (We've got no idea how many of those are dual-use machines, however.) Nielsen's been tracking this trend since 1999, when only 6.7 percent of American households had DVD players; we take that to surely mean that by 2013 the six percent of people who have Blu-ray or HD DVD players currently will have finally settled on one of them newfangled hybrid devices that we're dying to get our hands on.

[Via PVR Wire]

[Wonderboy @ Dec 21st 2006 2:38PM]

I think the better statistic would compare VCRs to DVRs... At this point VCRs and DVDs aren't really used for the same thing. A lot of people have both and only keep the VCR around for recording TV (and for those - gasp - tapes they still have lying around... the horror).

Comparing DVRs to VCRs would much more accurately define the approaching obsolescence of the VCR...

Of course, once the US switches over to digital-only broadcasting instead of analog, I think you'll see that number of VCRs drop like a rock... that is, if the HDTV boom and DVR influx don't knock old faithful out first.

Oh, and one more thing... is this taking into account HTPCs? I, for one, don't have a stand-alone DVD player... just my PC hooked up to my HDTV. I do however have a VCR that I'm keeping around just long enough to transfer my parent's home videos to DVD, then it's going bye-bye. But the fact that I have a VCR and no DVD player doesn't accurately reflect my media usage tendencies since I have a DVD library of over 500 and not a single VCR tape.

[Andir3.0 @ Dec 21st 2006 2:56PM]

I finally removed my VCR from the cabinet a few months ago. I didn't even have it hooked up, but I had kept it there "in case" It's been over 5 years since I last used it.

[Adam @ Dec 21st 2006 2:56PM]

Does anyone know the model number of the pictured VCR? My uncle had one of those, circa 1980?

[Josh Kooistra @ Dec 21st 2006 3:08PM]

dvd? whats that? im not totaly sold on this whole vcr dvd thing. my beta player is still solid

[bazald @ Dec 21st 2006 3:35PM]

"apparently we (and probably you, too) are just a little ahead of the curve"
from
"According to a recent Nielsen study, there are finally more American households that have DVDs than have VCRs"?

While we probably /are/ ahead of the curve, following a gadget blog, I fail to see your logic.

[Nick @ Dec 21st 2006 4:08PM]

A couple of years ago I was working in the Sears electronics dept. while I was finishing college. At Christmas time we had a DVD player for $20... It was an el-crappo special but hey, it's a DVD player. The surprising thing was just down the aisle we had our VCRs (all three of them) ranging in price from $50 to $100!!! The entire time I worked at Sears (1.5 years) I think we sold less than 100 VCRs (and like 250 DVD players that one Christmas alone)

[moneill @ Dec 21st 2006 4:38PM]

Pretty crazy to hear that. I alone have over 50 DVDs in my house and only 1 VCR.

But really it seems strange to be comparing the number of DVDs to the number of VCRs.
Seems to me you should be comparing DVDs to VHS Cassettes or even DVD Players to VCRs.

Does anyone else well up with rage when they hear neophytes (particularly soccer moms in Dodge commercials) refer to a DVD PLAYER as a DVD (in which the final D stands for DISC).

No hateful offense, engadget, but seriously c'mon guys.

[Dave @ Dec 21st 2006 11:17PM]

I used to run a video store from 1990-1995, and kept about 400 of my tapes when I liquidated. Half of those have since been traded up to DVDs, but I still have a crapload of tapes containing movies that I like, but not enough to spend ten bucks on to upgrade.

I hope to record and store every single movie I own, VHS and DVD alike, onto a few TB drives over the next year, but it'll be a lot of work just to put all my old archaic eggs into one basket.

Maybe in 2010, with Firewire Ultra and TB Flash drives becoming commonplace, will I be able to finally get rid of both players and just use the "iTV" or whatever.

[Charles @ Dec 22nd 2006 12:12AM]

OMG, I must know the model of that Panasonic. So that's TWO of us that want to know, Adam.

I had one of those Panasonic VCRs that came with the set of service instructional tapes from Osborne Computer Company, around 1980 when I worked at an Osborne dealer and repair facility. I still have the tapes but not the player, and these tapes will not play in any modern VCR. There is some unique recording format in that particular Panasonic, it uses standard VHS cassettes so they load in any standard VHS machine, but the video playback fails. It's not S-VHS, it's something before that, they told me it was "Industrial VHS." But nobody, not even experts in "antique video," know how to play these tapes. The Osborne Tapes is historic documentation and I've spent years trying to recover it and transcode it to a modern format, so I can release the video free on the web, and donate the masters (plus a modern copy) to the Computer History Museum. That photo of the Panasonic VCR is as close as I've come to locating any info that would help me find a way to play the Osborne tapes. So you have got to get me a blow-up of that Panasonic VCR, or look at it and tell me the model number, and where you dug up that picture. It is the first lead I've seen in years that might help me resurrect my old videos.

[Chris Cooling @ Dec 22nd 2006 11:31AM]

Gosh these numbers seem really low and high at the same time. This study says in 1999 88.6% of households had VCRs. I thought it was higher.
Now it says 79.2 have VCRs, but how many people use them? I "have" a VCR, but I don't think I've turned it on in over six months. It's only use was to record programming I missed during the time right after I moved and no longer had my DVR.
Now I'm back in business with a HTPC that I use to record everything with, has a DVD burner and player.
Now that no movie studio releases movies on VHS, it's almost a moot point if households have VCRs with the exception of the households that use them to timeshift programming.

[jster23 @ Dec 29th 2006 5:16PM]

I still have my VCR and a dvd player
if you have no tivo
how r u going to tape a tv show or a movie on cable?

VCRs are awsome

[John McKenna @ Dec 5th 2007 3:10PM]

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