VCR technology has more than forty years on its shoulders, and despite several superior formats emerging, one manufacturer remained willing to defy the passage of time: Funai Electric. Finally, falling device sales and difficulties obtaining quality components have led Funai to decide to abandon VCR production after thirty uninterrupted years.
The last VCR that passed through my hands ended up dismantled to obtain the power supply and some motors, while in another article I mentioned that not a single VHS remained in my home. I also had my dose of nostalgia listening to music on cassette… which lasted less than half an hour, after the old audio equipment ate the tape and reminded me of those maintenance rituals we had to do.
Now, we all know that tape backups are highly valued in professional environments, and this description includes both radio and television channels as well as deep storage servers. However, what took us by surprise was discovering that there was still a manufacturer producing VHS-compatible VCRs. Betamax equipment met its end in 2002, but Sony stopped manufacturing tapes in November 2015. All this happened in Japan, and that’s where the news takes us.
The company’s name is Funai Electric, which holds licenses in the United States for brands like Magnavox, Sylvania, and Philips, and also makes Lexmark printers. The brief announcement was published by the Nikkei portal and it highlights that Funai was the last manufacturer commercializing said technology, after other electronics giants like Panasonic had stopped their production lines long ago. The main reason behind this decision appears to be the growing difficulty in obtaining appropriate components, and although there is mention of ever-decreasing sales volume, the truth is that in 2015 Funai sold 750,000 VCRs, a number much larger than we would have imagined.
Of course, that volume pales in comparison to the 15 million annually that Funai sold during the golden era of VHS. Another very curious detail is that the end of VCRs comes with the rise of VHS tapes as collectible material. There are reports of very rare movies, especially those belonging to the horror genre, already reaching four digits. Personally, I admit that VCRs are very complex devices and a fabulous demonstration of engineering... but the advantages of modern formats are too great. Between the humidity that ruined tapes and the struggle with tracking, I sincerely would not want to go back to that.
