The recent reports claiming that Wal*Mart would stop selling VHS tapes in their stores sparked some pretty interesting reactions, in spite of the fact that the corporate giant released a statement denying the news. The fact that the erroneous reports qualified as “news" on the day after the Micheal Jackson verdict, and Wal*Mart's rapid denial indicates that there's something important going on here. Sure, Wal*Mart was, in fact, not announcing the death of VHS. But it's going happen. Eventually.

Back when DVDs was first introduced, there was an almost overwhelming groan from the movie-buying public, fostered by an apparent sense of bewilderment. “Again?" consumers were reported to have said. Video-philes looked around at their bookcases full of tapes, imagining the effort and expense they would soon have to go through to acquire all of their favorite movies, starting over from scratch. Sure, they could keep watching their collections but, eventually, the VCR would break; a new one would have to be purchased. Would they still be available? Would they have to pick one up second hand? How much would that cost?

Well, that was almost ten years ago. And, while DVD rentals exceeded their VHS counter-parts two years ago, the damn things have managed to stick around. Price was certainly a factor in this, and in more ways than one. Because, even though DVD players managed to dip below the magic $300 mark that signals the mainstream availability of a consumer product, people still needed the good ol' VCR to record their favorite TV shows. That's starting to change as cheaper, stand-alone DVD recorders have been coming onto the market. So, finally, can't we just let the VHS tape die?

Some don't think so. Although they are probably a minority at this point, there are still people out there who are convinced that this whole DVD thing is a scam. Usually, they're the ones who had finally managed to track down the elusive last tape in the Mama's Family collection. Naturally, they believe, we've finally gotten all the tapes we wanted, and now they want us to buy them all again in a new format. No doubt that just when we've finished our DVD collections, they'll introduce a whole new thing. And why not? Avid music collectors spent the better part of the early 90's re-purchasing their favorite albums on CD, leading to some of the most successful years in the music industry's history.

Frankly, that's no longer a huge concern. Given the wide availability and relatively low cost of huge amounts of random access storage solutions, coupled with the dedicated attempts of cable and satellite companies to push on-demand video, it seems likely that the next new media format will be no format at all. But, apart from that, rather than being the cynical attempt fill the coffers of an ailing movie industry that they were intended to be, DVDs have managed to do some pretty amazing things.

First of all, our living room storage areas are thankful for the loss of those bulky, clunky cartridges. Box up the cases, grab a ten dollar CD wallet, and your DVDs can give you back several feet of previously unseen floor-space.

And the magic doesn't stop there. DVDs have brought back films once thought dead and buried. They have saved television shows from extinction. They let us look in on the once mysterious process of film making. Unlike the CD, which offered only a marginal increase in sound quality that failed to completely kill-off it's predecessors, DVDs deserve to wipe the VHS tape off the face of the Earth.

So, go ahead Wal*Mart, you corporate citizen you; go on and deny the denial. Free us all from the obsolete hangers-on of the past. Beat down the VHS format like you've done with the other 20th century hold-overs that have stood in your way.

-B. C. Silvia
-6/15/05