The demise of the VCR

The BBC is running a story called Death of video recorder in sight which seems to be getting mentioned a lot on their news and radio programmes. It turns out that Dixons (the UK's biggest electrical retailer) is to stop selling VCRs, and they expect existing stocks to run out around Christmas time.

John Mewett, marketing director at Dixons, said: "We're saying goodbye to one of the most important products in the history of consumer technology. The video recorder has been with us for a generation and many of us have grown up with the joys and the occasional frustrations of tape-based recording. We are now entering the digital age and the new DVD technology available represents a step change in picture quality and convenience."

Rather strangely, the article on the web site talks about DVDs replacing VCRs, with no mention of a recordable medium, although Radio did cover PVRs and recordable DVD players in their article.