Editing VHS (section)

== Decline ==
[[File:Used VHSs at Rasputin Music (Fresno, CA).jpg|thumb|upright|A [[Rasputin Music]] retailer (Fresno, California) selling used VHS cassettes from 50¢ to $1.98 each (2019)]]
[[File:VHSs in Fig Garden Regional Library.jpg|thumb|upright|Fig Garden Regional Library, a branch of [[Fresno County Public Library]], is giving away their weeded VHS collections for free (2019).]]
VHS was widely used in [[television]]-equipped [[America]]n and [[European Union|European]] [[living room]]s for more than twenty years from its introduction in the late 1970s. The home television recording market, also known as the VHS market, as well as the camcorder market, has since transitioned to [[digital recording]] on solid-state [[memory cards]]. The introduction of the DVD format to American consumers in March 1997 triggered the market share decline of VHS.<ref name="wp-gonewiththerewind"/>

[[DVD]] rentals surpassed those on the VHS format in the United States for the first time in June 2003.<ref>{{cite news |title=It's unreel: DVD rentals overtake videocassettes |url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/jun/20/20030620-113258-1104r/ |work=Washington Times |date=June 20, 2003}}</ref> ''[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]'' said that [[David Cronenberg]]'s movie ''[[A History of Violence]]'', sold on VHS in 2006, was "widely believed to be the last instance of a major motion picture to be released in that format".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/wire/3508514-what-was-the-last-movie-released-on-vhs/|title=What was the last movie released on VHS?|first=Nexstar Media Wire|last=Michael Bartiromo|newspaper=The Hill |date=June 4, 2022}}</ref><ref name="latimes"/> By December 2008, the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' reported on "the final truckload of VHS tapes" being shipped from a warehouse in [[Palm Harbor, Florida]], citing Ryan J. Kugler's Distribution Video Audio Inc. as "the last major supplier".<ref name="latimes">{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-dec-22-et-vhs-tapes22-story.html|title=VHS era is winding down|date=December 22, 2008|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

Though 94.5 million Americans still owned VHS format [[VCR]]s in 2005,<ref name="wp-gonewiththerewind" /> market share continued to drop. In the mid-2000s, several retail chains in the United States and Europe announced they would stop selling VHS equipment.<ref>{{cite news|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4031223.stm|title=Death of video recorder in sight |work=BBC News | date=November 22, 2004 | access-date=January 6, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061401794.html|title=As DVD Sales Fast-Forward, Retailers Reduce VHS Stock | newspaper=The Washington Post | first=Mark | last=Chediak | date=June 15, 2005 | access-date=May 27, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://money.cnn.com/2005/06/13/news/fortune500/walmart_vhs/index.htm?cnn=yes |title=Wal-Mart said to stop selling VHS |publisher=CNN | date=June 13, 2005 | access-date=May 27, 2010}}</ref> In the U.S., no major brick-and-mortar retailers stock VHS home-video releases, focusing only on DVD and [[Blu-ray]] media. [[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]] along with other companies ceased production of VHS in late 2010 in [[South Korea]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-18 |title=What happened to all those videotapes? |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2024/08/398_345526.html |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=koreatimes |language=en}}</ref>

The last known company in the world to manufacture VHS equipment was [[Funai]] of Japan, who produced [[video cassette recorder]]s under the [[Sanyo]] brand in North America. Funai ceased production of VHS equipment ([[VCR/DVD combo]]s) in July 2016, citing falling sales and a [[shortage]] of components.<ref name="lastVHS">{{cite news |last1=Walton |first1=Mark |date=July 21, 2016 |title=Last known VCR maker stops production, 40 years after VHS format launch |language=en-us |work=Ars Technica |url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/07/vcr-vhs-production-ends/ |url-status=live |access-date=2017-05-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170522105641/https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/07/vcr-vhs-production-ends/ |archive-date=2017-05-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=14 July 2016 |title=VHSビデオ機の生産に幕 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLZO04817850T10C16A7TI1000/ |website=日本経済新聞 電子版}}</ref>