Netflix killed the video star: Funai Electric in Japan will manufacture the last VCR this month
It's been a long time coming, but it will still be sad saying goodbye to this old friend and home device.
The last known manufacturer of VCRs, Japanese firm Funai Electric, will make its final video player this month.
The company, which has been producing VHS-players for more than three decades, sold 750,000 units last year and is having trouble finding the necessary parts to keep making them, local newspaper Nikkei reported.
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This was down from a production peak of 15m units sold per year, as videos have been shafted from their place at the forefront of home entertainment by new technology.
In their place DVDs, Blu-ray and now streaming services such as Netflix, which has more than 83m members worldwide, and TV packages that provide the ability to box-set binge at home without any of that pesky rewinding.
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The sound of a rewinding video will now inch one step closer to joining the annals of other old technology such as the AOL dial-up ringtone, which was (thankfully) phased out and replaced by broadband.
Videos were released in the 1970s by the Victor Company of Japan (JVC), so it's quite apt that the final player will be produced there too.
Goodbye, old friend.
