DVDs have surpassed yesterday's video cassettes

Pssst -- wanna buy something to prop open your front door?\nOr how about a super-sized paperweight?\nBetter still, how about a toy that your toddler can jam with food at his or her leisure?\nThis handy-dandy piece of equipment also can play videocassettes -- if you want.\nThe VHS recorder has enjoyed almost a quarter-century of dominance in America's homes. But its demise may come more quickly than anyone ever dared to believe.\nVisit Circuit City and you will still find a decent number of VCRs for sale. Go to a Best Buy and you'll see a few stand-alone VCRs. But if you cast an eye toward the DVD shelves, you'll find a vast array of products.\nIndeed, 2000 was the last year that VHS enjoyed a significant sales year, according to figures supplied by the Consumer Electronics Association. That year, more than 23 million recorders were sold.\nThe following year, however, the number dropped to just 14.9 million, and it's expected to fall to 13.9 million when figures for 2002 are tallied.\nThat's not news to people such as Gordie Richmond of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, who was shopping last week at Best Buy. The 22-year-old carpet technician is on his fourth DVD player. He bought his first when the medium debuted in the fall of 1997.\nRichmond said he still owns a VCR, but he doesn't use it to watch commercial movies any longer. Instead, he watches home movies. And when this recorder breaks, he has no plans to replace it.\n"I wouldn't buy one right now because it's a bad investment," he said.\nGreg Persinger of Rootstown, Ohio, agreed. He, too, bought his first DVD player a little more than five years ago, effectively making his VCR obsolete.\n"I have it, but it's not connected. I very seldom put it on," Persinger said. "I don't record off of television. Everything I had (on tape), I converted over to DVD."\nPersinger isn't alone. There are more than 38 million DVD players in American homes, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, and it's becoming increasingly evident that people are abandoning videotape in droves.\nLast year, sales of pre-recorded tapes took a gigantic tumble from the previous year -- from 637.4 million cassettes in 2001 to 483.4 million in 2002. Even in the rental market, the shiny disc's presence has grown dramatically. At Blockbuster Video, DVD rental revenue more than doubled from $799 million in 2001 to $1.7 billion in 2002, said Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for the video store chain.\nIncome from sales of discs more than doubled as well.\nIt's that enthusiasm for the still-young format that prompted Circuit City to discontinue prerecorded tapes, said Jim Babb, a spokesman for the company. "We did it because customers were voting with their wallets," Babb said. "The sales of VHS titles were going down and sales of DVDs were going up."\nAnd with DVD players in only 38.8 million households so far, the number of potential buyers is large enough that sales figures will probably continue to skyrocket.\nThat's because DVD players have begun to drop to reasonable price levels. Some models can be had for less than $100, with prices up to 30 percent lower on the Internet.\n"Up till now, that really has kept the VCR the main home entertainment unit," said Tara Dunion, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association, "but once you hit $500 and have more sales, it may relegate the VCR to other rooms of the house."\nTom Adams of Adams Media Research said that to his surprise, many people have already exiled their VCRs.\n"What caused us to change our view that DVD wouldn't become ubiquitous until it had recordability was that DVD is forcing a lot of people to face the fact that they don't record anything," he said.\nHowever, manufacturers aren't ready to abandon VCRs altogether. The newest trend is combination players that double as DVD players and VHS recorders. They enable those who appreciate the superior picture and audio of discs to still enjoy their extensive VHS libraries, said Jodi Sally, director of marketing for Toshiba Digital Audio and Video.\nToshiba no longer makes a stand-alone videocassette recorder. The combination player is Toshiba's way of serving those who still own tape while giving consumers the benefits of DVD.\nAlthough it's unlikely that tape will be buried in the audio-video cemetery with 8-track tape and vinyl records within the next year or two, its demise is inevitable.\nThe lone advantage tape had over DVD was the ability to record. But that's changing as DVD recorder prices plummet and other media enter the market.\nIn recent months, personal video recorders have enjoyed more attention. And computer geeks are well aware of desktop accessories and cards that can turn personal computers into television sets with all of the capabilities of VHS -- and more.\nDave Highsmith of Tallmadge, Ohio, abandoned his VCR for everything but viewing home movies years ago. He prefers a PVR.\n"I bought it just for the convenience -- not having to rewind tapes to find what I've recorded," Highsmith said.\nWith an assault on its playback capabilities and now its recording features, it's clear that the VCR isn't going to enjoy its status in American pop culture much longer.\nBut when should people worry that it's no longer a viable format?\n"The real sign that it's over will come when some studio has a major motion picture and they don't bother releasing it on tape," Adams said, "and ... that day is far off."\nFar off can be the blink of an eye in the Digital Age.