Video Out: VHS: Still the King of the Hill

You�ve probably heard a lot of people raving about how great DVD and the Internet are for distributing video. DVDs have amazing picture and sound quality, and don�t cost much to mail across the country. Internet video can be distributed to millions of Web-savvy geeks without having to pay a dime in shipping. But the most popular way to distribute video productions is still on good old VHS tape. Wonder why?

Why VHS?

The number one reason to use VHS to distribute your videos is the plain fact that VHS VCRs are everywhere. Everyone from grandmothers to little kids is familiar with VHS tape. Almost every American home has a TV connected to a VHS VCR. Many homes have two or more! Even if your viewer has another type of video playing machine in his house (whether it be a DVD or laserdisc player, Internet-connected computer or a VCR of another format), he�ll also have one of the ubiquitous VHS machines somewhere in his entertainment system. Add to this installed base of VHS VCRs the additional benefit of the inexpensive cost of mastering to VHS. VHS tape is cheap. It costs the producer only about $1 per hour of VHS tape.
There is a group of people (maybe you are one of them) who shudder every time you mention VHS. They loathe the format, citing the argument that VHS only became popular for it�s long record time, not it�s marginal picture quality. Most of those people are probably former Betamax owners. They�re right in a way. VHS has a low-grade picture. And when you compare it to Hi8 or Mini DV, it can look downright ugly.
As a videographer, you might be tempted to think that distributing your video in a higher quality format such as Mini DV, S-VHS or Hi8 is a good idea. However, unless you are sending your tape to another videographer who owns playback equipment in that format, your tape will be useless. Even if your viewer owns a camcorder of the same format, your tapes will more likely gather dust than wear out from overuse. People don�t like the hassle of having to hook up a camcorder to their TV just to watch one video. Even people who have high-end gear like to watch videos on their TVs, the same TV that already has a VHS VCR attached to it. Regardless of arguments about its poor resolution, viewers have come to accept VHS. When the tradeoff is picture quality for ease of use, ease of use wins.
Perhaps the worst part of distributing a VHS tape is the mailing cost. VHS tape weighs quite a bit, and mailing off those tapes, especially a number of them, can cost a pretty penny. <…