You can still find DVD/VHS combo decks at your local big-box retailer, but the era of the standalone videocassette recorder is drawing to a close.

TradingMarkets.com (via Engadget HD) reports that JVC, the last major manufacturer that was still churning out VCRs for world markets, has finally halted production. While some smaller, no-name manufacturers are probably still cranking out VCRs on the cheap (and plenty of big-name DVD/VHS decks are on sale), the days of finding a standalone VCR at Best Buy are long gone. Indeed, only about 280,000 VCRs were shipped in Japan last year, compared to more than 6 million in 2000, according to TradingMarkets.

Not a shock, I know, but still ... it's the end of an era, especially considering that the VHS-playing VCR pretty much ruled the home video market from the mid-1980s to the late 90s.

Looking back, it was an era of relative video format peace—one that we'll probably never see again. Sure, there was the Beta-VHS war (pretty much over by 1985 or so), and there were also a couple of disc-based video format in the 80s and early 90s—namely CEDs (which you might remember under the RCA SelectaVision brand) and LaserDiscs—but for the most part, the tape-based VHS format (which itself kicked the bucket in 2006) was it.

I'm pretty sure my parents bought our first VCR (VHS, not Beta) back in 1982 or '83, and for a TV-obsessed kid like me, it was a game-changer. Renting movies was still a novelty (you had to go up to the counter and ask the clerk which movies were in, and they flipped through index cards to check—I kid you not), and we scheduled "Late Night with David Letterman" to tape each night (12:30 am was way past my bedtime). It wasn't until, oh, 1996 or so when I finally went the optical way, courtesy of a Pioneer LaserDisc player, and I finally bought a DVD deck (an $800 LaserDisc/DVD combo player, mind you) in 1998.

Anyway ... I can't say I miss VCRs and VHS, but they were huge in their day, and I'll never forget 'em.

So, anyone here still have a VCR in the house?

Related:
Standalone VCR party finally ends, JVC shuts the door as it leaves [Engadget HD]