VHS

The VHS tape is 187 mm wide and 103 mm deep. It is an analog recording videocassette that can only be played on a VCR (which stands for video cassette recorder). It was the most popular video format ever used worldwide.

Most films (and all television programs) are presented in an aspect ratio of 4:3 on VHS, while a few that were originally presented in widescreen format are letterboxed. In such cases, the film is pan and scanned when seen on VHS. The audio for anything on VHS is either in Mono or Hi-Fi Stereo (whether Dolby Surround encoded or not). In North America, tapes can also be closed-captioned in the Line 21 format, designed especially for people who are deaf or have impaired hearing. Depending on what country you live in, a tape can be in NTSC, PAL, or SECAM. This is the only issue you will have if you have a VCR that does not match with your videotape's signal standards. Of course, SECAM tapes are playable on PAL VCRs.

A VHS tape can carry up to 60, 90, 120, or even 180 minutes of video. Television specials that are less than an hour long are recorded in T-60 tapes, and many motion pictures are stored in T-90, T-120, or T-180 tapes. Movies and programs can also be recorded in Standard Play or Long Play mode, depending on the VCR.

In the early 2000s, the VHS format gradually became less popular, and was discontinued altogether on September 21, 2021.

## Notable films released on VHS

 The Jungle Book(May 3, 1991)
 Home Alone 2: Lost in New York(July 27, 1993)
 The Aristocats(April 24, 1996)

By 2003, all remaining VHS titles were released on DVD.

## Global use

### Japan

From the early 1990s to 2016, many children's films were available in three different language versions in separate VHS cassettes.

* **日本語吹き替え版** (Japanese Dubbed Version) - The film is presented with all original dialogue replaced by those exclusively from Japanese voice actors.
* **日本語字幕スーパー版** (Japanese Subtitled Version) - The film is presented in its original format with Japanese subtitles translating all spoken dialogue throughout.
* **英語版** (English Version) - Presented exclusively in English. Usually only applies to kid-oriented videos such as Disney's Sing-Along Songs.

### South Korea

In South Korea, the versions were similar to how it was done in Japan from 1987 to December 2010.

* **우리말녹음**(Korean Recording) - The film is presented with all original dialogue replaced by those exclusively from Korean voice actors.
* **한글자막**(Korean Subtitles) - The film is presented in its original format with Korean subtitles translating all spoken dialogue throughout.
* **영어자막**(English Subtitles) - The film is presented in its original format with English subtitles transcribing all spoken dialogue throughout.

## Modern use

Despite the decline in both VHS players and programming on VHS machines, they are still owned in some households worldwide. Those who still use or hold on to VHS do so for a number of reasons, including nostalgic value, ease of use in recording, keeping personal videos or home movies, watching content currently exclusive to VHS, and collecting. Some expatriate communities in the United States also obtain video content from their native countries in VHS format.

Although VHS tapes were still sold at stores in the United States, VHS recorders and blank tapes were still sold at stores in other developed countries prior to 2017. JVC, and other manufacturers, continued to make combination DVD+VHS units even after the decline of VHS. Countries like South Korea previously stopped releasing films on VHS until December 2010, with *Inception* being the last film to be released on VHS in the country.

A market for pre-recorded VHS tapes has continued, and some online retailers such as Amazon still sold new and used pre-recorded VHS cassettes of movies and television programs until 2021. None of the major Hollywood studios generally issues releases on VHS. The last major studio film to be released in the format in the United States and Canada, other than as part of special marketing promotions, was *Cruella* in 2021. In October 2018, Distribution Video Audio Inc., the last major American supplier of pre-recorded VHS tapes, shipped its final truckload of tapes to stores in America.