DVD Has Begun to Take Over/Some New releases coming

[John Corn]

Introduced five years ago, DVD has moved from catching on to taking over. The process is gradual, but everywhere VHS is passing the torch to the new format. Last week Circuit City, the large electronics retailer, said it planned to drop videocassettes altogether in favor of the disc. Of the more than 10 million copies of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" sold since its release by Warner on May 28, almost 60 percent were DVD's.

Click Here For The Rest Of The Story and To see some new releases coming (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/28/movies/28VIDA.html)

[Mark Holtz]

A couple of things:

* Best Buy has been steadily reducing shelf space for VHS in favor of DVD.
* Many US anime distributors have greatly scaled back or discontinued entirely their VHS selections in favor of DVD, with the latest being Bandai, who has discontinued almost their entire VHS lineup with the exception of some Gundam tapes. It should be noted that DVD can handle both the original Japanese audio language tracks (with subtitles) as well as the dubbed tracks--something that would have required seperate VHS releases.
* The cost of punching out a DVD is cheaper than duplicating VHS.