TINA HINZ and EMILY ANDERSON, Courier Staff Writers

WATERLOO - The VCR will celebrate its 30th birthday Tuesday, but it's already showing signs of old age.

The 1975 debut of the video cassette recorder forever changed American television viewing habits, but with the advent of new technology, the VCR may be entering its final decade.

Just as compact discs wiped out cassette tapes in the music industry, now relatively inexpensive DVD players and other digital recording systems are giving VCRs the boot. Rocky Mountain News reported DVDs overtook VHS sales in 2001, and DVD rentals surpassed VHS for the first time in 2004.

Rental stores like Family Video in Waterloo still have a high consumer demand for VHS tapes but will eventually move to a DVD-only selection, says Ellaysa Newton, assistant manager at the East First Street location.

"When they (movie studios) remake older movies, they will rerelease older ones on DVD," Newton says.

Mark Kunce, operations manager for Best Buy in Waterloo, says the store likely will stop selling VCRs as soon as 2010. Three years ago, Best Buy stopped selling VHS tapes, although they're still available on the company's Web site.

"We get quite a few people coming in who want to replace VCRs just because that's what they're used to," says Eric Morgan, an associate in Best Buy's home theater department. Many customers aren't ready to dump their VHS collections but still want the option of DVDs. Those customers often opt for a combination DVD/VCR unit, referred to as a transitional technology.

Combination machines allow VHS tapes to be dubbed onto DVD. While picture and sound quality does not improve in the transfer, a DVD is a more durable format and requires less physical storage space than VHS, says Jeff Stein, assistant professor of electronic media at Wartburg College in Waverly.

Further sealing the fate of the VCR is the digital video recorder. TiVo, the most well known of DVRs, allows consumers to pause live television and watch programs at their convenience by digitally recording them onto a hard drive similar to that of a computer.

DVRs are built in to some satellite television tuners, and TiVo also can include DVD recordable and rewriteable drives to save broadcast programs on disc.

The idea that viewers never have to watch a show at its original broadcast means advertisers must change their strategies to reach them, says Stein.

" … If you tape a show off the air, you can fast forward through the commercials, and that's made it really a challenge for advertisers to get their message across," he says.

Mark Johns, professor of communication studies at Luther College in Decorah, says the time-shift idea of watching shows at one's leisure is here to stay. And while technology will continue to improve the way we do that, the VCR lit the match that sparked the home entertainment fire.

"Maybe we'll see them (VCRs) in museums in 10 to 20 years and remember them nostalgically," Johns says.

Contact Tina Hinz at (319) 1580. Contact Emily Anderson at (319) 291-1424.