The end of an era
Japan will make its last-ever VCR this month
It's the invention that changed the way the world watched home recordings and Hollywood films.
But in just four weeks' time, the last ever company to manufacture videocassette recorders will shut down production as the Netflix generation takes over.
The closure in August comes as services like Netflix and YouTube continue to revolutionise the way we watch films and TV.
Japan's Funai Electric, which has been making VCRs since 1983, used to sell 15 million VCRs a year in its heydays.
But last year the company sold just 750,000 as the video cassette market continues to shrink.
The VCR's first death knell sounded when DVD players were introduced around the world in 1997.
But DVDs didn't become more popular than video cassettes until 2003.
Since then, the internet has dramatically changed how we watch our favourite TV shows, with services like BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime streaming content directly to our devices.
The streaming and download market is now even bigger than the DVD market, according to PwC. And by 2017, the streaming market is set to be worth $12 billion.
But there is a still a thriving second- hand market for VCRs, with many families looking to convert cherished memories recorded on tape into digital.
According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Funai Electric will shut down its VCR operations by the end of August.
Alongside a shrinking demand from consumers, Funai said it is also having difficulty getting the correct parts to manufacture VCRs with, as the technology is so dated.
Rival Panasonic stopped making VCRs in 2012, but Funai was still making the tape machines for Sanyo in China, which then sold them on to customers in the United States and other markets.
And VCRs are just one of many technologies from the past that have taken decades to die out.
Godrej and Boyce - the last company left in the world that was still manufacturing typewriters – halted its production in Mumbai, India in 2011 with just a few hundred machines left in stock.
Video cassette predecessor Betamax was still going strong until 2002 when Sony stopped production of new recorders.
But new formats of the video technology called SuperBetamax are still being used by small groups of people.