Home video is recorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. In a different usage, "home video" refers to amateur video recordings, also known as home movies. Another format LaserDisc is also a home video format released in 1978 which never caught on market due to high cost of the players and their inability to record TV programs unlike the VHS. The format gained interests from movie collectors.
Some home video users have a collection of prerecorded media, such as movies, on DVDs. DVDs are only one of a number of ways of viewing home video.
A feature film is viewed on a home screen.
Movie boxes on display at a video rental store
By the mid 2000s, home video purchasers moved away from videotapes, increasingly preferring DVDs. Pictured is a cart of used videotape movies on sale at a used-goods market in 2004.
A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract, which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously viewed movies and/or new, unopened movies.
The exterior of a video rental store in Austin, Texas (closed in 2020)
A display case of DVDs in a former Blockbuster video rental store
A video rental store in Berwyn, Illinois in the US. (Closed in 2015)
With the introduction of the thin, lightweight DVD disc, movie rental by mail services became feasible, introducing a new source of competition for brick and mortar stores.
