Despite the success of DVD, videotape will not disappear overnight. For one thing, upward of 92 percent of American households have at least one video cassette recorder, and hundreds of millions of tapes stacked in shelves and closets.

Most commercial films are still released on both tape and DVD, and for most viewers, tape remains the medium of choice for recording favorite TV shows. Furthermore, an enormous number of older movies, foreign films and documentaries are available on tape only, not to mention all the home movies shot on video tape.

Sandy Budd, of Wyoming, is an avid movie fan, especially of independent, foreign and classic films. She regularly tapes old movies on TV, and has no immediate plans to switch to DVD.

"I know that my VCR tapes aren't going to last forever," she says. "For now, it's economical until my youngest daughter gets out of college. I try to tape as many movies as I can. So I've got all my blanks. I might as well try to use them up."

Margaret A. McGurk