VHS stands for Video Home System, a technology that let families watch movies at home by playing them on rectangular plastic cassettes about the size of a hardcover book. Inside each cassette, magnetic tape was wound around two spools, similar to how cassette tapes worked for music but much larger.

From the 1980s through the early 2000s, VHS tapes were how most people watched movies at home. Families would go to video rental stores like Blockbuster to borrow movies for a few dollars, then return them a few days later. You could also record television shows on blank VHS tapes using a VCR (video cassette recorder), which let you watch your favorite programs whenever you wanted instead of only when they aired.

VHS had serious limitations compared to today's streaming. The picture quality was fuzzy, tapes wore out after many viewings, and you had to rewind them before returning them to the store (some people forgot, which became so annoying that “Be Kind, Rewind” signs appeared everywhere). Fast-forwarding through a two-hour tape to find your favorite scene took forever.

DVDs replaced VHS in the early 2000s because they offered better picture quality, didn't need rewinding, and let you jump instantly to any scene. Today, most movies get streamed over the internet, but VHS represents an important era when home video first became commonplace.