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[gcczep]

Tape wars...

I think it was Beta though I never experienced the format... Read on:

The Betamax vs VHS Format War

Sony's Betamax video standard was introduced in 1975, followed a year later by JVC's VHS. For around a decade the two standards battled for dominance, with VHS eventually emerging as the winner.

The victory was not due to any technical superiority (Betamax is arguably a better format), but to several factors. Exactly how and why VHS won the war has been the subject of intense debate. The commonly-held belief is that the technically superior Betamax was beaten by VHS through slick marketing. In fact the truth is more complex and there were a number of reasons for the outcome.

Sony's founder, Akio Morita, claimed that licensing problems between Sony and other companies slowed the growth of Betamax and allowed VHS to become established. However most commentators have played down this issue and cited other reasons as being more important.

It is certainly true that VHS machines were initially much simpler and cheaper to manufacture, which would obviously be an attraction to companies deciding which standard to back. It has also been reported that Sony inadvertently gave its competitors a helping hand by revealing key aspects of Betamax technology which were then incorporated into VHS.

In any case, manufacturers divided themselves into two camps: On the Betamax side were Sony, Toshiba, Sanyo, NEC, Aiwa, and Pioneer. On the VHS side were JVC, Matsushita (Panasonic), Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Sharp, and Akai.

For consumers, the most immediately obvious difference between the two formats was the recording length. Standard Betamax tapes lasted 60 minutes — not long enough to record a movie. Conversely, the 3-hour VHS tapes were perfect for recording television programmes and movies. Sony did adapt and offer various solutions for longer recording, but it was too late. The issue of recording time is often cited as the most defining factor in the war.

One more issue is worthy of note—pornography. There is a claim that adult content was not available on Betamax (possibly because Sony would not allow it) while it was becoming readily available on VHS. Whether or not this was really a factor is a contentious topic. Many sources have referred to it as fact (including Wikipedia) while others have made a campaign of debunking the "Myth of Betamax & porn". In researching this article I was unable to find any substantiated evidence that pornography sales significantly influenced the outcome of the war.

At some point and for some reason the choice of rental movies on VHS became better than Betamax. It is arguable how this situation came to be, but once it happened, there was no turning back. Bitter Betamax owners cringed in their ever-decreasing corner of the video store while VHS owners gloated.

The war was over by the late 1980s, although supporters of Betamax have helped keep the format going in a small niche market. Betamax production in America ended in 1993, and the last Betamax machine in the world was produced in Japan in 2002.

Of course, both Betamax and VHS were eventually made obsolete by digital technology.

 

[Johnny-Too-Good]

This isn't mine, and never likely to be. I saw it advertised today in 'Classic Rock' magazine. The Linn Sondek LP12. Only 40 will be produced. Price....£23,000. But there again you get a free bottle of Highland Park malt, so it must be a good deal

 

[gcczep]

$$$

^Very retro looking. For that price and limited units, it better be aces and more. Crazy how some manufacturers really inflate the price of their products. Is it really that wide of a disparity in quality to justify the prices?

 

[mrJim]

Beta vs VHS

With my age I can't talk to what was better. never experienced Beta

But my memory has always been that the real fight was not over the best technology it was business dominance.

Sony back then was being Sony, they had Beta it was good and they were proud of it. Proud of it to the point that they expected to recover their investment fast and felt that if they controlled the media they would control the future. Think "High margin small market.. the Sony Credo".

JVC shared the VHS standard and went with low margins large market to make up their costs. At the expense of allowing competition easy growth. The demand created likely ended up helping them cover the ramp up costs to meet production.

Score 1 for VHS Yeah-Us !

Then it was about to start all over again with digital media storage.

VCD/MMCD (Think Phillips Sony) and SD (Think Toshiba/Pioneer/JVC). Pioneer at this point is paying more interest after the first war and already jumped in developing support of Gregg & Russel's LaserDisc format.

I think someone from one of the 2 camp above asked IBM about file storage or something and IBM got interested. The result was someone taking a hard line that they all needed to get along, create a standard and not start another war.

Oh and I miss LaserDisc

Jim

 

[gcczep]

Warring factions...

Another similar format war was between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. We all know how that turned out. Was there ever one between 8-track and cassettes? Way too young then to even remember. I experienced the 8-track and was that a format of much inconvenience! Tracks all out of order and some had to be cut in between segments. Yeesh!

 

[mrJim]

^^yep Sony vowed to never loose a war again and hasn't. Even when big boy Microsoft came in. that's why Windows Blu-ray playback still relies on 3rd party software, but so too will that change.

If only it was really about the best technology.. right

 

[Squidbilly]

Refresh my memory, but back when VHS and Beta were on top, one of them was used as a stereo recording media. Forgot which one , but I read they were second to none in sound reproduction.

Beta tapes,My oldest brother had the new system from Radio Shack back in the 80's,Speakers,Amp,Beta vcr deck,Cassette deck.
All matched as a unit&sold out of the store catalog at convenient monthly payments.
Worked great,Countless hrs of MTV vids he recorded in full stereo.
I'll try to find a pic of the whole system.

 

[LG]

^^yep Sony vowed to never loose a war again and hasn't. Even when big boy Microsoft came in. that's why Windows Blu-ray playback still relies on 3rd party software, but so too will that change.

If only it was really about the best technology.. right

I've never respected Sony for their stupidity when it comes to technology.

For example, they didn't invent the CD or DVD, that credit belongs to Philips. And Philips rather than be an asshole corporation simply patented the technology and charged modest royalty fees for using their invention.

The VHS/Beta wars was ridiculous, Beta was the better format but Sony was obdurate about sharing the format with everyone, hence JVC invented VHS. I never bought a Betamax, by the time I could afford videos VHS had already won the war, and Super VHS was as good as Beta. The only people staying with Beta were television networks because they were the best quality at the time.

To this day I will always try to buy anything but a Sony product, I was never a big fan of their TV's either, Panasonic's GOAA(?) and Viera plasma both were higher quality.

I did spend $120 on Sony's BR player a few months ago it had the best reviews from consumer's at it's price point, it's a decent player for my LG LED tv in the small room.

I was also irritated when Sony bought Columbia/CBS, they have no idea how to manage an entertainment company. Recently they took a financial bath losing billions of dollars and considered selling off the media division. Not sure how that played out but one thing is for sure my opinion of them will not change much. For mid level to high end gear it's anything but Sony for me.

 

[gcczep]

Times they are a changin'...

I have one Sony TV and that is their heavyweight 4:3 37" 1080i CRT. Still going on strong and displays an excellent picture. As far as their receivers are concerned, Sonys were inferior compared to Marantz and Pioneers that I have owned with the exception of the STR-DA777ES which I offed as it was outdated. Plasmas now are being phased out with Panasonic discontinuing their lines which is a shame. OLEDs and advances in LEDs are the cause plus the 4K rage. I had Sony's 70" LCD but sold that to a friend and replaced it with a Samsung plasma that I now use.

For VHS, I've always stuck by JVC and not any other manufacturer.

Only other Sonys I own are 400 disc changers...three for CDs, three for DVDs and four for BD's. No one else is producing them and I believe they are discontinued as well. All are good for convenience sake. For two channel analog, I have not come across any Sony products that are in discussion among enthusiasts.

 

[LG]

^^They always made good tv's even though I don't like them generally the XBR series was legendary for a long time in the CRT universe.

CD players/changers are soon going to be extinct as everything goes to streaming from the cloud, except the mid-high end companies who might still make players. This is driven by the media companies who are all moving from physical to 'theoretical' formats. Everyone knows how unimpressed I am with that whole concept.

I'm pretty sure the Marantz BR and CD players I have now will be my last ones, they are not even 2 years old and both perform very well. Same as the surround amp, got them all from the same shop and intend for them to be my last investment for home movies.

When "Red Ray" comes out to knock BR off the top of the food chain I will not be upgrading. I will wait for holographic projectors instead.