Sunday, June 7, 2015

Betamax- Gizmodo ( the short version) with lots of reader comments

Betamax vs. VHS: How Sony Lost the Original Home Video Format War

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Andrew Liszewski

Filed to: VHS 6/17/14 8:50am

Remember a few years ago when Blu-ray battled HD-DVD in the high-def DVD format war? Sony and Blu-ray ultimately won out, but there was a time when the electronics giant wasn't as successful in getting its way.

As the EngineerGuy explains, the first home video recorder to hit the market back in 1975 was from Sony, and used the company's Betamax format. Soon after that, JVC released a competing home video recorder that was lighter, cheaper, and used VHS format tapes that could hold a two-hour movie instead of Betamax's one-hour limit—and that was the key.

As a result, VHS was readily embraced by the video rental industry because a single cassette could hold an entire movie. And it was that slight advantage in popularity and price that eventually gave VHS a greater market share that grew and grew until Betamax became nothing more than a footnote in the history of consumer electronics. If only Sony had released the PS3 back in the late 70s with built-in Betamax support, things might have been different.

Andrew Liszewski’s Discussions

TZuck
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TZuckAndrew Liszewski
6/17/14 9:59am
Yet Betamax won the professional market as an archival format., and has lasted longer than VHS.

Also it was surprisingly ahead of it's time...

1 2 Reply
- LordRae
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  LordRaeTZuck
  6/17/14 11:42am
  
  Yeah beta tapes are still used in some environments. It's being phased out but some places and people still use it especially for archiving. Up until a couple years ago all of our satellite backups were on beta tapes.
  
  1 Reply
- t3hwinz
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  t3hwinzTZuck
  6/17/14 12:51pm
  
  This ad states beta can record a three hour show, yet the video says the tapes last only an hour. ?????
  
  1 1 Reply
- pdj79
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  pdj79t3hwinz
  6/17/14 1:31pm
  
  The original Betamax tapes could only record 1 hour. Whether it was reactionary or the end-game all along, they eventually introduced extra-capacity tapes to the market (hence the "with L-750 videocassette" notation after the claim of 3 hours). But in all honesty, it was a combination of the lower cost-of-entry and rental market that drove the nail in Betamax's coffin (on the consumer market side, anyway). We had a Betamax machine first and it was the tits. But the day it broke and the repair shop quoted a price that was almost as much as purchasing a brand new one, my tightwad father was having none of that and picked up a VHS for half the price. That and the fact that the local rental store had stopped carrying Betamax tapes several months earlier. Man how far we've come!
  
  2 Reply
- TZuck
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  TZuckt3hwinz
  6/17/14 1:33pm
  
  it specifies the L-750 tape, my guess is the cheap tapes and the ones that they first introduced could only do an hour.
  
  1 Reply
- TZuck
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  TZuckLordRae
  6/17/14 1:37pm
  
  my place will still need to pull footage from betas on a few returning projects. like you said it's being phased out, just won't be truly gone like VHS for a while still.
  
  2 Reply
- Blown2K2S2K
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  Blown2K2S2Kt3hwinz
  6/17/14 1:55pm
  
  They all had different modes. Standard VHS went up to 8 hours on SLP mode, but quality took a real dive. LP mode was 4 hours, SP 2 hours. Some tapes came out that had a little more tape in them and could do more than 2 hours on SP, too.
  
  1 2 Reply
- billdehaan
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  billdehaant3hwinz
  6/17/14 2:29pm
  
  The original Beta tapes were only good for an hour. Originally, they were viewed as TV recording devices, so an hour would cover any show. After VHS came to the market, and the movies became the driving force, Beta tapes of 3 hours (actually, I believe it was 3h5m or 3h10m) were released to market, but by then, the die was cast.
  
  2 Reply
- MediumDave
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  MediumDaveLordRae
  6/17/14 3:13pm
  
  That's BetaCAM (BetaSP and DigiBeta are the common pro versions) - the consumer type is BetaMAX. Two different things.
  
  1 3 Reply
- LordRae
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  LordRaeMediumDave
  6/17/14 3:40pm
  
  Well... still around anyway. ;p
  
  1 Reply
Human Almighty
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Human AlmightyAndrew Liszewski
6/17/14 9:04am
VHS format tapes (...) could hold a two-hour movie instead of Betamax's one-hour limit—and that was the key. I think that after the reading of this interesting article we know why Betamax was doomed. Can you friggin imagine changing videotape (and rewinding it!!!) during the battle of Endor or just before Vader cuts his beloved sons hand with lazor weapon-sword like device?????!!!!! Fuck no!

5 Reply
- nopunin10did
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  nopunin10didHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 9:09am
  
  Beta increased its initial one-hour limit, though it's likely that it was in response to JVC. Growing up, we had a ton of Beta tapes with full feature-length films on them, but I suspect they were all from the later improved format.
  
  3 Reply
- jonthegreat
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  jonthegreatHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 9:16am
  
  movies may have just developed a natural break at around 60 minutes like some music albums did on LPs. ELPs karn evil 9 1st impression part 2, or the jethro tull concept albums, for example.
  
  1 Reply
- DonkeyShaunJr
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  DonkeyShaunJrHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 9:18am
  
  Pretty sure they upped the limit after JVC doubled theirs. If not you'd probably have ended up seeing a 2 deck player where one tape would take over for the other. Of course making that a smooth transition is likely a tricky endeavor.
  
  1 Reply
- Luciano Rocha
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  Luciano RochaHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 9:29am
  
  Dude! Spoiler! I'm not caught up on Star Wars yet. Jeez...
  
  1 7 Reply
- BritBenzene
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  BritBenzenenopunin10did
  6/17/14 10:00am
  
  I know my parents had the 1980's TV movie of Ivanhoe on BetaMax, and that thing was like 2.5 hours long (IMDB says 142 minutes). I remember that the BetaMax seemed to have a better picture than VHS, but much like mp3's vs. other formats it was more about convenience and capacity than quality. Good thing Sony learned that lesson with BetaMax and didn't keep trying to push proprietary media to the detriment of the company.
  
  1 Reply
- BoyGenius
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  BoyGeniusHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 10:04am
  
  Clearly you never used a 12" laserdisc, in which movies routinely spanned three or four disc sides. Even when some fancy players came along that could play both sides of a disc, you still had a pause while the transition was made, and you still had to stop and change to the next disc.
  
  1 Reply
- posigrade
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  posigradeHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 10:06am
  
  Clearly you never had to deal with a side break on a CAV Laserdisc.
  
  1 Reply
- JuanDimensional
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  JuanDimensionalHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 10:18am
  
  I actually had the original Star Wars trilogy on Betamax. Each movie fit on one tape. I hadn't ever heard of the 1-hour limit until this article. Without actually looking into it, I'd guess that 1-hour limit wasn't around for very long.
  
  1 1 Reply
- XC99TF00
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  XC99TF00JuanDimensional
  6/17/14 10:33am
  
  Yup, had tons of movies on betamax that required no change of cassette when growing up. I don't recall the one-hour limit at any point, so I presume you are right in that is was short lived.
  
  1 Reply
- TreacherousBastard
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  TreacherousBastardHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 10:37am
  
  We had a bootleg of Star Wars in 78 on Beta and it was on one tape. At that point you could set the quality to get more time. I only remember Ben Hur needing two tapes, but I was very young.
  
  **spoiler**SW was the one where the protagonist, one Luke Skywalker, found out that Darth Vader had betrayed and murdered his father.
  
  1 Reply
- NerdofAmnesia
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  NerdofAmnesiaLuciano Rocha
  6/17/14 11:42am
  
  beat me!
  
  1 Reply
- Titanius Anglesmith
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  Titanius Anglesmithnopunin10did
  6/17/14 11:54am
  
  Yeah, I was going to say. My parents had a beta max when I was a kid and I watched Star Wars on it all the time, never had to change tapes.
  
  1 1 Reply
- marcoaml78
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  marcoaml78Human Almighty
  6/17/14 12:20pm
  
  When they got into their Betamax ED, they also increased the length, every movie was able to fit on one tape. it actually lost quite simply because Betamax sucked in image quality compared to VHS. Oh and by the way...really long films (like Titanic) still were on two tapes on VHS.
  
  1 Reply
- SPNKiX
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  SPNKiXHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 12:42pm
  
  actually, it was common to change tapes back then, and no big thing, either. even theaters had intermissions so you could go get some candy and pee. not on the candy. in the bathroom.
  
  2 Reply
- falconflyer1
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  falconflyer1Human Almighty
  6/17/14 12:48pm
  
  Actually the reason it Betamax lost was because VHS supported the porn industry and Betamax did not. Where porn goes, others follow.
  
  2 4 Reply
- mike31411
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  mike31411Human Almighty
  6/17/14 2:03pm
  
  It is somewhat like DVD movies that require you to flip the DVD over for the 2nd half.
  
  1 1 Reply
- Andrew Liszewski
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  Andrew LiszewskiHuman Almighty
  6/17/14 5:31pm
  
  SPOILER ALERT!
  
  1 Reply

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