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TEXTDoes anyone on this board remember the Sony Betamax VCR? I first saw one way back in 1978 when I was in high school. My gym teacher had one that she brought in to show movies and tv shows she taped at home. I saw one in a local store back then and the thing was almost $1,000! Why was the price so high-the newness of the technology? I got my first VCR(a VHS)in 1986,and it was not as expensive but pricey by today's standards-$299.99! I remember that VHS machines had a longer recording time than Betas did,up to 8 hours on some VHS machines. I was not surprised when the Beta format fell out of favor with consumers! It looks like the VCR may be phased out altogether once people really catch on to TiVO and DVD-R! :oTEXT
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TEXT ;)I know the Sony Beta format is still used professionally for Electronic News Gathering(ENG)work by local TV stations. I was a part of a documentary on mental health consumer issues on a local station,that's what they used to film it!!I think that consumers were duped with VHS. I also remember the Sony U-Matic professional VCR-my high school had a couple,that was "state of the art"in it's time but only had a one hour recording time! The teachers used the U-Matic in the classroom as a teaching aid. ;)

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TEXT ;)I know the Sony Beta format is still used professionally for Electronic News Gathering(ENG)work by local TV stations. I was a part of a documentary on mental health consumer issues on a local station,that's what they used to film it!!I think that consumers were duped with VHS. I also remember the Sony U-Matic professional VCR-my high school had a couple,that was "state of the art"in it's time but only had a one hour recording time! The teachers used the U-Matic in the classroom as a teaching aid. ;)
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You are SO right there!

While the VHS standard became the norm for home users after the mid 1980's, Beta is still the choice for professionals.

This is due to many factors.  But the 2 most important ones are video and sound quality.  Both sound and video are of a much higher quality then anything on Beta.

What killed Beta in the consumer market was the length of tape.  Since most consumers are rather stupid when it comes to technology, they are often duped into buying substandard equipment because of "hype".  ANd when they looked at blank tapes, all they saw was the length, not the quality of the equipment used.

THis was also seen in the Kodak Disk camera of the era.  Cool looking camera, but with film so small that any enlargements bigger then standard photo size looked like doo-doo.

I still see a lot of professionals use beta.  A lot of news crews still use them, also movie producers often use them to check location shots.  And a lot of music videos are shot on beta.

The U-Max 3/4" format is still often used professionally, but it never took off in the home market.  When I had to submit a commercial we did to a TV station for broadcast, we had to submit it on 3/4" tape.  

Quoting:


You are SO right there!

While the VHS standard became the norm for home users after the mid 1980's, Beta is still the choice for professionals.

This is due to many factors.  But the 2 most important ones are video and sound quality.  Both sound and video are of a much higher quality then anything on Beta.

What killed Beta in the consumer market was the length of tape.  Since most consumers are rather stupid when it comes to technology, they are often duped into buying substandard equipment because of "hype".  ANd when they looked at blank tapes, all they saw was the length, not the quality of the equipment used.

THis was also seen in the Kodak Disk camera of the era.  Cool looking camera, but with film so small that any enlargements bigger then standard photo size looked like doo-doo.

I still see a lot of professionals use beta.  A lot of news crews still use them, also movie producers often use them to check location shots.  And a lot of music videos are shot on beta.

The U-Max 3/4" format is still often used professionally, but it never took off in the home market.  When I had to submit a commercial we did to a TV station for broadcast, we had to submit it on 3/4" tape.  
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I remember how big the U-Matic machine was,and I don't think it would have looked good on top of someone's TV! I also heard blank tapes for the U-Matic were quite expensive!!And the one-hour running time would not be enough for the home user,especially if you tape specials,movies,or soap operas! :PTEXT

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Beta was available but was only produced by sony.  VHS licensing was available by many vendors so ended up being quite a bit cheaper.  Think of it as Apple Computers and IBM compatibles, Apples are argued to be considerably better but are limited by software accessabilty since it's not as common and they are more pricey as well.
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There were other home video formats that did not catch on,the RCA VideoDisc was one,what were the others? ???

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There were other home video formats that did not catch on,the RCA VideoDisc was one,what were the others? ???
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Sure, there were several.

VHS was and still is the standard.  We also had "Super VHS", which never caught on with home users.

8mm Tape is another format, that never caught on other then with cameras.

CED Disk is another one, it used a disk like LaserDisk, but it used phonograph technology rather then lasers to pick up the signal.  RCA was the major maker of these systems.  The movies were normally much cheaper to buy, but like LaserDisk, the inability to record killed this system by the mid 1980's.

LaserDisk did not really die off with a lot of people.  For real movie buffs, LaserDisk remained the standard of choice until the advent of DVD.  THe movies normally cost more, but this was the only way you could get LetterBox, and extra features such as outtakes, alternate endings, and the like.

U-Matic was and still is a broadcast standard.  It never caught on in the home market because of price, but the durability and quality is so high that it is still a standard for broadcasters, even after more then 25 years.

And Sony DID license the Sony system.  In fact, my system was made by RCA for Sears.  They just charged more for their rights then other companies did.

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What ever happened to DAT tapes? (for audio) . They never caught on either! Do you know what I'm talking about?
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DAT is still used worldwide, especially in Japan.  When I was in Japan, there were a lot of DAT units for sale, and a lot of us bought them.

They were blocked in the US by the RIAA though.  About the only place that DAT caught on here is in the computer industry, to backup computer systems.

This is because they were successful in placing a large surcharge on them (I seem to remember it was something like $5-10 per tape).  They are also still commonly used in radio stations for music and commercials.

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DAT is still used worldwide, especially in Japan.  When I was in Japan, there were a lot of DAT units for sale, and a lot of us bought them.

They were blocked in the US by the RIAA though.  About the only place that DAT caught on here is in the computer industry, to backup computer systems.

This is because they were successful in placing a large surcharge on them (I seem to remember it was something like $5-10 per tape).  They are also still commonly used in radio stations for music and commercials.
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Thanks for that good info, I remeber when DVD and DAT were both poised to become the next big thing.