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SpursRiot2012

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Betamax was technologically better wasn't it? You know what was even better? Video 2000! That's what we had, you could record on birth sides of the tape, imagine that! It was a far superior machine but was released that little bit after VHS which meant it didn't succeed. The video shop would have two walls of vhs rentals, a wall of betamax and about seven video 2000. We must have rented The Twelve Chairs at least four times.

Edited by Harry Wiseau
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The first time I saw Star Wars on home video on wide-screen was from a (possibly pirate) Betamax version.

Being too young to understand the concept of wide-screen vs pan-and-scan, I was amazed by how smaller video cassette had two sand people watching Luke's speeder going through the valley below them.

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1 hour ago, Harry Wiseau said:

Betamax was technologically better wasn't it?

Better quality picture at the cost of run time. 

I've always been of the understanding it was all down to production company's backing VHS harder than Betamax, meaning the technical specs were secondary to consumers next to having a better catalogue. Much like the short lived HD DVD & Bluray era. 

What I've never heard is why that was, was VHS cheaper to mass produce for production companies or was JVC just the better salesman? 

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14 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

What I've never heard is why that was, was VHS cheaper to mass produce for production companies or was JVC just the better salesman? 

VHS and VHS recorders/players were a hell of a lot cheaper to buy than Betamax. As you said, Betamax was slightly better picture and sound quality but the difference wasn't big enough to justify the extra cost of Betamax so most consumers went for the cheaper option, VHS.

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2 hours ago, Tommy! said:

Better quality picture at the cost of run time. 

I've always been of the understanding it was all down to production company's backing VHS harder than Betamax, meaning the technical specs were secondary to consumers next to having a better catalogue. Much like the short lived HD DVD & Bluray era. 

What I've never heard is why that was, was VHS cheaper to mass produce for production companies or was JVC just the better salesman? 

Sony wanted too high a license fee for other companies to use the technology.

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23 hours ago, Nostalgia Nonce said:

Sony wanted too high a license fee for other companies to use the technology.

It might be apocryphal but I've always heard that Sony wouldn't allow Betamax to be used for porn and VHS would, and that that market hugely contributed to it's success. 

Edited by Finbar
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