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New York, 5:18 PM
Mon Nov 16
31 posts in the last 24 hours

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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of cletar cletar
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    Bela Lugosi died in 1956, so I call shenanigans on him shilling for Sony video recorders. Anyway...

    One of the things that killed Betamax was content. Sony saw Betamax as a recording system, and they worded hard on recording quality. But VHS was about watching stuff. Sony was really caught unawares by the movie rental and sales. VHS providers were much more savvy about getting video content, and worked hard to get budding video chains to be VHS-only. Sony responded with the Super Beta Hi-fi, which recorded beautifully and sounded good, too. Making a nicer machine wasn't an answer to the content question. The nail in the coffin for Beta was when Blockbuster--a VHS-only chain--became the dominant chain and drove out little mom&pop Beta-friendly chains.
     Reply
    cletar was starred cletar was unstarred
    Image of philibuster philibuster
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    List of failed Sony formats:
    Minidisc
    ATRAC audio codec
    Betamax
    Memorystick

    At least they're trying new things. New things that are proprietary and expensive.
     Reply
    philibuster was starred philibuster was unstarred
    Image of kylenalepa kylenalepa
    07/17/09

    @philibuster: I dunno, Minidisc was a huge hit in Japan and there are enough Sony devices out there that use the Memory Stick that they've kind of created their own market for the format.
     Reply
    kylenalepa was starred kylenalepa was unstarred
    Image of fuchikoma fuchikoma
    07/17/09

    @philibuster:
    Memory Stick is very far from failing, especially with the success of the PSP... I have 5 devices that take memory sticks at home.

    I'd say UMD video was a total bust, but the disc itself is still doing ok for games...

    Other than that, carry on! lol
     Reply
    fuchikoma was starred fuchikoma was unstarred
    Image of FurySamurai72 FurySamurai72
    07/17/09

    @philibuster: Mini disk was an awesome format. I loved it. The players were cheaper than an ipod *by ALOT* and the disks were like $20 for 4. and you could fit 4-5 albums on one of those discs. Not only that but you could use the MD player to record from a microphone or an audio in or an optical in. they were awesome. and i'm still sad they died out. Altho now with flash memory being so cheap, if they hadnt died out then, they'd be dead by now certainly.
     Reply
    FurySamurai72 was starred FurySamurai72 was unstarred
    Image of Digo Digo
    07/17/09

    @philibuster: You know the CD is a Sony format too right? I think that did pretty well.
     Reply
    FurySamurai72 promoted this comment Digo was starred Digo was unstarred
    Image of lefonceobscure lefonceobscure
    07/17/09

    @philibuster: don't forget the UMD; my kid has an endless supply of coasters for his sippy cups.
     Reply
    lefonceobscure was starred lefonceobscure was unstarred
    Image of Shnyzx Shnyzx
    07/21/09

    @philibuster:Don't forget Sony's two biggest failures yet: CDs and DVDs
     Reply
    FurySamurai72 promoted this comment Shnyzx was starred Shnyzx was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    I remember going to the Video store and it was split 50/50 Beta vs VHS and within 2 years it had shifted almost completely to VHS.

    Of course, my family owned a Beta system...
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of 92BuickLeSabre 92BuickLeSabre
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    I would like to find a way to mention porn in my comment on this article. Is there anyone with a suggestion for how I might be able to do that?
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre was starred 92BuickLeSabre was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    07/17/09

    @92BuickLeSabre: You mean how the Porn industry chose VHS over Beta and it helped further kill Beta?
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of 92BuickLeSabre 92BuickLeSabre
    07/17/09

    @Lite: is on a boat.: Great example! Is that true? I'd never heard it before.
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre was starred 92BuickLeSabre was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    07/17/09

    @92BuickLeSabre: They (Porn) chose the format that people were seemingly predominantly using. VHS. It basically was the final nail in the coffin.
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of SuperSonik SuperSonik
    07/17/09

    @92BuickLeSabre: It's a cleverly disguised analogy to the current Blu-Ray / not Blu-Ray discussion. Sony doesn't want their format used for adult entertainment, so they make it hard for producers of such entertainment to use Blu-Ray to put it on.
     Reply
    SuperSonik was starred SuperSonik was unstarred
    Image of SuperSonik SuperSonik
    07/17/09

    @Lite: is on a boat.: Hah! I will say I didn't know that was actually true if that was indeed the case. I heard about more recently in Blu-Ray land.
     Reply
    SuperSonik was starred SuperSonik was unstarred
    Image of bornonbord bornonbord
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    The crazy thing about 3/4" UMatics are they became the de-facto format in the post-production world for 'screener' copies of everything from features, tv shows, to commercials. One of the key features being remote control (RS 422) and fairly accurate timecode. They would stay strong even for producers, editors, directors, etc to keep their historical reels and back-ups of favorite works until DVD finally became recordable in such a way that it was reliable to play back on most players.

    It was a very, very satisfying day when I got to remove the 3/4" decks from a machine room at a post house. To make room for G5's. Now those G5's can't play back youtube... sadtrombone.
     Reply
    philibuster promoted this comment bornonbord was starred bornonbord was unstarred
    Image of bens bens
    07/17/09

    @bornonbord: whoa! don't forget digi-beta, which is still alive and strong!
     Reply
    FurySamurai72 promoted this comment bens was starred bens was unstarred
    Image of bornonbord bornonbord
    07/17/09

    @bens09: Well, right, of course there's betacam and digibeta, but betacam is really only used for SD commercial dubs for local station playback and Digitbeta is being shot on less and less and less these days. I give Digi another 5 years before it shits the bed. Even HDcam won't stick around for long, as tape sees it's way out the door.

    I'm not saying I agree or disagree with it, I'm just saying this is how I see things going.
     Reply
    bornonbord was starred bornonbord was unstarred
    Image of Matt0505 Matt0505
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    We had Beta in my house for a long time growing up. And of course being younger and just generally happy about life, I didn't notice a difference and couldn't care less. I just, you know, wanted to watch movies.

    It's all just so fickle, it really is. To care so much about this stuff, and for what.
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment Matt0505 was starred Matt0505 was unstarred
    Image of 92BuickLeSabre 92BuickLeSabre
    07/17/09

    @Matt0505: Well hey there. You're looking for what now? Oh, um, you know the information superhighway can be tricky, and I think maybe you missed your exit. You wanted to get off about three signs back for www.dontsweatthesmallstuff.com
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre was starred 92BuickLeSabre was unstarred
    Image of gqcarrick gqcarrick
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    I always heard that it was the Porn industry that basically decided the format war and killed betamax. Interesting read.
     Reply
    tande04 mile island in the sun promoted this comment gqcarrick was starred gqcarrick was unstarred
    Image of tande04 tande04
    07/17/09

    @gqcarrick: I had heard that at one point too.

    IIRC it came up again in the HD DVD/BD war of 2008 with HD DVD getting the porn industry to back it originally. However they too switched to BD when they started seeing more sales on the BD discs they did sell.
     Reply
    tande04 was starred tande04 was unstarred
    Image of tande04 tande04
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    Good read.

    Doesn't look like Sony has changed much in the last 30 years. Hopefully they start waking up.
     Reply
    tande04 was starred tande04 was unstarred
    Image of Randy87 Randy87
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    good article. although beta tapes aren't totally dead. they're used every day in the broadcast industry still today.

    i work at an ad agency and we send out beta tapes daily of our tv spots. we also do digital transmission, but it's still primarily tape.
     Reply
    Randy87 was starred Randy87 was unstarred
    Image of Ellipsis marks are ... my friends Ellipsis marks are ... my friends
    07/17/09

    @RandySurfingSince87: That would be Betacam, not Betamax, which this article details. There are some similarities and some differences between the two formats. And now there's digital Betacam.

    You may know this, but I thought I'd point it out for general consumption.
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment Edited by Ellipsis marks are ... my friends at 07/17/09 12:27 PM Ellipsis marks are ... my friends was starred Ellipsis marks are ... my friends was unstarred
    Image of bornonbord bornonbord
    07/17/09

    @Ellipsis marks are ... my friends: And now digitbeta's the next dying breed. That was a big move in the 90's for post to use. I'll bet in 5 years it'll be used as infrequently as Betacam.
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment bornonbord was starred bornonbord was unstarred
    Image of 92BuickLeSabre 92BuickLeSabre
    07/17/09

    In reply to The Dirty Backstabbing Mess Called Betamax vs VHS
    My dad, notorious for buying quality technology that was doomed for obsolescence, bought us a Betamax after it was clear to everyone else that it was dying/dead. Because it was better and because it was Sony, which also generally meant better at the time.

    I remember going to our local Sound Warehouse to rent videos and slowly watching the Betamax section shrink and shrink and shrink, until one day it was gone, subsumed by the VHS cassettes everywhere.

    (This was about the same time that he decided it was time for a home computer and bought us the Apple IIGS.)

    Edit: Great piece by the way. Thanks Wilson.
     Reply
    Edited by 92BuickLeSabre at 07/17/09 12:14 PM 92BuickLeSabre was starred 92BuickLeSabre was unstarred
    Image of Skeetz Skeetz
    07/17/09

    @92BuickLeSabre: If he's interested I have the xbox360 HD add on I'm selling.
     Reply
    Edited by Skeetz at 07/17/09 12:15 PM Skeetz was starred Skeetz was unstarred
    Image of 92BuickLeSabre 92BuickLeSabre
    07/17/09

    @Skeetz: Will it work with a Sega Saturn?
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre was starred 92BuickLeSabre was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    07/17/09

    @92BuickLeSabre: Weirdly enough, I actually remember when Best Buy used to rent movies!
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of royoftroy royoftroy
    07/17/09

    @92BuickLeSabre: I don't know about his but mine wont... But I think it works with the Dreamcast.
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment royoftroy was starred royoftroy was unstarred
    Image of Jimmy Tango Jimmy Tango
    07/17/09

    @92BuickLeSabre:

    Same experience here. My folks still have some home videos on Betamax. Of what I have no recollection, and hope to keep it that way.
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment Jimmy Tango was starred Jimmy Tango was unstarred
    Image of Signore Pinko-Panko! Signore Pinko-Panko!
    07/17/09

    @92BuickLeSabre: Do you think he'd be interested in my DAT setup?
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment Signore Pinko-Panko! was starred Signore Pinko-Panko! was unstarred
    Image of BWGunner BWGunner
    07/17/09

    We still have the Magnavox Odyssey that used to sit next to the Betamax.
     Reply
    92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment BWGunner was starred BWGunner was unstarred
    Image of kylenalepa kylenalepa
    07/17/09

    @Lite: is on a boat.: Really? I never knew they did that.
     Reply
    kylenalepa was starred kylenalepa was unstarred
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