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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Digo
07/17/09

@philibuster: You know the CD is a Sony format too right? I think that did pretty well.
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lefonceobscure
07/17/09

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

@philibuster:Don't forget Sony's two biggest failures yet: CDs and DVDs
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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...
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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?
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Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
07/17/09

@92BuickLeSabre: You mean how the Porn industry chose VHS over Beta and it helped further kill Beta?
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92BuickLeSabre
07/17/09

@Lite: is on a boat.: Great example! Is that true? I'd never heard it before.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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bens
07/17/09

@bornonbord: whoa! don't forget digi-beta, which is still alive and strong!
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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tande04 mile island in the sun promoted this comment gqcarrick was starred gqcarrick was unstarred

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment Edited by Ellipsis marks are ... my friends at 07/17/09 12:27 PM

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.
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92BuickLeSabre promoted this comment bornonbord was starred bornonbord was unstarred

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.
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Edited by 92BuickLeSabre at 07/17/09 12:14 PM 92BuickLeSabre was starred 92BuickLeSabre was unstarred

Skeetz
07/17/09

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

92BuickLeSabre
07/17/09

@Skeetz: Will it work with a Sega Saturn?
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Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
07/17/09

@92BuickLeSabre: Weirdly enough, I actually remember when Best Buy used to rent movies!
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royoftroy
07/17/09

@92BuickLeSabre: I don't know about his but mine wont... But I think it works with the Dreamcast.
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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.
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Signore Pinko-Panko!
07/17/09

@92BuickLeSabre: Do you think he'd be interested in my DAT setup?
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BWGunner
07/17/09

We still have the Magnavox Odyssey that used to sit next to the Betamax.
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kylenalepa
07/17/09

@Lite: is on a boat.: Really? I never knew they did that.
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