on 3/5/05 6:08 PM, James N. McBride at jnmcbr@xxxxxxx wrote:
> My memory is a little fuzzy but as I recall, Sony developed both the Beta
> and VHS formats and held patents on both. They were not doing much to
> promote the VHS format and Matsushita stole it and promoted the hell out of
> it to the point where it captured the major market share. Sony sued and was
> awarded a large settlement but Matsushita came out way ahead on the deal and
> the Beta died. I have some good Beta tapes and no working player. I much
> preferred the Beta format. /jmac
I remember the 'Betamax' when they first came out was highly regarded, but
then VHS came along and promised 8 hour tapes instead of only 5 hours (or
wias it 6?) possible on Beta. As the blank tapes were relatively costly back
then (compared to now...) the general public went for the 'extra space for
the same price' marketing hype, despite the widespread acknowledgement that
the Beta format gave better quality recordings. When VHS took off it didn't
take long for Beta to just about disappear... I think about the parallels to
digital v/s film cameras. Digital is 'almost as good' and 'instant pictures'
and 'essentially free' (except for the memory cards and computer equipment
and printer, inks, etc...)
--
Jim Brokaw
OM-'s of all sorts, and no OM-oney...
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