OK, you guys remember this war? What did you go with? My family went with the Beta machine. Now if we look back at the Beta it had better picture and sound quality then VHS. I stil have my Beta machine in storage and it works fine. Only movie I still have on Beta is Tango & Cash:Mainstream Hollywood action/adventure thriller about two cops trying to clear their names. Appeals to thrill-seekers more than buddy-flick lovers for its special effects, myriad violent action scenes. WHY IS THIS ONE NOT ON THE SITE???
Posted by Eddie Wilson (Member # 169) on :
My dad bought a Beta, but soon switched to VHS. I must be too young to remember the Betas because I don't even know what they look like.
Posted by The Wizard (Member # 533) on :
I was aware of Betamax during the 80s, funny looking small tapes on the other side of the video store that meant nothing to me as I couldn't play them. About a year and a half ago I picked up a Betamax machine as I had Breakdance 2 on Betamax and wanted to watch it, but along with the machine were a stack of recorded tapes on which I found a heap of old 80s tv adverts, they brought back more memories than I thought possible. Later on I bought a box of 50+ Betamax tapes and found even more adverts on them, so digitised virtually all of them in: http://linux.tc3net.com/darwin/80s/adverts/ Posted by EnglishRose (Member # 175) on :
We always had a VHS but I still remember going into the video store and having to check that you picked up the right tape. The betamax Vs VHS is kinda like the Mac Vs PC war that you get at the moment. I believe Betamax is still used by video makers as it did have the better quality but just cant have been advertised as hard as VHS.
Talking of old videos, I just loved our first VHS machine. Giant silver thing with buttons that you pushed down and always got stuck, and the video went in the top. Anyone else have one????
Posted by Orrickman (Member # 1450) on :
I still have my Betamax VCR in my room. It plays just fine and I have a bunch of movies that are worth it.
Betamax lost the war because it was a Sony trademark and no other company could use that video system for years. Because of that, the other companies had to go with VHS and it became very popular. It also became cheaper because of that and that's when it finally won the war against Sony's Betamax even though the video quality was a lot worse (at least back then... today's VHS video system has improved a lot and the quality is very good).
It's funny that todays kids don't even know what a Betamax tape looks like Pretty soon they won't even know what a VHS tape looks like either!!! Analogic recording will soon be just part of the past...
Posted by willman85 (Member # 1215) on :
Hey Wizard, can I buy a cd of 80s adverts off you?
Posted by RowMan (Member # 1312) on :
Calling all Betaphiles! If you haven't seen it yet, check out this Betamax site. It was a great trip down Memory Lane for me.
^^^RowMan, thank you so much for the link! It's a real gem! Wow... I wish there's a site on VHS as well. I am a VCR user since 1997- very efficient in recording TV programs. I am very proud of it and it's something I probably can't live without.
[ 26. February 2006, 22:05: Message edited by: Tarquin Blackwood ]
Posted by eightieschick (Member # 4385) on :
My husband still has his Betamax machine, plus about 10 movies on Beta. The quality was remarkable compared to VHS. My family always had VHS. In fact, my parents had given me their original VCR when I was in college and they bought a new one. I had it up until a few years ago, it would no longer record, something was wrong with the audio but you still got the picture. But we still had it set up in my bedroom just to watch movies. When we got another new one, I felt so guilty throwing it away. I said if I knew any college kid that would want it, I would have given it away rather than trashing it. But now the college kids have everything and don't need a thing- DVD player, computer, Ipod, Xbox 360, etc. I didn't even have a computer or typewriter- I had to go use the school's computers for typing out papers.
Posted by Mane1980 (Member # 4240) on :
I still have the Betamax Machine. A litlle while ago my uncle got rid of his Beta Machine and gave me his Beta Tapes, they were a good amount of them. I got in the pack E.T., D.A.R.Y.L, BAck to the Future, etc.
Posted by Stitch (Member # 2895) on :
I remember the video store originally having a section dedicated to Beta, which then became an aisle, then a stack, then a shelf, then nothing.
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
Part of Orrickman's post from 2003:
quote:...Betamax lost the war because it was a Sony trademark and no other company could use that video system for years. Because of that, the other companies had to go with VHS and it became very popular...
I remember reading somewhere that Akio Morita, the longtime Chairman of Sony, wrote in his autobiography that perhaps his biggest mistake he made with the company was not letting other companies to become compatible with the Betamax system. I can understand Sony's refusal at the time, but in the long run, it did more harm than good.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Pretty soon they won't even know what a VHS tape looks like either!!! Analogic recording will soon be just part of the past...