darkside

Loved seeing the Beta in there. You could fill a pretty big closet with Sony's failed proprietary hardware.

Gizmo

I thought this was confirmed it was commissioned by the BDA?

DVD Polizei

I guess we need to email the BDA.

JimRochester

Exactly - It was capable of much better picture and sound due to the way the tape was wrapped around the head. However although prices were dropping, the manufacturers of VHS were adding features and dropping prices much faster leading to tremendous sales (kind of like Toshiba is doing now). Once the population perceived VHS as outselling Beta, and SONY's refusal to drop the prices faster on the Beta machines, the format was doomed.

Gizmo

However VHS at the time had more CEs making players for it then Sony's Beta IIRC. Everything else though rings true to HD DVD vs. Beta. I don't expect any of the Blu-ray players to drop sub $300 for another 6-8 months while I fully expect to see HD DVD players at the sub $200 permanent price range in the next month or two. Then you have the whole profile mess with possibly only the 1.0 players dropping while 1.1 stay at their price or selling for much higher (like Sony'S BDP-300 1.0 Profile player with a MSRP of $699...WTF?) Of course I was barley born when these original wars were going on so....

Spiderbite

When I was a kid and the VHS vs. Beta wars were going strong, my dad was putting his money into buying movies on CED (though we used an old top loading VHS in the late 70's to record TV shows...but buying movies on VHS was not normal at the time).

CED - Talk about an awful format.

I can remember seeing some movies for almost the first time once he went to buying movies on VHS due to the crazy amount of skipping you had with CED. I can remember pulling that huge thin cartidge (think large plastic LP size) out and blowing all over the top of it and then having to go back and fast forward to where you where...to then watch more skipping. Don't even get me started about the wired remote control that extended maybe 3 feet!

I would love to know how much money he dropped on that format. Movies weren't cheap then like they are now. Hell, I remember buying a used copy of The Empire Strikes Back on VHS for $50 as a kid...and that was half-price!

HD-DVD, BR...I know format wars suck but we really think about how good we have it quality-wise and even price-wise compared to those poor early adopters of the 70's & early 80's. Gonna have to rag my Dad about this today when I see him for Thanksgiving.

DVD Polizei

CED - Talk about an awful format.

I can do better--of course it isn't video. Remember Philips' DCC format that was carried at Radio Shack (exclusively, I think)? The Digital Compact Cassette? Oh my, that was a bust.

Qui Gon Jim

Same here.

lizard

As an owner of one of those early top-loading VHS machines, with wired remote, my recollection of the VCR format war was that Sony developed both the VHS ("Video Home System") and BetaMax. They kept the technically superior Beta and sold the rights for the VHS to JVC who then opened it up to other manufacturers. (Think Apple = Sony, proprietary format and Microsoft = JVC, open format.)

But the real reason VHS triumphed, in my opinion, was that a VHS tape could hold more hours of recorded TV: 2, 4, or 6, depending on the quality level. Since the machines were used initially for time-shifting TV programs or archiving broadcast TV shows or movies (pre-recorded tapes at affordable prices came much, much later), the advantage in recording time was significant and led to the dominance of VHS over Beta. The number of competing manufacturers of VHS machines was also a factor because it drove down prices.

I still use a VHS VCR to time-shift TV programs. Now we have eight hour tapes and, yes, I use it at the crappiest setting because my TV reception is poor and using a higher quality setting would be pointless. I suppose a DVR would do the same but most of them seem to come with subscriptions (Tivo, cable boxes, and the like) and I have zero interest in that stuff, especially with analog TV about to disappear.

This poor TV reception, and the fact that I get only two channels, is why I have been so pleased with DVD TV boxsets: excellent picture and sound, no commercials, random access, watch as many or as few episodes as one wants. And one can sell the set if it is no longer wanted. Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD and High Definition TV figure to make series sets even better.

While the BetaMax/Blu-ray Disc comparisons are amusing, I think that Sony has learned its lesson and will "move Heaven and Earth" to ensure that its new format does not face the same fate as Beta. And, while we are talking about Sony innovations, please remember that Sony invented the portable transistor radio (big success, and tremendously important to the CE industry), the Walkman (also a big success, even if now supplanted by the Ipod), and was a co-inventor of the CD format (along with Phillips).

Anubis2005X

I love Blu-ray, but yeah, the mudslinging thing is stupid. I'm hoping this didn't come from Sony. I was under the impression that their marketing department was improving after seeing those latest PS3 commercials...

Gizmo

Very interesting stories. Had no idea about CED.

JimRochester

I quite agree, and my explanation was an oversimplification. The early Betas at the best quality were 1 hour tapes then 2 and eventually 3. You could get 4.5 at the lower setting. I could fit 3 of those 90 minute HBO movies on one tape. Part of the selling point of Beta over VHS was the lack of quality. Even though you could record twice as much it looked twice as bad on VHS. Even on the 19 and 27" TV's of the day.

In 1982 and 83 we were selling SONY Hi-Fi Betas for $1000 while VHS was availble for a few hundred.

ALthough there are obvious differences in this format war; similiar quality for example, I just see some similiarities which I've been through before. That being one manufacturer SONY holding the line on price while another like Toshiba is going mainstream and trying to flood the market with their preferred format at a big discount.