Had a betamax in our home growing up... and then a VHS.. yup.. living the high life, we were.

I still have my Toshiba VCR from Y2K, but it only to connect between my very old video card and 19.5" Sharp CRT TV (January 1996).

That's some good learnin'. Who'da thunk the internets had quality information?

"Just good enough" says it all really.

Just like my old stuff! Also, they are reliable that last a long time!

He forgot the most important blow to the betamax: JVC licensed VHS, SONY refused to do it and wanted to take the whole video market as a monopoly. So VHS was available, in cheaper prices from multiple manufacturers and with ever increasing options while SONY and BetaMax had couple of models.. Not the first time SONY has lost something over greed, BluRay almost went with the same route (allthou there were several companies developing it from the start).

BetaMax cassette was 1h with the short play (and better quality), 2h with long play (later over 3h). Even on that machine he demonstrated.. The real reason for video cassette wars going for JVC was licensing and price dropped obviously with competition. But BetaMax was around almost for the entirety of video cassette history, collectors often wanted theirs in BetaMax for better sound and slightly better picture quality. Sound difference was noticeable, picture,, naah, not so much (i was there when this war happened...)

Sony was offered to join JVC before either had come out...

I for one gladly endorse anything that would fuck Sony over.

(@ant: small typo in your summary, JVS -> JVC.)

Yes, but if even John Carmack admitted that programming a VCR was too complicated for him, we might as well consider that this kind of feature was not available to the layman. :-)

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by MrFisk.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Sony, Betamax, lost, win, JVS, VHS, video cassette, tape, recorder, VCRs, TV, television' to 'Sony, Betamax, lost, win, JVC, VHS, video cassette, tape, recorder, VCRs, TV, television' - edited by MrFisk

My friend starting peddling VHS rentals to remote grocery stores in upstate NY and Vermont in the mid-80s. His business was booming, he could barely fit enough videos in his van to meet the demand. By the early 90s it fell way off, it was barely worth driving the routes any more. Of course now it's a distant memory.