Originally posted by: Mielr
Originally posted by: lordjedi Betamax videos had far better quality than VHS tapes.
LINK From that article:
"But rather than demanding better pictures for today's TV sets, consumers have shown more interest in LP (Long Play) modes that reduce the picture quality to provide longer recording times."
So in essence, nobody cared that Betamax looked better (and lasted longer if I'm not mistaken). They wanted the longer recording times (just like I mentioned previously) at the expense of quality. And who could blame them. Most people didn't have huge televisions or hi-def (didn't exist at the time in the home market). VHS looked "good enough" so there was no reason to go Betamax. That and a lot of people would record over and over again. As long as they could see most of the picture, nobody cared if it had any visible distortions. Hell, I remember making copies and not knowing why the screen went dim and bright and I didn't care about that either (years later I found out it was Macrovision protection).
I remember trying to rent a movie during the "war". Yeah, the video stores had plenty of Betamax movies, but all the VHS rentals were sold out. Hmm, I wonder if that's because everyone else, at the time, had VHS or if they had Betamax. Something tells me they all had VHS.
While parts of that article are a little more accurate, he doesn't actually refute any "myths". Yep, Betamax was shorter and never caught up with VHS. Yep, they tried to license it, but pretty much failed. And of course the players were cheaper after they lost the war. Everyone had players that were useless so they were trying to get rid of them. That's simple economics (supply and demand) and has nothing to do with actual hardware costs.