I remember hearing a long time ago that the reason why VHS became much more widespread than Beta was because nearly all of the early taped pornography was on VHS. This lead to more people buying VCRs in order to watch porn at home.
Does anyone know anything about this?
I have no cites for this, but I recall reading somewhere that the main reason was the whoever developed VHS also owned at least one major media company, whereas at the time, Sony (who developed Beta) didn’t. As a result, more films were made available on VHS than on Beta - even though technically Beta was a superior standard.
I was under the impression it was a liscensing issue. JVC sold the liscense to VHS and Sony did not for Beta, hoping to corner a market.
Sony failed (mostly), and VHS became the home video standard.
I have no cite, just lots of talk from sales reps when I sold TV’s and crap in the 80’s for extra dough.
I just found this: http://www.urbanlegends.com/products/beta_vs_vhs.html
Guess what I heard wasn’t quite right then.
VHS players were cheaper than Beta players too. Proving once again Americans will choose price or quality.
For something a little off topic, my cousin is trying to sell a picture disc player and 33 picture discs. He has been trying for about a year and hasn’t found a buyer yet.
Yahoo! The JVC rep sold me hook, line, and sinker on an urban legend almost 20 yrs ago. Maybe he started it.
I’m gonna hunt him down and do things to his pets.
An article I read said that it had to do with the fact that the early Betamax tapes were limited to a single speed, and you could only get an hour or so of programming on a tape… which meant that most films would be on two tapes, and which made it impossible to use your timer to catch any program longer than one hour.
VHS, on the other hand, hit the market with TWO hour tapes, and quickly thereafter added a feature which permitted you to choose the speed at which the machine taped… allowing up to SIX HOURS to be taped on one videocassette, assuming you weren’t too picky about picture and sound quality.
From what I understand, this was Beta’s death knell. Between the lower cost of the machines and the ability to tape movies off HBO, Beta was doomed. They fought back, of course – within a year, they’d come out with special Betamax two-hour tapes, and some machines allowed you to vary the taping speed – but it was too little, too late. By then, most “video rental” outlets across the country had simply loaded up on cheap VHS machines, and Americans were following suit. The eagle had landed, and Beta had missed the boat, to mangle a metaphor.
Many movies were available for rental or sale on Beta, though, as well as a considerable amount of porn. I remember seeing quite a bit of it at a local video rental place that eventually quit bothering with Beta and, after a few years, finally died after having been Blockbustered to death.
Hmm, that “The Decline and Fall of Betamax” essay fails to acknowledge that Sony marketed a home videotape recorder in 1964 (see Bob Crane using it in Auto Focus), and a home videocassette recorder (the U-matic format) in 1971. Betamax (1975) and VHS (1976) were not the first home video formats, not even the first home videocassette formats. Just the most successful.
This should be interesting. I read today that VHS lead to the ability to increase the production of pornography. It meant that people did not have to go to X rated movie theatres, and could watch movies of that nature in the comfort of their own home. Also it led to the ability of the average person to make one.
Actually, I think it was the Beta which transformed pornography. For many a year, perhaps even now, Beta was the standard in video cameras.
Cheap tapes made (ahem) toss-off pornos much more cost effective than staged and filmed pornos. The result was that porno became a mass-production industry.
However, attempting to verify these facts could get me in a lot of trouble, so I submit it only as a suggestion.
Are you talking about a laserdisc or CED player? If so, try eBay.
And if you’re talking about Photo-LPs, give him my email address, and as long as they’re not ultra-common or absurdly overpriced, I’ll take them off his hands. If you’re talking about Photo-LPs, though, I haven’t the foggiest idea what you mean by a picture disk player.
We are faced with the exact same choice now. Different companies are offering different flavors for DVD-RW formats. Phillips looks like the leader as they already have VCR to DVD recorders on the market. You know they are sweating it when they have a little blurb in the corner of their add showing which companies have signed up with them and which haven’t.
Back in 1981, RCA introduced the Video Disk Player. Basically, it was a record with very fine grooves on it. The record stayed in it’s case until you shoved the whole case into a lot in the front of the player, then the machine loaded the record and ejected the case. IIRC, maximum time was 75 minutes per side, and you had to turn the disc over in the middle of the movie.
They only lasted 3 years. My Dad bought one, and eventually gave it to me in 1986. I found movies on sale at the local TV shop for $1.50 each, since it was a dead format, and bought LOTS of them.
Wish I still had that player. The quality was pretty good.
Is that what you meant by a picture disk player?
I had a Fisher Price video camera. You could get about 5 minutes of very low resolution B&W video on a 45 minute audio cassette (2.5 minutes per side). This was in the late '80s, it was incredibly cheesy but only about $90, and I had a metric shitload of fun with it (REAL videocameras were still luxuries and none of my friends had one).
Wow, I found one on eBay…
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3315&item=3000468876
Damn, just discovered that the PXL2000 is a big hit with many independent film producers, has been used in a couple movies (including one I’ve seen), and working models generally go for $250-$450 now! I think I threw mine away!
The reason VHS beat out Beta, as I learned it, has nothing to do with porn or even (directly) with consumers.
Essentially, Sony developed an experimental video format called “Alpha.” They thought it sucked, so they scrapped it. JVC said “we’ll buy it from you,” and Sony sold it thinking no one would be interested such a bad format. They then spent more time and money developing a better format called “Beta.” Meanwhile, JVC changed the name to VHS, spent all their money on marketing, and here we are today with VHS machines at home.
What is “better” about Betamax? Didn’t we just shoot down that urban legend further above?
I am an engineer at a TV station. (WNET New York) We produce and broadcast on Beta SP or Digibeta. We do not use any VHS formats (not even the “professional” ones.) That’s all I’m sayin’.