# Was porn the reason why VHS triumphed over Beta?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-porn-the-reason-why-vhs-triumphed-over-beta/309163>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 21, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-porn-the-reason-why-vhs-triumphed-over-beta/309163 "2005-06-21T04:42:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-porn-the-reason-why-vhs-triumphed-over-beta/309163/21 "2005-06-21T23:23:02Z")

</div>

Until digital audio recording became viable, beta was cherished for it’s hi-fi audio, which was very very good. The beta hi-fi was protected by patents, and the VHS hi-fi scheme didn’t give nearly as good results. So beta hung on with the audiophile/musician/lowbuck-studio scene long after it was dead WRT consumer video. DAT, recordable CDROMs, and now ubiquitious computer based digital audio pretty much piled dirt on the long dead format.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-porn-the-reason-why-vhs-triumphed-over-beta/309163/22 "2005-06-21T23:30:13Z")

</div>

> [@Musicat](#):
>
> I’ve heard that Beta still flourishes in the professional TV station world. Can anyone confirm this? If true, it would seem to have bucked the VHS-consumer trend of years ago.

The Beta used in TV stations is not the same as the Beta for home VCRs. BetaCam is used by TV stations. BetaCam is often refered to as Beta.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-porn-the-reason-why-vhs-triumphed-over-beta/309163.md?page=1)