What is Betamax?

You may have heard the name, you may have seen the cassette, but we can bet you've never used one. So, what the heck is Betamax?

Basically, Betamax is the less popular sibling of VHS. In the late 1970s, there was a Videotape Format War between Betamax and VHS; Sony developed the Betamax format, while JVC engineers developed VHS (so many acronyms). Long story short, VHS became the prominent format for home video entertainment. Despite Betamax being slightly smaller and slightly better quality, as well as operating like a VHS tape in just about every way, it didn't win over consumers like VHS did.

So what won the war?

It was primarily money. VCRs were cheaper because they were ultimately made cheaper. Betamax machines were far superior in many ways but consumers wanted the best deal. Another factor was that the VCR had a longer recording time, but it's hard to say if that was a deal-breaker back in 1977.

Studio 85 does get the occasional Betamax tape for digital conversion, and the higher quality is evident just by holding the cassette itself. VHS tapes are, unfortunately, made cheap and not built to last long so be sure to get yours digitized before it's too late.

Fun fact; Despite being far less popular than VHS, Betamax recorders were manufactured all the way until 2002. Even more shocking, Betamax cassettes were being sold up until 2016!