Say it’s 1979 and you’ve just decided
to blow two whole paychecks on one of these new fangled video cassette recorders. Congratulations
on your life-changing decision! But now comes the time to ask yourself, which one should
you buy??? Two systems are vying for your money, each packing their own set of unique
features. A format war’s a brewin, how do you know which choice is the right one???
Since a startlingly large percentage of viewers may have never used or even seen a videocassette
recorder, let’s just throw it in your face and make clear that we’re talking about
the format war between VHS, the winner which was released in 1976 and stayed relevant until
around 2003, and Betamax, the loser which actually predated VHS by a year but became
the butt of jokes by the late 1980’s. The format war between Beta and VHS is widely
studied even today in business classes the world over. In this video, we’ll explore
the history of the format war, and I’ll be comparing two machines which were both
on sale in 1979, and I think by the end you’ll be able to see why VHS left Beta in the dust Quick side notes--this video discusses the
format war as it took place in the United States. As such, Philip’s excellent and
revolutionary Video 2000 format, which never made it to the US, is not being discussed.
Beta was not the first consumer videocassette format--that title goes to Philips’ VCR
format unless you count the professional U-Matic, but Phillips was ultimately unsuccessful.
Betamax is regarded as the first consumer format to achieve any sort of widespread success. Here we are. The pinnacle of modern engineering. You can even smell it. Trust me, these machines
smell….groovy. On the left, we have an RCA VDT-600, a fully-featured VHS model built
in Japan by the Matsushita corporation (the parent of Panasonic) under license from the
Japan Victor Company, or JVC, the inventors of VHS, and branded and sold by the Radio
Corporation of America, or RCA. Pay attention to that jumbled mess of a who-built-it, because
it will be important later. On our right, we have a Sony SL-5400, a high-end Betamax
model (which came to be known simply as Beta) made in Japan by Sony, for Sony, and sold
as a Sony. Glad we got that out of the way. So let’s start with a physical overview
of these two machines. In the looks department, I’d say this is kind of a tie. The Sony
doesn’t exactly look sleek, in fact it looks kind of like a giant brick. Very sharp edges,
and very straight lines. But, it’s fit-and-finish is excellent, and the non-nonsense style almost
makes it handsome. The clock is very clear and attractive, with a charming programming
display, and the buttons are labeled on both the top and the edge. The RCA, on the other
hand, looks a fair bit bulkier, but you could say more interesting. It’s sloping front
allows the clock-timer to be seen from a top-down view, and helps to minimise its bulky appearance.
But the buttons are far clunkier, with weird color choices for their tops. RCAs decision
to use mixed-case font for labeling makes the machine appear perhaps a little less professional,
but sort of gives it some modern-day charm. Tuning channels is accomplished on the RCA
behind this front panel, where you’ll also find the tracking knob. Channel tuning on
the Sony is done up top. See in these days, electronic tuners were hella expensive. So
instead, VCR’s had either big-’ol knobs like this, or they’d have a series of tiny
mechanical tuners each tied to a button. You’d pick which 14 or so channels you’d want
to be able to record, and set them with these little switches and thumbwheels. Then you’d
simply select between them with the buttons, with each button corresponding to one of these
doohickeys. Often the VCR would come with replacement inserts to label these with the
actual channel numbers. Sony gives you camera inputs on the front
of the machine, but the audio input is strangely a ⅛ inch audio jack rather than a standard
plug. RCA gives you standard connections, but they are in back. Interestingly, the Sony
machine has hardly any LEDs used in its design. Apart from the timer programming display for
tape length and this one little indicator, all of the lights are either small incandescent
bulbs, or in the case of the channel indicators, tiny green fluorescent lamps, similar to the
ordinary orange neon lamp you find in a power strip, but with a green phosphor coating the
inside of the glass envelope. The RCA model, on the other hand, makes extensive use of
LEDs, the only incandescent bulb being located inside the cassette mechanism, working as
part of the end-of-tape sensor. Let’s get all touchy-feely. When using these
machines, there’s a clear winner in the ergonomics department. The Sony was obviously
designed to make the operational experience a pleasant one. The power switch moves silently--no
click here--but decisively with clear physical indentations between its positions. Each of
the piano-key buttons is easy to press. And when you press eject to raise the cassette
tray, the machine seems to greet you with a fine, may I have your cassette, sir? When
you lower the cassette into the machine, it immediately makes the most anti-climactic
sound in the history of ever, the sound coming from the action of threading the tape. See,
Beta machines usually kept the tape threaded at all times, even during fast forwarding
or rewinding, but there are exceptions, notably Sanyo built machines. Again, pressing play
takes little force, and as the tape is already threaded, you get a picture pretty quickly. Now here’s where the RCA machine starts
to look bad. The power switch isn’t quite so nice, no it’s not a bad switch, but not
a satisfying one. It’s just a switch. The red LED lights up, and for those wondering
why there’s an indicator for Dew, that’s because these early VCRs were often lugged
around with a camera to record life’s precious moments, and RCA, I mean Matsushita, added
a dew sensor to prevent operation of the machine if a cold VCR was brought into a warm, humid
room, causing condensation to form on mechanical components. Pretty thoughtful, actually. Anyway,
back to business. Pressing the eject button on this machine requires smashing your finger
into the button like you smash X when playing Gran Turismo 3. Once you’ve hurt your finger
enough to actually release the tray, the machine says GIMME A TAPE! No money
spent on dampers here, no sir. Lowering the tape into the machine does, well, nothing.
This machine won’t do a thing until you press a button. Get ready, cause that play
button isn’t any easier to press. Once you’ve jammed it in there, the machine then lazily
threads the tape around the head drum, and eventually, you get
a picture. BUT, we can overlook minor inconveniences
if it’s a more capable machine, right? Well, here’s where things start to get interesting.
Sony was already forced to play catch-up in 1979, and a lot of that had to do with the
cassette itself. Speaking of, let’s have a look at those. A VHS cassette is still a somewhat common
sight, and you probably know what it looks like. Usually black, but not always!, the cassette measures 187 mm wide, 103 mm deep, and 25 mm thick. Two windows allow you to
see the internal reels so you can see how much tape is on each reel, and thus you can
tell roughly where you are along the length of the of tape. A very utilitarian design,
the cassette just is. Nothing fancy here. The Beta cassette is a good deal smaller than
the VHS cassette, with dimensions of 156 mm wide, 96 mm deep, and 25 mm thick. This would
prove a fatal mistake, as you’ll soon see. The identical thickness isn’t much of a
surprise as both Beta and VHS used half inch wide magnetic tape. Design wise, the Beta cassette is more visually
interesting. Most Beta cassettes only had a window on the left-hand reel, allowing you
to see how much tape was remaining, but not how much was used. I suppose Sony thought
knowing how much tape was left was most important, but it was also annoying as hell. Case in
point: particularly with prerecorded tapes, you can’t tell if a tape is rewound all
the way! I know just by looking at this VHS tape that it’s not quite at the beginning.
But for Beta, the asymmetrical artsiness of the cassette means that you really don’t
know with certainty if that tape is completely rewound. But it wasn’t just that annoying
little quirk, in fact most of Beta’s problems come directly from this cassette design. Let’s
take a step back in time and go over a few things. When developing the format, Sony took the
old adage of “size matters” the wrong way. See, Betamax was pretty much just a shrunken
down version of U-Matic, Sony’s earlier ¾ inch cassette format used in broadcasting.
U-Matic had a recording time of 1 hour, which was fine for television studios, as there
would usually be multiple machines handling multiple tapes for things like commercial
breaks, and there was always a broadcast technician able to switch between them and load up new
tapes. Sony rather naively assumed that 1 hour was therefore a fine benchmark for a
consumer format, and kept that their goal for the Betamax machine. This went hand in
hand with Sony’s desire to keep the cassette on the smaller side--they used their company
handbook as a template for a “Convenient size”. Trouble is, worrying about that was
the wrong thing to do. Sony released the Betamax system in 1975 with L-500 tapes, the standard
length that ran for 1 hour. L-750 tapes were also available which could run for an hour
and a half, but that was it. So, in comes the revolutionary VCR, and early
adopters were quickly annoyed with that 90 minute--at best--recording time. See, the
whole point of a VCR is to allow you to record shows while you’re not home, preventing
you from missing a show you really wanted to watch. A 90 minute recording time meant
a lot of programs couldn’t be recorded. For example, movies would routinely take up
at least a 2 hour broadcast, with commercial breaks built in. But this is America, dammit,
and the most important thing we need to record is a football game. That ain’t gonna work
with Beta. (Meanwhile), JVC is busy developing their
soon-to-be unveiled VHS format. Fun fact, VHS stands for Video Home System. You know,
cause that’s definitely the order those three words belong in. Anyway, JVC’s system
used a larger cassette which--guess what--HAS MORE TAPE IN IT! This meant that right out
of the gate, the VHS system had Sony beat with a 2 hour recording time on a standard
T-120 cassette. Let’s take these cassettes apart and compare
what’s on the inside. Obviously these internal tape reels are way smaller on the Beta tape,
so to have the same length of tape as this cassette, the tape would need to be impractically
thin. To be clear, the signals recorded on the tape aren’t compatible in any way. The
machines record onto the tape in very different fashions with incompatible signals, but as
it’s otherwise identical tape, the speed the tape runs through each format is pretty
close so the overall length of tape was most important (still, VHS did run a little bit
slower). Here are two blank tapes, one Beta, one VHS. You’ll see that the L-750 cassette
contains 222 meters of tape (the 750 means 750 feet of tape). Remember, the L-750 is
the “long” version with thinner than normal tape. But this T-120, the standard VHS length,
has 24 more meters of tape. A T-160, the most common “long” VHS cassette, has 327 meters
of tape, almost 50% more than the L-750. Sony did release the ultra-thin (and somewhat rare)
L-830, but this wasn’t a huge deal as it only squeezed an extra 10 minutes of recording
time on early machines. Just by the look of these tapes, Sony seemed to be at a huge disadvantage
here. (Meanwhile), The American company RCA had
a rather large part in ensuring VHS would end up winning the format war. See, before
Beta was even released, RCA was interested in building a videotape recorder of their
own. But they heard about Sony’s work on Betamax, and decided that maybe they’d be
better of to just license the technology and ask Sony to build machines for them. But there
were 2 problems. First was that Sony wasn’t all that excited to build machines for other
people, let alone let others build copies. And second was their stubbornness on recording
time. RCA reps reportedly asked the Sony guys if a longer recording time was possible, and
sony said “Maybe someday”. Pft. PFT. Don’t bother with them! So RCA found out about what JVC was doing.
Already they were more excited about JVC’s product, because if could record 2 hours.
RCA asked if a longer recording time was possible, and JVC gave a long answer about reduced image
quality and maybe it’s not such a good idea but I guess yes it would be technically possible
so long as you kept that reduced picture quality in mind to which RCA said OK! Sound great!
Keep in touch! Unlike the controlling Sony, JVC was totally
cool with licensing the VHS patents to other companies, and shortly dozens of names would
appear on VHS machines. Like this machine, Matsushita made RCA’s first Selectavision
VCR, and although JVC still warned them about doing so, RCA had Matsushita produce the recorders
with an LP, or Long Play, recording mode, which cut the tape speed in half and thus
doubled the recording time. RCA thought this was imperative to having a successful product,
as 4 hours was a pretty average length for a broadcast football game. And guess what?
They were right on the money. As soon as RCA went public in 1977 about their
upcoming VCR with this amazing 4 hour recording capability, Sony executives gave a collective
AHH! And scrambled to come up with a solution. So what did they do? Well, they just ripped
off RCA’s technique and introduced a new recorder with the X-2 (later called Beta 2)
recording speed. Now, an L-500 tape could hold 2 hours of video, and an L-750 could
hold 3. Yay. But that’s still not as good as RCA’s machine. And now is where things
start to get interesting. These two machines reveal the tit-for-tat,
look-what-I-can-do nature of the format war in its early stages. RCA kept pushing the
importance of recording time, and this machine has the brand new, whiz-bang SLP speed, which
allows a whopping 6 hours of recording time on a T-120 tape, 8 hours on the slightly thinner
T-160. Sony wouldn’t leave this unanswered and released the Beta 3 recording speed, which
pushed the L-750 tape to 4.5 hours recording time. Still not that great. So, what did they
do? Well, this machine marks the beginning of Sony’s desperate attempts to find a way
to wow buyers with new exciting features that might let people overlook the shorter recording
time. You’ll notice this machine proudly proclaims BETASCAN! What does that mean? Well,
all video recorders before this very model had to blank the screen when fast-forwarding
or rewinding. On this VHS machine, you have to press STOP, wait for the tape to unthread,
and then you can fast forward or rewind. And then you press STOP, then PLAY, and hope you’re
in the right place. But BETASCAN lets you see on the screen a fast-motion image, showing
you exactly where you are on the tape! Revolutionary! While this feature would eventually become
a staple of the VCR from both Beta machines and VHS models (once VHS manufacturers figured
out how to copy Sony’s work, which didn’t take long), it was at the time kind of a grasping-at-straws
gesture. Again, you’ve got to put yourself in the mindset of consumers at the time. These
machines are here to save you from the deep dark despair that consumes you when you’ve
missed your television show! Betascan was more of a “neat trick” at this point.
What’s most important is the machine’s flexibility at recording shows. And here’s
where the Sony machine falls flat on its face. OK, we’re gonna have to pause here. There’s
a lot to digest in this format war, so I’m going to split it here into two videos. In
the next video, we’ll be discussing how Sony seemed to think they could decide what
their customers wanted. This led them to a position where they were always a step ahead
of VHS in terms of technical feats, but often a step behind when it came to everyday features
that people really needed. Thanks for watching! Don’t forget to hit that like button and
subscribe! As you know, I’m doing my best to keep videos like this headed your way.
See you next time!
