Date: Mon 5 Mar 84 15:58:29-EST
From: Bill Dietz <DIETZ%TARTAN@CMU-CS-C.ARPA>
Subject: Beta vs. VHS
To: Edmund.Clarke@CMU-CS-G.ARPA

Let me start by saying that I am a Beta fan.  That is due partly to my being
pleased by many products made by Sony, and partly due to having used machines
of both types and enjoying the use of my Betamax much better. 

The big plus for VHS has mainly to do with market size.  Right now, VHS enjoys
a 3/4 share of the market in the US.  This is mostly due to RCA's adoption of
the VHS system early on, and the lack of a big US name behind the Beta format
(Sears came in late and just didn't have the clout.  Now they sell both
formats.)  Therefore, more prerecorded movies are available for VHS.  Also, the
degraded long play mode available on most VHS machines (the original backer of
the format for the consumer market, JVC, has not been supportive of this
degraded mode) allowed more "soaps" to be recorded per tape for those who
didn't want to miss anything while they took a two week vacation. 

The big plus for Beta has to do with technology.  Beta is better.  The patented
load mechanism allows the head drum to be larger.  This has advantages.  Ever
wonder why most of the good features appear on Beta first.  That's because
because it is easier, technically, to do things like fast forward scanning and
the new HI-FI digital encoding in the Beta format.  In addition, tapes are
transported with better results on the Beta system (made on one machine, played
on another.)  Finally, the Beta system avoids that stupid delay between the
time you press record and the time the machine actually starts recording (one
of my biggest annoyances when I use a VHS machine.)  There are other advantages
but I would have to re-read the video literature to list them here.

Both formats do a competent job on recording and playback, but I am quite happy
to have chosen the company that invented then abandoned the VHS system in favor
of a system that is technically superior.  (By the way, you have heard that the
Beta tapes are smaller.  Well, because of that, I get lots more tapes in a
single drawer than my VHS friends and I am saving up for a Betamovie camera
that doesn't have to be as big and bulky as the VHS version will be if it ever
gets here.)  Happy videoing,

Bill Dietz
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