Betamax - The legacy of Betamax, Criticism

The trade name for a videotape cassette recorder system developed by Sony in 1975 for the domestic market, using ½ in (12·7 mm) tape at a speed of 1·87 cm/s in a compact Beta cassette with a playing time up to 3 hours. Although economical, it never achieved the popularity of the competitive VHS system.

Sony's Betamax is the 12.7 mm (0.5 inch) home videocassette tape recording format introduced in 1975 and derived from the earlier, professional 19.1 mm (0.75 inch) U-matic video cassette format. Like the video home recording system VHS introduced by JVC in 1976, it had no guard band, and used azimuth recording to reduce cross-talk. The "Betamax" name came from the fact that when the tape ran through the transport it looked like the Greek letter "Beta". In addition to Sony and Sanyo, Betamax video recorders were also sold by Toshiba, Pioneer, Aiwa and NEC, and the Zenith Electronics Corporation and WEGA Corporations contracted with Sony to produce VCRs for their product lines.

Sony introduced the Betamax home video system in 1975 with the LV-1901 Trinitron/Betamax console. It was most popular video format in 1983, gaining almost a third of the UK video recorder market, while Sanyo's VTC5000 was the top selling UK video recorder.

The world's first camcorders were Sony's Betamovie Betamax recorders.

The legacy of Betamax

The VHS format's defeat of the Betamax format became a classic marketing case study, now identified with the verbal phrase "to Betamax", wherein a proprietary technology format is overwhelmed in the market by a format allowing multiple, competing, licensed manufacturers. Sony's confidence in its ability to dictate an industry standard backfired when JVC, and parent Matsushita, made the tactical decision to forego Sony's offer of Betamax in favour of JVC's VHS technology. Sony finally conceded defeat in 1988 when it too began producing VHS recorders. However, Sony may be said to have had some small consolation in this saga as its Video-8 small-format videotape is essentially a scaled-down version of the Betamax, and Video-8 dominated the home camcorder format for the next 15 years with the rival VHS-C format only gaining a small market share before both formats were rendered obsolete by the digital MiniDV standard.

The real reason for the success of VHS is RCA, who asked Matsushita for a 4 hour VHS machine. RCA had earlier discussed this with Sony during Beta's development phase, but Sony's engineers felt that by slowing the tape speed from 4 to 2 cm/sec and narrowing the video track, picture quality would be too poor.

One other major consequence of the Betamax technology's introduction to the U.S. was the lawsuit Sony Corp. Universal City Studios (1984, the "Betamax case"), with the U.S. Supreme Court determining home videotaping to be legal in the United States, wherein home videotape cassette recorders were a legal technology since they had substantial non-infringing uses.

In the professional and broadcast video industry, Sony's Betacam, derived from Betamax as a professional format, became one of several standard formats; production houses exchange footage on Betacam videocassettes, and the Betacam system became the most widely used videotape format in the ENG (Electronic News Gathering) industry, replacing the 3/4" U-matic tape format (which was the first practical and cost-effective portable videotape format for broadcast television, signaling the end of 16mm film -- and the phrase "film at eleven" often heard on the six-o-clock newscast, before the film had been developed). On a technical level, Betacam and Betamax are similar in that both share the same videocassette shape, use the same oxide tape formulation with the same coercivity, and both record linear audio tracks on the same location of the videotape. But in the key area of video recording, Betacam and Betamax are completely different. (Unlike Betamax, Betacam uses a component-video encoding system.) BetaCam tapes are mechanically interchangeable with Betamax, but not electronically. Betamax is a colour-under system with linear tape speeds ranging from 4cm/sec to 1.33cm/sec.

Sony also offered a range of Industrial Betamax products, a Beta I only format for industrial and institutional users.

Betamax also had a significant part to play in the music recording industry when Sony introduced its PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) digital recording system as an encoding box - PCM adaptor that connected to a Betamax recorder. The Sony PCM-F1 adaptor was sold with a companion Betamax VCR SL-2000 as a portable Digital audio recording system.

Initially, Sony was able to tout several Betamax-only features, such as BetaScan, a high speed picture search in either direction, and BetaSkipScan, a technique that allowed the operator to see where he was on the tape by pressing the FF key (or REW, if in that mode) and the transport would switch into the BetaScan mode until the key was released. Sony believed that the M-Load transports used by VHS machines made copying these trick modes impossible.

Sony would also sell a BetaPak, a small deck designed to be used with a camera. The tape was wrapped 300 degrees around a smaller, 44.671mm diameter head drum, with a single dual-azimuth head to write the video tracks.

Betamax introduced high fidelity audio to videotape, as Betahifi.

Prior to the introduction of Betahifi, Sony shifted the Y carrier up by 400 kHz to make room for the 4 FM carriers that would be needed for Betahifi.

Some Sony NTSC models were marketed as "HiFi Ready" (with a SL-HFR prefix to the model's number instead of the usual SL or SL-HF). These Betamax decks looked like a regular Betamax model, except for a special 28 pin connector on the rear. This was possible because unlike a VHS hifi deck, an NTSC Betamax didn't need an extra pair of heads.

For PAL, however, the bandwidth between the Chroma and Luminance carriers was not sufficient enough to allow additional FM carriers, so depth multiplexing was employed, where the audio track would be recorded in the same way that the video track was. The lower frequency audio track was written first by a dedicated head, and the video track recorded on top by the video head.

Sony was confident that VHS could not achieve the same audio performance feat as Betahifi. However, to the chagrin of Sony, JVC did develop a VHS hi-fi system on the principle of depth multiplexing approximately a year after the first Betahifi VCR, the SL-5200, was introduced by Sony. Despite initial praise as providing "CD sound quality," both Beta Hi-Fi and VHS HiFi suffered from "carrier buzz," where high frequency information bled into the audio carriers, creating momentary "buzzing" and other audio flaws.

In 1985 Sony would introduce a new feature, High Band or SuperBeta, by again shifting the Y carrier, this time by 800 kHz.

JVC would counter SuperBeta with VHS HQ, or High Quality, a series of improvements to their VHS format. Due to the lower writing speeds inherent to the VHS design, Super VHS required a special high grade tape, unlike SuperBeta, which used the regular formulation Beta cassettes. Sony would also offer SuperBeta in their Industrial Beta line.

Sony would again push the envolope with ED or "Extended Definition" Betamax, capable of up to 500 lines of resolution, using a metal formulation tape from the Betacam.

Despite the sharp decline in sales of Betamax recorders in the late 1980s and subsequent halt in production of new recorders by Sony in 2002, the format is still being used by a small number of people, most of whom are collectors or hobbyists.

Criticism

A multitude of technical drawbacks along with the proprietary nature of the Betamax format hurt it in its competition with VHS, in spite of the Betamax's superior video quality.

The main issue with the Beta format in the early days of the USA market was recording time. Sony engineers and management had decided that since one hour was acceptable to the U-Matic's buyers, it was acceptable for Beta too.

RCA had initially planned a home video format around 1974, to be called "SelectaVision MagTape," but cancelled it after hearing rumors about Sony's Betamax format, and was considering Sony as an OEM for an RCA-branded VCR. RCA had discussions with Sony, but RCA felt the recording time was too short, insisting that they needed at least a 4-hour recording time (reportedly because that was the length of an average televised U.S. football game). Sony engineers knew that the technology available to manufacture video heads wasn't up to the task yet, but halving the tape speed and track width was a possibility.

Soon after, RCA met with execs with the Victor Corporation of Japan (JVC), who had created their own video format, christened "VHS" (Video Home System). (JVC never did make a VHS machine capable of the 4-hour "LP" mode, though they did later offer a 6-hour mode, claiming performance better than the early 4-hour machines due to improvements in video heads and video circuitry.)

Sony would introduce an "X2" speed of 20 mm/sec for a "2 hour Betamax." Later models would have the capability to handle a thinner tape that ran for 90 minutes in X1 mode, but many decks only recorded in X2.

Recording time was everything, with Beta eventually managing 5 hours at BIII (13.3 mm/sec) on an ultra-thin L-830 cassette, and VHS achieving 6 hours with Extended Play on the standard T-120 cassette (and up to 9 hours on an ultra-thin T-160 cassette, later even longer with the T-200 cassette). Sony was never able to overcome the disadvantage of the 1 hour recording limit when Beta was introduced.

According James Lardner's 1987 book, "Fast Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, and the Onslaught of the VCR," Sony had met with Matsushita execs sometime in late 1974/early 1975, to discuss the forthcoming home video market. They had previously co-operated in the development and marketing of the "U" format videocassette, with Sony marketing under the U-Matic brand. At the meeting, the Matsushita exec showed them a VHS prototype, and advised them it was not too late to embrace VHS "for the good of the industry." Thus, the stage was set for a battle between Sony and Matsushita in the arena of home video. An L-750 runs for 3.25 hours with the PAL system, whereas the equivalent E180 tape would run for just 3 hours, giving Beta a longer running time for most users. The very longest L830 tape however was slightly shorter than the longest VHS tape of 4 hours at the time, but the difference of 25 minutes was not enough to be frequently cited as a reason for VHS being preferred. The family has been shown renting videos at The Beta Barn on a number of occasions, although it later became VHS Village. Also in an episode Homer goes to to the junkyard to get rid of a giant candyball, he walks past several piles of junk containing Betamax tapes and Laserdiscs. Among the "valuables" they uncover are a Betamax tape and an 8-track cassette tape. The Betamax was also used by the Bundy family in the television series Married... In the third series of the Channel 4 comedy show, Bo' Selecta, Denis Norden makes a comment on Betamax tapes being much smaller than standard video cassettes, particularly the one on the set behind him, which he describes as being "fucking big." In an episode of the BBC comedy The Mighty Boosh, a villain made of tape is called The Betamax Bandit. In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, where Billy thaws out Fred Flintstone trapped in ice, he describes the caveman's time with the usage of betamax tapes. In an episode of The Red Green Show, Red Green uses old Betamax tapes as laundry rope, and utilizes the VCR to bring the clothes back and forth between the house and the field. Beastie Boys music video Sabotage was recorded with Betamax cameras. In an episode of That 70's Show (Canadian Road Trip), Red buys (and misuses) a Betamax. In the 2006 series Doctor Who episode The Idiot's Lantern, the Tenth Doctor created a makeshift video recorder with 1953 technology to trap an energy being on a Betamax tape. Some Get Fuzzy comic strips have used the word Beta or Betamax humorously several times. In an episode of the sci-fi anime series Cowboy Bebop, an unlabeled Betamax video tape is delivered to the main characters. Near the end of the episode, the characters receive another mysterious delivery in the form of a Betamax player. When George Jetson presents video evidence to Judge Mentok the Mindtaker, the Judge asks if anyone knows where they can find a Betamax machine. Which ever I choose will be obsolete by easter, you are looking at Betamax man" In "The 40 Year Old Virgin", Andy mentions to a customer that Betamax is a dead technology along with VHS.