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When the first Betamax hit the scene in 1975 (SL-7200) there was only one recording speed. It was not referred to as Bx1 or at this time because there was no other speed to compare it to. Maximum recording time was limited to one hour using a K-60 cassette. The "60" meaning sixty minutes. The public wanted more time, so a longer cassette tape length was introduced, one that would record 90 minutes. To avoid confusion, Sony elected not to label the new length the K-90 (because a slower speed was coming) but the L-750, to coincide with the tape's length in feet. The K-60 was renamed with the L-500. It was early, and the public accepted the new numbering, but it did not eliminate the confusion entirely. Especially since there was a new competitor called VHS and their tape was numbered the T-120, meaning 120 minutes. Adding slower recording speeds later muddied the waters even more.
VHS ENTERS THE PICTURE
VHS, or the Video Home System as it was soon to be called, got its start when the Radio Corporation of America, famous for the RCA Victor record label, approached Sony and asked if they could slow the speed down on their VCR enough to record an entire football game (two hours). If so, they would throw their support behind Beta, buy their machines from Sony, and put the RCA label on it. Sony decided that they really didn't want a tie-in with RCA (they were a competitor in televisions at the time) and that video head manufacturing currently would not allow a slower speed. They would have to pass. And that was, as they say, a history-making moment. Improved video head manufacturing and design soon followed, and everything quickly changed.
RCA AND THE DEAL MADE IN HEAVEN
RCA was hungry to get in on the emerging video market, so they found a small, obscure Japanese electronics company called Mitsushita that was bragging that they were soon going to introduce their own video format. It was unknown and sure to fail because it didn't operate very well. But it could record up to two hours (still using the large heads) using a bigger, fragile, ugly cassette. It seems that by upgrading a test format discarded by Sony, and running a lot of tape in it at a slightly slower speed (using that colossal cassette), they could do it. In fact, they were about to go to market with just such a barbaric machine under the name of (JVC) Panasonic. So when RCA came knocking, they gladly welcomed the added revenue from a Sony competitor. They would call their new video division JVC, an acronym for the Japanese Victor Corporation. (See RCA Victor in there somewhere?) The deal was struck, and now there was going to be two competing formats. It was the hope of RCA that they would capture a small share from Sony. That was their goal, but they ended up having a tiger by the tail. Turns out RCA and (JVC) Panasonic sold only a few of their original two-hour units, but it was just enough to make an impression. RCA was going to run with it and call it Selectavision and advertise the heck out of it. This was the opening shot to what would soon become known as the notorious "Great Time War"— video recording time, that is.
THE COMPETITION HEATS UP
Video head manufacturing soon improved, so Sony was able to sort of counter the new time obsession by reducing the size of their video heads and reduce the recording speed for their next model, the two-speed and SL-8200. The new, slower speed doubled the recording time per cassette. Best of all showed almost no loss in picture quality from the original, soon to become the orphaned, speed. Now, with the new L-750 cassette, Beta could record up to three hours. Panasonic countered with their so-called "Great Time Machine*" that also had smaller heads and two speeds for up to four hours of recording time. The time race was on. Their picture was degraded some but still on par with most of the televisions of the day. Lastly, another, slower third speed was added for both formats. For Beta there was , and . VHS decided on calling their speeds SP, LP, and SLP. Because there was no time standard with VHS, some makers called these last two EP, XP, or XLP. This was slightly confusing to the public. Picture quality for the slowest speed (not to mention the sound) for both formats became pretty sad at the slowest speed, with Sony only slightly better. The time war was now pretty much settled with VHS being victorious. Sony never was able to match the perceived value of cramming more time on a single cassette. They did introduce a neat Betastack®: changer that could record up to twenty hours total, but that is another story. Click here to see it.
BEING THE
BEST IS NOT ENOUGH
Sony enlisted some big names to help in their fight to win over the home video market. Japanese greats like Aiwa, NEC, Sanyo, and Toshiba, just to name a few. All had to adhere to the stringent standards enforced by Sony. They were all selling quality, and there was no room for failure. As for VHS, if you once made sewing machines and decided to become a new, spiffy VHS manufacturer, all you had to do was start up a separate production line. That is to say Mitsushita was liberal on the licensing, and VHS wasn't too demanding to make. The quality of Beta compared to VHS was verified by a number of serious technical publications as being the better of the two. They echoed that Beta, far and away, had the best picture, the better features, was more stable, and much easier to use. But it didn't matter. The masses ended up wanting the most recording time at the lowest cost, and what the others were buying. Recorders soon became a bargain basement commodity that ended up producing some of the most dreadful VHS units ever offered to the American public. Price became king, and picture quality, design longevity, and operational prowess went out the window. Some VHS units sold for as little as $50.00! And life expectancy (no one talked about this until much later) was in the 500-hour range. You could always replace your broken one with another one for almost nothing. During all this madness, Sony and the other Beta manufacturers were pushing picture quality, stamina, and features. That was their strength, and the only thing they could do was declare that their format was superior. Don't get me wrong, VHS did make some good machines, but they never penetrated the demanding professional video market the way Beta did. Think ENG (electronic news gathering where quality was everything). For the most part both formats are gone today, but you can still pick up a VHS for almost nothing. But if you want a good working example of a Beta VCR, it is not going to be cheap.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
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