The first Betamaxes where basically mechanical in function with levers and piano-key type buttons. For these early Betas you had to actually get up and pull a lever to pause out a commercial. But that quickly changed when solenoids began to be incorporated into the design. Now you could control many of the functions remotely, without ever leaving your easy chair. The couch potato was born. Everything had a remote and the remote had everything. To keep the purchase price low Sanyo made some low end Betas that didn't operate with a remote. These are quite rare today because most were thrown away after a couple of years use. |