ZENITH BETAS

Zenith sided with Sony from the very beginning. They felt that the Beta format was superior. It was also important just to have VCRs to sell because demand and curiosity was at a fever pitch. Sony manufactured all of their models, and they looked it. As the video market matured Zenith became caught between retaining their quality image and still selling for a profit, especially when a lot of their competition was coming from the other Beta makers. Near the end of their involvement they decided to start emphasizing longer recording times, several of their last models would only record in . This strategy ultimately failed. They called it quits even as one model was still in production at Sony. Their last model, a portable (the VR 9800) was later repainted and relabeled as the Sony SL-2005.