> > Oh, right, you're trying to record three hours onto a two 
> hour tape.  
> > "Ha Ha!"  You should have brought a VHS instead.  There ya 
> go, that's 
> > why Beta sucks, it's because it doesn't do what the 
> customer wants.  
> > (The customer really wants 100 hour tapes, but never mind.)  You'll 
> > just have to put up with VHS 3/4/5 hour tapes + slow play + 
> extra slow 
> > play then.  (5 hour tapes may be a figment of my imagination and/or 
> > dodgy memory)
> > 
> > Every 'Beta was better' proponent I've encountered has come up with 
> > the same answer when asked "Just why was that anyway?".  
> "Errr, mumble 
> > mumble mumble the wotsit in Beta had 0.2% more grommet oil 
> than VHS, 
> > so the diagonal stabilisers had better damping blah blah".  All 
> > bollocks, technically, there wasn't much difference.
> 
> Beta came standard with 4 heads, VHS with 2. The picture 
> looked much better on Beta than the equivalent VHS.
> 
> >  It's like saying .WAV is better than .MP3.  Well yeah, but 
> MP3 takes 
> > 1/10th the space and sounds the same.
> 
> Actually, it's more like comparing free to air digital and analog TV.
> 
> > 
> > Bluntly, Beta had shorter tapes, and didn't really do slow 
> play to get 
> > more recording time.  Lose.
> 
> Ah, VHS slow play - ultra sucky incompatible mode. I made the 
> mistake of recording some stuff I wanted to keep in long play 
> once. Then I tried playing it on a new VCR. Yep - didn't work!
> 
> 3 hour Beta tapes were readily available in the high street stores.
> 
> Interesting how VHS evolved to 4, 6 and 8 heads after Beta 
> died. I guess the lack of competion allowed the manufacturers 
> to jack the price and improve the performance to the same 
> level as Beta :-P


Beta was 2 hour tapes for a long time.  The extra heads didn't make any
difference, they're quite handy for slow play though.  And marketing.  Maybe
Beta needed the 4 heads, VHS didn't.

I've done the 'pick the difference' test.  No-one got it right, the
difference really wasn't there.  You can pick VHS slow play though.

The consumer wanted long recording time, and Beta didn't have it.  Form vs
function.

Tony

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