On Wed, 2008-04-02 at 17:13 +0100, sergio masci wrote:
> Beta came standard with 4 heads, VHS with 2. The picture looked much 
> better on Beta than the equivalent VHS.

That's like saying a Honda Civic sucks since it's base model doesn't
come with power windows, but a base Subaru Impreza does.

Obviously 2 heads didn't have as high a quality, but consumers didn't
care.

Better VHS players had 4 heads, did those look much worse then Beta?
Compare apples to apples.

> > 
> > 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!

LP was a format that most VCRs would play, but few would record.

The "standard" modes were SP and EP.

The tapes were labeled for use in SP mode, so a T-120 tape recorded for
2 hours.

EP mode was VERY common, and pretty much universally compatible. It had
a recording time of 3X SP, so a 120 tape would record 6 hours, a 160, 8
hours. I've also heard of 10 hour tapes, but I felt that 160s were
already pushing tape thinness a little far. 

These times were FAR more then Beta. Yes, the quality sucked, but
consumers didn't care, at least with VHS you had the OPTION of recording
for 8 hours.

TTYL
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