Betamax Tape Production To Cease March 2016

**ZedIsDead** · 11-11-2015, 07:50 PM

The title isn't a joke. Sony is apparently still making Betamax tapes, despite losing to VHS about thirty years ago. Just your super weird factoid of the day.

Sony to stop making Betamax tapes decades after everyone thought it did Â· Newswire Â· The A.V. Club

**Dudebro** · 11-11-2015, 08:11 PM

I saw that on FB and couldn't be bothered to check if it was satire. I just wanna know who is still running the machine itself, do they even sell them anymore? Must be a bitch to get fixed.

**Slime Slayer** · 11-11-2015, 08:39 PM

I believe that beta is still industry standard in some facet of video recording. I don't know details but I read it recently.

**RU Joe** · 11-13-2015, 05:46 PM

Beta was a superior format to VHS, mainly due to the fact it allowed for better tape - to - head contact than VHS did.
I forget the details but it had something to do with marketing that allowed VHS to become the dominant format, not inferiority.

Heh heh, I'm reminded of that episode of Cowboy Bebop where Jet and Spike go on a quest through an abandoned city to a museum in order to get a VCR so they could watch a cassette sent to Faye by her former orphanage.

It turned out to be quite an adventure.

**CatalystiCam** · 11-13-2015, 10:51 PM

I'd imagine this is just the blank tape end of things? I was going to say that blank VHS' still exist, and are not incredibly hard to find. Not super-surprising there is some market for these still.

Would be more surprising if there's been further use than just blank tapes however.

**Slime Slayer** · 11-13-2015, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RU Joe

Beta was a superior format to VHS, mainly due to the fact it allowed for better tape - to - head contact than VHS did.
I forget the details but it had something to do with marketing that allowed VHS to become the dominant format, not inferiority.

Beta only held an hour of tape.

**RU Joe** · 11-14-2015, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevencassidy13

Beta only held an hour of tape.

I never owned a Beta so I really wouldn't know but .. this automatically means that 2 tapes would be needed for most movies.
This seems like something they would have worked around, and found a way to make larger capacity tapes.
Or something.

**Slime Slayer** · 11-14-2015, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RU Joe

I never owned a Beta so I really wouldn't know but .. this automatically means that 2 tapes would be needed for most movies.
This seems like something they would have worked around, and found a way to make larger capacity tapes.
Or something.

By the time they realized it was too late, VHS had won with the general customer. I never owned one either, but I remember the beta section where I used to rent my Nintendo games, I remember scoffing at it.