Betamax
Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, followed by the US in November of the same year.
Betamax is widely considered to be obsolete, having lost the videotape format war which saw its closest rival, VHS, dominate most markets. Betamax tapes initially had higher quality images over VHS if recorded at the base β1 speed; however, the speed was rarely offered on Beta VCRs manufactured after 1979, as the recording time of β1 on a standard Betamax tape was only 1 hour. Sony removed the β1 speed in favor of the slower speeds to closer compete with VHS’s base 2 hour record time. Because of this, the image quality advantage of Betamax over VHS was essentially removed throughout most of the format war.
Despite this, Betamax recorders continued to be manufactured and sold until August 2002, when Sony announced that they were discontinuing production of all remaining Betamax models. Sony continued to sell blank Betamax cassettes until March 2016.
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