Donor: Helt
BetaMax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony and released on May 10, 1975. BetaMax provided a fine alternative to earlier reel-to-reel systems.
Videointerchange.com comments, "Though vastly superior to Vhs in picture quality, it [BetaMax] lost market acceptance mostly through a series of marketing blunders by Sony when JVC introduced the Vhs format a year later. In a side to side comparison of Beta vs Vhs , Beta was the obvious winner - hands down - no contest ! So good was the quality that some broadcasters used it for news gathering as an inexpensive alternative to 3/4" U-matic. Though not true broadcast quality, it was the technically superior consumer format of the time, that should have succeeded much better than it ever did. "
On the downside, BetaMax only supported 1 hour long videos, in contrast to the 2-hour long format of VHS,- which was adequate for recording sports games and hollywood movies.
Reference:
- http://www.videointerchange.com/video-history.htm
