Technically speaking, which was better: Betamax or VHS?

Question

Just curious...

Answer 1

picture quality wise it was betamax its just the large rental companies and big film studios adopted vhs so it caught on.

Answer 2

Betamax had a superior quality picture,VHS never had decent quality images

Answer 3

Betamax had two advantages: better video resolution and better sound.  It was also possible to copy VHS tapes despite any copy protection.

The big advantage VHS had was lower cost, in price of VCR, of tape, and in longer record time (6 hours in low quality vs 5 for Beta).  Also, Sony probably charged too much for licensing, because few other consumer oriented manufacturers adopted Beta other than Sony and Sanyo, as I recall.

Answer 4

Whilst it is fair to say Betamax could give better video definition, it suffered from a severe mechanical problem.

The Tape bed was vulnerable to shock and distortion, resulting in tape damage, and/or video distortion.

I lost count of the numbers of Betamax recorders, I was asked to fix, with these problems.

Answer 5

Betamax was technologically superior to VHS.  It produced better sound and a better picture.

Similarly, HD-DVD was a superior format to Blu-Ray.  It's just that Blu-Ray discs are cheaper to manufacture.

It's all about profit, not consumer satisfaction...

Answer 6

VHS if Betamax was any good surely it wouldn't have died a quick death??

Answer 7

Batamax was NOT a digital technology.  Nor did it have inherent mechanical issues.  It did have Hi-Fi audio (optical)capabilities YEARS before VHS and a much simpler mechanical system than VHS.  The one major downfall of Beta was its relatively short (two hour) recording time capabilities requiring movies over that amount of time to be placed on two tapes and the fact that the porno industry adopted VHS as their format of choice.

Answer 8

"Whilst it is fair to say Betamax could give better video definition, it suffered from a severe mechanical problem.

The Tape bed was vulnerable to shock and distortion, resulting in tape damage, and/or video distortion."

We beg to differ.

Sincerely,

Every local and national news organization that used Betamax mobile cameras for years and years after VHS won the consumer war.

Answer 9

Betamax.

Still used in the Philippines.

Answer 10

Betamax

Answer 11

Betamax.

Answer 12

betamax! it was a digital format while as vhs was noisy fuzzy analog junk! flatout!