Sony to stop making Betamax video tapes 😯

Betamax was used a lot offshore for divers and ROV footage until it was replaced by digital recording.

It was a lot better than VHS.

Now Philips V2000, that was a system…

It apparently clung-on for professional use for a long time due to the higher quality…

Now Philips V2000, that was a system…

Was that the double sided tape? Wasn’t Philips VCR before that, with reels stacked on top of each other. Nobody ever did movies in those formats though, so they died a sad and lonely death.

Betamax was used a lot offshore for divers and ROV footage until it was replaced by digital recording.

Both Betamax and V2000 were better than VHS, but it was the fact that VHS got picked up by the TV rental companies in the UK that killed the other two. Betamax was used with the PCM-F1 digital audio system, the first compact digital audio recording system, so it had a long life in studios; it wasn’t replacedby digital, it was digital! It was the actual recording medium that the digital info was stored on in the studio, after being encoded by the PCM (Pulse Code Modulation)-F1 box, which I believe Sony created.
V2000 was better if only because the tape could be flipped like an audio cassette, also developed by Philips, as was CD, for that matter.

Betamax was used with the PCM-F1 digital audio system, the first compact digital audio recording system

The first digital recording I ever heard was “Pleasure Dome” on Betamax/PCM-F1.

Didn’t VHS licence out manufacture to anyone who wanted to make recorders and thusly conquered the mass market?
The lesson being, to all you budding business students, that an inferior product can outsell a superior product with the right strategy but ultimately both are screwed as the world moves forward.