"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...

I'm old enough to remember the Beta vs VHS wars of the late
1970's. At the time, both VHS and Beta machines looked and
worked badly because both camps were furiously rushing to
make things work.

Absolutely untrue. I remember seeing Sony's first US Betamax, which was
ensconced in a handsome console with a 19" display. The store (I think it was
Luskin's) was playing a boxing match, and I was not aware that it was a
recording.

Most color TVs had no more than a 3MHz luminance bandwidth. Within that
limitation, Beta could record and play back with only a slight loss of
quality. This was a far cry from VHS, which was crap, crap, crap from the word
"go".