On Tue, 28 May 2013 09:35:14 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

"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.

SL-6200 perhaps?
http://www.betainfoguide.net/Pix.htm
I've never seen one.

I will confess to not being an expert on video quality. I also didn't
care much for TV in any form. However, the lady friend dragged home a
brand new Betamax SL-8200(?) and assigned me the task of setting it up
and making it play. I'm not sure of the model number but I do recall
it was a top loader. It worked fairly well for about a month. Then,
things started to fail. I don't recall the exact failures. Rather
than tinker with it, we sent it to the authorized repair center
(initially under warranty). It returned functional, but with a
deteriorated picture. After about 3 additional repairs and no
improvements, we parked it in the garage. I then bought her a no-name
cheap VCR at the local department store. As I recall, it was about
half the price of the Sony. It lasted about a year before it totally
died. When we parted ways, she took both with her. It was 15 years
later before I bought another TV.

I never did a side by side comparison between VHS and Beta, so I can't
really be sure that Beta is really better. As I recall, I didn't see
much difference. My uninformed impression was that both were
mechanical nightmares, that were easily jammed and broken by
mishandling and bad tapes. Perhaps if the VCR and TV were maintained
to peak performance, Betamax might have shown it's superiority, but
with the poor lifetime and generally miserable picture that I
experienced, I suspect that "normal" operation would not have shown
much difference.

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".

Like I said, the superior technology doesn't always win. Sony may
have had the edge in picture quality, but what the GUM (great unwashed
masses) wanted was long play, and cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, and
cheaper.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558