Originally posted by soldermonkey@May 17 2002,07:30
Here's a fun fact for ya, do you know the main reason why VHS beat betamax? The owners of the betamax standard would not allow their standard to be used for pornography. Result - VHS is more popular. Same story for a lot of other technology even the postal service. Also one day they will figure out another use for DVD's "multi angle" technology
That might be a fraction of it, but this is how I remember it:
VHS was simply more abundant and _cheaper_. I remember going to all the video stores (there were a lot more 20 years ago, only more small businesses)
Betamax players were considerably more expensive (See? Sony sold overpriced stuff 20 years ago), and the general answer that would come up when people asked "VHS or beta?" was VHS, simply because there were more titles and more machines in people's homes
Sony amuses me in how they like to try an introduce their own "standards" (Beta, MiniDisc, and the Super CD format, which imho is already dead) and keep a deathlock on them, they fall on their ass every time.
I still know of one store that still rents beta tapes, it's kind of cool to see for nostalgia