I only remember Beta because of Married With Children, it was a running gag that the Bundys were the last family on the block to own a Beta machine while everyone else had VHS.
Betamax... It had higher quality sound than VHS in the beginning, at times better picture quality. The biggest drawback: 1 HOUR max tape length for much of it's existence.
When I was really little (mid 80s) my parents had a Betamax instead of VHS, in spite of the fact it had pretty much already lost by then. We could only go to one video rental store, that had one shelf of Betamax tapes. The nice thing about that is that they were constantly selling some of their stock of those tapes for practically nothing, so by the time the store stopped carrying Betamax, we pretty much owned their whole collection. My parents still have it hooked up in the basement actually, though I've never actually checked to see if it still works.
Standard home video beta tapes (like the copy of Dracula) have about 250 lines of resolution (compared to the VHS' 225), Professional quality betacam tapes have about 400-425 lines of resolution (similar to that of an analog TV). Digibetacam tapes have 525 lines of resolution, similar to a DVD. The war between VHS and Beta came down to recording time, you can put 6 hours of video on a VHS tape, but only 2 or so hours on a Beta (depending on your quality settings).
>Standard home video beta tapes (like the copy of Dracula) have about 250 lines of resolution (compared to the VHS' *240* ), Professional quality betacam tapes have *300* ( *340* for Betacam SP) lines of resolution (similar to that of an analog TV). Digibetacam tapes have *486* lines of resolution, similar to a DVD. I fixed that for you.
@@MaximRecoil LOL. The Google generation. "I looked it up on google, and now passing it off as if I knew the exact resolution lines on the X and Y axis."
IIRC, BetaMax had higher picture quality with superbeta models and hi-fi sound quality over the VHS. VHS tapes also degraded in quality over time at a faster rate than Betamax tapes would.
I definitely don't miss rewinding. I remember one time my dad and I rented a movie and I went to rewind it in his Radio Shack tape rewinder, a standalone machine that would rewind a tape faster than a VCR. I didn't know it was acting up and it jammed with the tape inside it. So he ended up spending an about two hours carefully tearing it apart so he didn't damage the cassette.
Lord B.L Thackrey and the little switches below where to select VHF/UHF. UHF were typically your local PBS stations-VHF was NBC, CBS, ABC. Oh and for those who have no idea what I am talking about, back in the old days, we used to strap a large arrow shaped chunk of metal on a pole above our house. It was called an antenna. Someone would be on the roof, and the person looking at the TV screen would be yelling, "BACK THE OTHER WAY", "NO YOU JUST HAD IT!", because you had to point it in the general direction of where the broadcast was sent out from and pray to God you could at least see all the major channels. Then if a hard wind blew it could be unaligned, much like a satellite dish today.
The reason why VHS outlasted Beta was because VHS was built primarily for the consumer. It was a cheaper version of Beta and a lot cheaper to build, thus, able to be produced a lot easier. VHS players were also a lot cheaper than Beta players, thus more people can own it. The battle between VHS and Beta is a prime example in economics where "good enough" is better. You can see this today by seeing the battle between Android and Apple Phones.
411826 Being cheaper for the consumer was 1 factor. Another was that people didn't want/couldn't afford to own both systems and they needed VHS for most of the video store's back room selection. The stuff in the back room adopted the VHS as standard was because of the lower distribution costs so in the end it does boil down to being cheaper.
411826 not to mention the difference in quality wasn't as apparent on so many TV's. When this format was coming out, some people were still using 20 year old TV"s. I know back home in the 80's, my family was still using the same TV from the late 50's.
411826 except just because you're using an android phone doesn't necessarily mean you're compromising quality; you just have more choices and many low end, cheap choices as well. Not really a fair comparison IMO.
No, you're right, Android Phones are great, even the lowest end. What I am saying is Apple phones are just better; but better isn't always necessary, the price still dominates the competition. 3rd World Countries are using Android Phones over Apple Phones. It is not because they believe Android Phones are superior to Apple Phones, but just more price conscious. As for me; I am still on a flip phone. Which is a different story for a different day.
There are actually two types of Beta. Betamax was originally released as a consumer level video cassette medium and obviously had to compete with VHS. Betemax had a superior picture quality, but VHS could fit more footage on the tape and was considerably cheaper. The Beta format commonly used by TV networks is BetaCAM. While it uses the same cassette casing, the tape spins faster and can record videos in broadcast quality.
Then S VHS was introduced, but it was too late and DVD was already an available format, also comparable to VHS and Beta were VCDs, not very popular in the states but a pretty cool format nonetheless
Ennui Go Jarred S-VHS was released _long_ before DVD (we're talking nearly 10 years). When S-VHS was released the only optical video format was still laser disc and put against that truly awkward format, S-VHS was altogether more practical.
The little yellow dials you didn't know what they were are in fact the tuning for the various channels. So if your playing it on channel 8 you get a little screwdriver and turn it until you have a clear picture on channel 8! Betamax rocked. Also Grundig TV's.
Back in the 80s, my dad had a small business where he repaired VCRs. I have probably seen every VCR in existence in his old shop. I remember those old huge gray ones that would have the slots to play VHS or Beta, though it's pretty rare that I ever saw the betas since it was such a brief thing before VHS. Thanks for uploading these, James. You keep me connected to my distant past.
2:56, those are for tuning in individual channels. Say for instance there were twenty channels but the channel select was only good for thirteen, you could tune in your favorite channel. The early VCRs had them too.
2:51 are for tuning channels; similar to modern radios programmable channels, to program one need to finely adjust the signal then store that in a memory slot, however those adjustments remain (so it's just a switcher to individual ones).
Last year my VHS player died, I called a Sony repair shop to see if it was possible to fix it, and believe it or not the girl answering the phone did not know what I was talking about, she asked me if a VHS was like a digital camera. I did know how to explain it to her... A VHS you know like a Betamax!!!
I remember my friends grandfather talking about VHS and Beta. He said the main reason VHS won was not because beta was overpriced or poor quality (hell it's higher quality than VHS), but it was because of the porn industry. I believe Sony and some the other few companies making Betamax players, were licensing movies in a similar sense to Nintendo with video games. On the other hand, VHS was much more open. Anyone could make a VHS tape or VCR and sell it and no one would know or care. As a result, video porn started to grow in the 1980s. That's what he told me anyway. If anyone else knows better, reply and tell me different. Also, I know this was an old video and he was going off of memory, but the format wars started out around the early 80s and ended around the late 80s or early 90s, even though camcorders still used beta tapes for years after.
PixelReviver Actually no. The porn industry was betting on HD DVD but the market was no longer dependent on physical data storage or porn. Do to the growing video game market, consumers wanted better quality plus more storage space. Blue ray provided both.
The channel numbers with the buttons above are sort of like presets on your car radio. The knob things below correspond to each preset. You turn the little wheels on the side to find each individual channel. The switches went between VHF and UHF, I think, channel A, then B, etc. Beta was around until about the mid 1980's. Beta boasted a slightly better picture, but VHS prevailed for commercial/business reasons. I guess the company in charge of VHS also were tied into the movie studios. Look this stuff up on the web.
My dad had a ton of Beta tapes when I grew up. That's how I watched Ghostbusters almost daily in Kindergarten. After Disney afternoon of course. I couldn't miss Gummie Bears and DuckTales.
+SOLIDSNAKEXXXLIVES I'm flattered you asked, but I'm married. Sorry, buddy. Keep at it and someday you'll get that "yes" you're looking for. Good luck!
Thanks for showing us this, James! I was always curious about the Beta format as I don't remember it at all but being late 80s, VHS would've been dominate. I can still appreciate the VHS format as well. Sure, it is outdated but you have to admit, it's very simplistic. Want to record something? Pop it in the recorder, hit record, and bam. There it goes. Much easier that always navigating through menus and whatnot, especially if it's something you don't really care that much about and just want to watch for a later date. Although I noticed blank VHS tapes while still available, are getting extremely costly.
what am i lying about why would i lie to for you said in your video you didn't know what those knobs where for and I told you then you told me back what they did they did. So in your video why say you didn't know what they where used for. I got nothing to lie about. What is that you think i am lying about anyway.
sorry Full Metal Hobbit your wrong I had a old vhs machine it had the same thing it was for tuning analog channels you had to move them to tune into the channel and you had to tune each channel to correspond to the numbers above except mine were on top of the machine not the bottom don't tell me I'm wrong look it up becase i recorded alot of stuff from this old vhs machine
Loved the video. I used to watch old family movies that my dad had recorded on those small VHSC tapes. And I used to love how the extender would widen the tape so that it could fit inside of our VCR. Great stuff. To bad I don't have any of it any more.
Thanks for this description. I never knew Laserdisc was analog instead of digital. Now that I think about it, I guess it makes sense and that's why digital DVD replaced Laserdisc. It also explains why the Laserdiscs needed so much physical space to store what fits on a single DVD.
It's interesting because just up until a few years ago, Beta players were the industry standard decks in all tv stations. So, they were able to at least carry on for years in that market.
***** he has a point, and a vhs video would still help out James with a little extra views for revenue. Ugh, James and the rest of you keep making me feel old. The younger ones on youtube don't even know what walkmen or records are.
Medalion I'm 18 right now, so I grew up during the transition period and I hate it when teachers are like "does your generation even know what a VHS tape is anymore?".
I'm pretty sure we had that exact same model when I was young. The sounds of the machine operating instantly brought back some fond childhood memories. My dad refused to buy VHS for years as Betamax was known for being of higher quality. This might have been okay for recording but the rental store had about a tenth of the selection ( & stock) of Betamax compared to VHS which was probably the reason I hadn't seen half the popular movies my friends had whilst growing up but probably also why I had seen some more obscure movies.
VideoTape It's not the Beta tape that was louder than the VHS, it was the machine. The machine you have in the video was an earlier model and the VHS models of the era were just as loud as the Beta. The later models were much quieter. Also, most Video rental stores in the 80's would have a Beta section. Though it was usually about 80% VHS and 20% Beta. They were mainly phased out of stores by the end of the decade.
jayanxiety Are you sure? I have a VHS VCR from 1979, 1981, and 1982 and none of them are as loud as the one in the video when loading a tape... Or maybe they are as loud? I haven't used any of them in a long time so maybe I don't remember but I'm pretty sure they were pretty quiet (when loading a tape).
I guess it depends on the brand and style. I once bought an old VHS top-loader that was as large as a refrigerator (well maybe not that big) and actually had turn-knobs to change the channels! That thing was loud. The one in the video is about 35 years old and probably has parts are worn and need to be lubricated. That's the biggest problem with technology which requires moving parts. After decades the once-smooth operation becomes rougher. Just look no further than your own car....
I love VHS. I was in an opp shop (Thrift store) in my town not too long ago and freaked out because there was a Beta player sitting with a bunch of outdated electronics along with a stack of blank, shrink wrapped beta tapes. It was awesome :D
The knobs at 2:53 are used to adjust what station each of the 13 number buttons select. You would select a channel number and then rotate the knob to scan through all available channels. Each channel number can be set to any actual channel number. For instance button 1 could tune to channel 3, button 2 could tune to channel 13, etc. You had to choose which 13 channels you had access to. We had less than 13 channels here do we never needed to adjust them after setup. I thought I would share since my brain has been wasting storage space with that information since the 80's.
I had a Beta before getting a VHS and we even used both at one time. My Beta's remote control actually had a cable connecting it to the box. My mother a had a bunch of movies on Beta, last movie we both for it was Nikita.
At 2:53 are channel presets and yellow knobs below are bands (VHF-L / VHF-H / UHF) and yellow with pointer above are tuning indicator similar to analog AM/FM radio and those vertical white slits are tuning dial in which if you turn the yellow pointer gradually turns indicates the channel.
My parents personally owned a Betamax machine from 1981 to 1987, and they eventually upgraded to VHS. That same year, they gave me the Betamax machine, which I used between 1987 and 1990. 32 years later, I just purchased a working Betamax machine from a thrift store for $7.
The 'channel' buttons are actually just 12 presets; each had to be manually tuned to a particular channel with the knobs and switches below. The lower knob selected the frequency range: UHF or VHF antennae reception, or CATV cable bands (if lucky) the upper knob was the corse tuning for the selected channel range, and the dial was for fine-tuning.
The problem with BETA was that, only a close circuit of manufacturers was allowed to produce the BETA players. On the other hand, everyone made VHS systems. I bet the people that held the rights to BETA were kicking themselves into head for not letting other manufacturers to produce their system. The quality of sound and picture of BETA was superior, but the system was way too expensive compared to the massively produced VHS systems.
2:55 those things are for adjusting the chanel its like the the UHF Y VHF of tvs but the part that is inside the part that is for adjusting the quality of the image idk people that had knob tuned tv sets will understand
Beta is still used in TV, though it is being phased out. I work at a TV station, and we still get advertising companies sending in commercials using beta (though most use digital mediums now). Some of our older programming such as infomercials are delivered to us via beta as well, though at my station all beta tapes are transferred to hard disk before going to air.
I was born in 85 in Brazil, and in my childhood, BETA was the common format, we'd rent movies on BETAMAX format every weekend. Most people had one, it was pretty common.
We used Beta in movie postproduction till 2007 when HDCam tapes took precedence. All rushes on a 35mm film (obviously different on the Red Cam films) are transferred to HDCam through a DataCine then transferred to the Avid/FinalCutPro/Lightworks deck.
I remember in the mid to late 80's that we had a couple of rental places that had beta tapes and both of them had a whole separate section for beta. My dad used to work at one and it had both a beta and VHS machine that could be rented out and if it wasn't rented out on Fridays or Saturdays my dad would bring it home and we would have it til Monday(cuz it wasn't open on Sunday). Because beta wasn't as popular as VHS a lot of times it would be the beta machine my dad would bring home.
I remember one Christmas. Years ago. My dad bought a Sanyo BETA machine. And bought VHS movies for it. When we opened it up and tried to play a VHS on the BETA. He was dumbfounded lol. But BETA was very good quality. Just hard to get movies for though. It was a front loader. And I can still my dad trying to put the VHS movie in sideways LMAO.
Don't bother with him i tried to help him out by answering something that he didn't know about that Sanya betacord he did that video on all I got back from him was stop your lying.
Henry Stanley in the video he didn't know what the tuners were for he just saw them as knobs so I told him they are the tv station tuners then he didn't believe me I know I have the 1982 model he has the 1984 model in both models they are tv tuners. the 1982 model i grew up using in the 1980's wouldn't believe that to so he kept saying your lying but I wasn't lying Try and help him and negative feedback is all I got from him. That's why I said to you don't bother with him he might come back the same way.(Cheers)
I remember my dad had beta player and bunch of crazy ass 70's porno that I would watch, he had the exact player, all these memories flooded in as soon as I saw it, thank u.
Ssj Ichigo I saw two or three beta tapes of 70's horror movies at a consignment shop in my town a few years back. I'd considered buying them and hoping to find a player sometime, but they wanted like $10 a piece for them. I never did find a player, either.
Mitch Awesomefoot yeah I saw 2 boxes full of old beta tapes with old TV shows and movies recorded onto them, all nicely labelled too. I would've bought them all if I had any confidence in ever finding a beta player :P
in case no one mentioned it, the ones marked A-L are tuners if you're trying to record something from a TV channel since at that time it had different frequencies similar to radio. I enjoyed watching stuff on the Beta back then when I was younger. Watched a lot of bootleg cartoons on that format as a kid. I only switched to VHS when I was in my teens just as Anime started becoming popular globally with Dragon Ball Z.
I have worked in TV for the past 10 years, Beta is still widely used. In fact a lot of shows come to us on HDBeta tapes. However some places are now using digital transfer. But Beta is not going anywhere for at least the next 5-10 years.
I was born at tail end of '81, and I still remember our Beta player. There was a neighborhood video store that rented both Beta and VHS, and we owned a handful of Beta movies, one of which being Footloose. My dad also had a Laser Disc player later on.
Beta was still going in the UK in the late eighties. Video rental stores would have say 80% VHS and 20% beta. Although in the UK it was called Betamax.
I only remember Beta because of Married With Children, it was a running gag that the Bundys were the last family on the block to own a Beta machine while everyone else had VHS.
MarsGundam I think the Simpsons were also the last family on their block to own a Betamax player.
MarsGundam Love that show.
Betamax...
It had higher quality sound than VHS in the beginning, at times better picture quality. The biggest drawback: 1 HOUR max tape length for much of it's existence.
Stscsscsetstscsscscsvcsstgs*:*%*::****":**:**%%***"*"""*"**%:%%" cg
red had a betamax on that 70's show too!
VHS saw more bush than the Oval Office.
Underrated comment
This comment made my week.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
That could be both a Bush family reference AND a Monica Lewinski reference!
I found "Please rewind" stickers on DVD's.
🤦🏽♂️
😝
😂
I saw it on my cousin's copy of Ninja Guiden on nes.
Had to look it up. Beta officially died in March of this year. Can't believe they kept making them for this long. RIP Betamax.
That was Betacam, not Betamax.
@@pungisotu Sony did stop making betamax tapes in 2016
we still used beta until 2008 in the local news channel where i worked
Why?
You mean Betacam, right? It's a different professional system
@@pablorai769
At 2:06 it says "BETACAM", right on that box.
When I was really little (mid 80s) my parents had a Betamax instead of VHS, in spite of the fact it had pretty much already lost by then. We could only go to one video rental store, that had one shelf of Betamax tapes. The nice thing about that is that they were constantly selling some of their stock of those tapes for practically nothing, so by the time the store stopped carrying Betamax, we pretty much owned their whole collection. My parents still have it hooked up in the basement actually, though I've never actually checked to see if it still works.
James should release the AVGN movie on Beta
And laserdisc
@@SE7EN306 and ced
@@eddiedemayo934 and reel to reel tape
No time
Standard home video beta tapes (like the copy of Dracula) have about 250 lines of resolution (compared to the VHS' 225), Professional quality betacam tapes have about 400-425 lines of resolution (similar to that of an analog TV). Digibetacam tapes have 525 lines of resolution, similar to a DVD.
The war between VHS and Beta came down to recording time, you can put 6 hours of video on a VHS tape, but only 2 or so hours on a Beta (depending on your quality settings).
>Standard home video beta tapes (like the copy of Dracula) have about 250 lines of resolution (compared to the VHS' *240* ), Professional quality betacam tapes have *300* ( *340* for Betacam SP) lines of resolution (similar to that of an analog TV). Digibetacam tapes have *486* lines of resolution, similar to a DVD.
I fixed that for you.
@@MaximRecoil LOL. The Google generation. "I looked it up on google, and now passing it off as if I knew the exact resolution lines on the X and Y axis."
"yeah here's Beta then VHS comes along and GRR GRR GRR"
*Beats up Beta tape with a VHS*
Then DVD comes along.
Now these are my fav kind of vids from James.
History!
IIRC, BetaMax had higher picture quality with superbeta models and hi-fi sound quality over the VHS. VHS tapes also degraded in quality over time at a faster rate than Betamax tapes would.
All true.
But...the porn industry embraced VHS. That's why VHS won.
***** The reason they did that was because they didn't need to pay any royalties to Sony.
***** that's what I heard about the Blu-ray format as well. Errie.
Ｍ ｉ ｓ ｔ ｅ ｒ ｕ Ｅ ｋ ｓ ｕ now that you mentioned it.
I do remember that. Silly me 😊
***** I like the thought that dads would buy their kids Disney VCR's on the same players they would watch porn on.
I definitely don't miss rewinding. I remember one time my dad and I rented a movie and I went to rewind it in his Radio Shack tape rewinder, a standalone machine that would rewind a tape faster than a VCR. I didn't know it was acting up and it jammed with the tape inside it. So he ended up spending an about two hours carefully tearing it apart so he didn't damage the cassette.
The dials under the channel selectors are the tuners for each channel .
Lord B.L Thackrey Those used to be great. You could tune in cable channels you didn't pay for using them.
Lord B.L Thackrey they were really useful for dialing even the most slight signal of a channel. It was like playing with a radio transmitter
Lord B.L Thackrey and the little switches below where to select VHF/UHF. UHF were typically your local PBS stations-VHF was NBC, CBS, ABC. Oh and for those who have no idea what I am talking about, back in the old days, we used to strap a large arrow shaped chunk of metal on a pole above our house. It was called an antenna. Someone would be on the roof, and the person looking at the TV screen would be yelling, "BACK THE OTHER WAY", "NO YOU JUST HAD IT!", because you had to point it in the general direction of where the broadcast was sent out from and pray to God you could at least see all the major channels. Then if a hard wind blew it could be unaligned, much like a satellite dish today.
Alan McHugh That wasn't that long ago was it? lol
Komrade Kontroll You're right, Alan is trying to make us look like old folks hahaha
The reason why VHS outlasted Beta was because VHS was built primarily for the consumer. It was a cheaper version of Beta and a lot cheaper to build, thus, able to be produced a lot easier. VHS players were also a lot cheaper than Beta players, thus more people can own it.
The battle between VHS and Beta is a prime example in economics where "good enough" is better. You can see this today by seeing the battle between Android and Apple Phones.
411826 Being cheaper for the consumer was 1 factor. Another was that people didn't want/couldn't afford to own both systems and they needed VHS for most of the video store's back room selection.
The stuff in the back room adopted the VHS as standard was because of the lower distribution costs so in the end it does boil down to being cheaper.
Yeah, that's a good point as well.
411826 not to mention the difference in quality wasn't as apparent on so many TV's. When this format was coming out, some people were still using 20 year old TV"s. I know back home in the 80's, my family was still using the same TV from the late 50's.
411826 except just because you're using an android phone doesn't necessarily mean you're compromising quality; you just have more choices and many low end, cheap choices as well. Not really a fair comparison IMO.
No, you're right, Android Phones are great, even the lowest end. What I am saying is Apple phones are just better; but better isn't always necessary, the price still dominates the competition.
3rd World Countries are using Android Phones over Apple Phones. It is not because they believe Android Phones are superior to Apple Phones, but just more price conscious.
As for me; I am still on a flip phone. Which is a different story for a different day.
2:57, they were actual tuners for the channels for those who got more than the 2-13.
Beta: It's Loud as Crap! - That should have been a tagline.
1:18 Cracks me up every time.
I absolutely love videos like this where James goes off script and just nerds out, especially where he fights the two tapes!
1:33 professionals were using Betacam, not Betamax. Two different formats.
The Angry Videotape Nerd!
There are actually two types of Beta. Betamax was originally released as a consumer level video cassette medium and obviously had to compete with VHS. Betemax had a superior picture quality, but VHS could fit more footage on the tape and was considerably cheaper. The Beta format commonly used by TV networks is BetaCAM. While it uses the same cassette casing, the tape spins faster and can record videos in broadcast quality.
Then S VHS was introduced, but it was too late and DVD was already an available format, also comparable to VHS and Beta were VCDs, not very popular in the states but a pretty cool format nonetheless
Ennui Go Jarred S-VHS was released _long_ before DVD (we're talking nearly 10 years). When S-VHS was released the only optical video format was still laser disc and put against that truly awkward format, S-VHS was altogether more practical.
yea, MrGencyExit64
thats what Kevin Smith used for Clerks, good point - I whoopsed
Those things at 2:56 are for tuning in TV channels, before on-screen menus became common.
"Oh no, beta!" -Snake
The little yellow dials you didn't know what they were are in fact the tuning for the various channels. So if your playing it on channel 8 you get a little screwdriver and turn it until you have a clear picture on channel 8! Betamax rocked. Also Grundig TV's.
@2:22 that sound is SO satisfying.
Back in the 80s, my dad had a small business where he repaired VCRs. I have probably seen every VCR in existence in his old shop.
I remember those old huge gray ones that would have the slots to play VHS or Beta, though it's pretty rare that I ever saw the betas since it was such a brief thing before VHS.
Thanks for uploading these, James. You keep me connected to my distant past.
Sad username
2:56, those are for tuning in individual channels. Say for instance there were twenty channels but the channel select was only good for thirteen, you could tune in your favorite channel. The early VCRs had them too.
I love how this is recorded on an old video recorder in 4:3. I prefer James in this format than in HD. I mean he IS going back to the past
***** It's an older video. He's reuploading them from Cinemassacre.
+thepsynergist It's still badass.
+thepsynergist ohhhh pish posh, details
+Zacharie I fucking hate HD and 16:9.
2:52 you used these screws to tune channel stations manually (No cable ready) and assign them to each of the buttons right above
2:51 are for tuning channels; similar to modern radios programmable channels, to program one need to finely adjust the signal then store that in a memory slot, however those adjustments remain (so it's just a switcher to individual ones).
be kind. rewind.
Last year my VHS player died, I called a Sony repair shop to see if it was possible to fix it, and believe it or not the girl answering the phone did not know what I was talking about, she asked me if a VHS was like a digital camera. I did know how to explain it to her... A VHS you know like a Betamax!!!
God man, I miss the days of VHS.
It may be outdated, but damn it, it was my childhood.
SuperLegendOf364 buy me up friend, they’re all .25 at goodwills
I still use and prefer vhs lol
I remember my friends grandfather talking about VHS and Beta. He said the main reason VHS won was not because beta was overpriced or poor quality (hell it's higher quality than VHS), but it was because of the porn industry. I believe Sony and some the other few companies making Betamax players, were licensing movies in a similar sense to Nintendo with video games. On the other hand, VHS was much more open. Anyone could make a VHS tape or VCR and sell it and no one would know or care. As a result, video porn started to grow in the 1980s. That's what he told me anyway. If anyone else knows better, reply and tell me different.
Also, I know this was an old video and he was going off of memory, but the format wars started out around the early 80s and ended around the late 80s or early 90s, even though camcorders still used beta tapes for years after.
You're correct actually. That's also why Blu Ray won over HD-DVD.
LdeinerProductions VHS should've been called Alpha then. since it cuckolded the Betas with their hardcore content.
PixelReviver Actually no. The porn industry was betting on HD DVD but the market was no longer dependent on physical data storage or porn. Do to the growing video game market, consumers wanted better quality plus more storage space. Blue ray provided both.
The channel numbers with the buttons above are sort of like presets on your car radio. The knob things below correspond to each preset. You turn the little wheels on the side to find each individual channel. The switches went between VHF and UHF, I think, channel A, then B, etc. Beta was around until about the mid 1980's. Beta boasted a slightly better picture, but VHS prevailed for commercial/business reasons. I guess the company in charge of VHS also were tied into the movie studios. Look this stuff up on the web.
My dad had a ton of Beta tapes when I grew up. That's how I watched Ghostbusters almost daily in Kindergarten. After Disney afternoon of course. I couldn't miss Gummie Bears and DuckTales.
+SOLIDSNAKEXXXLIVES I'm flattered you asked, but I'm married. Sorry, buddy. Keep at it and someday you'll get that "yes" you're looking for. Good luck!
golden age of cartoons
I remember the Beta shelves at rental stores gradually shrinking and giving way to VHS.
That _is_ a VCR, by the way.
I really would love to see a video of James May and James Rolfe having a 10 hours comversation
Thanks for showing us this, James! I was always curious about the Beta format as I don't remember it at all but being late 80s, VHS would've been dominate. I can still appreciate the VHS format as well. Sure, it is outdated but you have to admit, it's very simplistic. Want to record something? Pop it in the recorder, hit record, and bam. There it goes. Much easier that always navigating through menus and whatnot, especially if it's something you don't really care that much about and just want to watch for a later date. Although I noticed blank VHS tapes while still available, are getting extremely costly.
those knobs are the tuners for tuning in tv channals and the ones below are the band select between High/Low bands
Full Metal Hobbit
I had the same sanyo when i was growing up and on mine they were the tuners for the tv signals.
what am i lying about
why would i lie to for you said in your video you didn't know what those knobs where for and I told you then you told me back what they did they did. So in your video why say you didn't know what they where used for. I got nothing to lie about. What is that you think i am lying about anyway.
wrong
he is a troll, that isn't his video you doof, he is also lying
sorry Full Metal Hobbit your wrong I had a old vhs machine it had the same thing it was for tuning analog channels you had to move them to tune into the channel and you had to tune each channel to correspond to the numbers above except mine were on top of the machine not the bottom don't tell me I'm wrong look it up becase i recorded alot of stuff from this old vhs machine
Loved the video. I used to watch old family movies that my dad had recorded on those small VHSC tapes. And I used to love how the extender would widen the tape so that it could fit inside of our VCR. Great stuff. To bad I don't have any of it any more.
Thanks for this description. I never knew Laserdisc was analog instead of digital.
Now that I think about it, I guess it makes sense and that's why digital DVD replaced Laserdisc. It also explains why the Laserdiscs needed so much physical space to store what fits on a single DVD.
It's interesting because just up until a few years ago, Beta players were the industry standard decks in all tv stations. So, they were able to at least carry on for years in that market.
Michael Faber it's like media still using those loud shutter cameras.
Pretty sure that was Betacam, not Betamax
wow thanks for letting people know about the different tape formats the real thing would have been the picture quality and the storage capacity
can't wait for the alpha review
Yes James, you do have to explain VHS... there are generations of youth who only know Apple based portable players and Laptops.
Medalion Why don't you explain it yourself smartass?!!
***** he has a point, and a vhs video would still help out James with a little extra views for revenue.
Ugh, James and the rest of you keep making me feel old. The younger ones on youtube don't even know what walkmen or records are.
V Guyver You both clearly misinterpreted the posting.
***** Look, 2000s trash is mad :3
Medalion I'm 18 right now, so I grew up during the transition period and I hate it when teachers are like "does your generation even know what a VHS tape is anymore?".
I'm pretty sure we had that exact same model when I was young. The sounds of the machine operating instantly brought back some fond childhood memories. My dad refused to buy VHS for years as Betamax was known for being of higher quality. This might have been okay for recording but the rental store had about a tenth of the selection ( & stock) of Betamax compared to VHS which was probably the reason I hadn't seen half the popular movies my friends had whilst growing up but probably also why I had seen some more obscure movies.
2:24 - "It is MUCH louder than a VCR!"
Ehhh James, it is a VCR!
VideoTape He means a VHS VCR.
I know.
VideoTape It's not the Beta tape that was louder than the VHS, it was the machine. The machine you have in the video was an earlier model and the VHS models of the era were just as loud as the Beta. The later models were much quieter. Also, most Video rental stores in the 80's would have a Beta section. Though it was usually about 80% VHS and 20% Beta. They were mainly phased out of stores by the end of the decade.
jayanxiety Are you sure? I have a VHS VCR from 1979, 1981, and 1982 and none of them are as loud as the one in the video when loading a tape... Or maybe they are as loud? I haven't used any of them in a long time so maybe I don't remember but I'm pretty sure they were pretty quiet (when loading a tape).
I guess it depends on the brand and style. I once bought an old VHS top-loader that was as large as a refrigerator (well maybe not that big) and actually had turn-knobs to change the channels! That thing was loud. The one in the video is about 35 years old and probably has parts are worn and need to be lubricated. That's the biggest problem with technology which requires moving parts. After decades the once-smooth operation becomes rougher. Just look no further than your own car....
I love VHS.
I was in an opp shop (Thrift store) in my town not too long ago and freaked out because there was a Beta player sitting with a bunch of outdated electronics along with a stack of blank, shrink wrapped beta tapes. It was awesome :D
Man, from the VHS-C with its VHS shell to Micro SD cards sliding into regular SD card shells, we sure have come far o.o
If my potential boss asked me to submit something in the form of a BETA tape, I'd laugh all the way to the next job application.
"Be kind please rewind"😂😂😂 I never rewound my VHS lol.
awesome, thanks for posting this throw-back on my birthday man. Great stuff
Okay, that Soundwave thing got me to crack a smile.
“I don’t need to explain VHS do I?”
7 years later…yes..yes you do.😢
I remember being something like 5 and having a beta player and a VHS player at home.
Which we still had them.
The knobs at 2:53 are used to adjust what station each of the 13 number buttons select. You would select a channel number and then rotate the knob to scan through all available channels. Each channel number can be set to any actual channel number. For instance button 1 could tune to channel 3, button 2 could tune to channel 13, etc. You had to choose which 13 channels you had access to. We had less than 13 channels here do we never needed to adjust them after setup. I thought I would share since my brain has been wasting storage space with that information since the 80's.
I recorded Simpsons episodes onto Beta well into the mid-90s. I was amazed that it somehow retained the closed captioning function.
I'd like to know more about the commercial James made.
Please do more format reviews like these! They're interesting, entertaining and informative!
I had a Beta before getting a VHS and we even used both at one time. My Beta's remote control actually had a cable connecting it to the box. My mother a had a bunch of movies on Beta, last movie we both for it was Nikita.
Probably already mentioned but those "things" (I think) are used to setup timers so that you could record shows.
At 2:53 are channel presets and yellow knobs below are bands (VHF-L / VHF-H / UHF) and yellow with pointer above are tuning indicator similar to analog AM/FM radio and those vertical white slits are tuning dial in which if you turn the yellow pointer gradually turns indicates the channel.
A weird part of me thinks that Baymax from Big Hero 6 may have been named after Betamax.
My parents personally owned a Betamax machine from 1981 to 1987, and they eventually upgraded to VHS. That same year, they gave me the Betamax machine, which I used between 1987 and 1990. 32 years later, I just purchased a working Betamax machine from a thrift store for $7.
beta was in video rental stores for a little bit.
The 'channel' buttons are actually just 12 presets; each had to be manually tuned to a particular channel with the knobs and switches below. The lower knob selected the frequency range: UHF or VHF antennae reception, or CATV cable bands (if lucky) the upper knob was the corse tuning for the selected channel range, and the dial was for fine-tuning.
OMG!!! The tape fighting scene like a kid playing with action figures cracked me up! LOL!
The problem with BETA was that, only a close circuit of manufacturers was allowed to produce the BETA players. On the other hand, everyone made VHS systems. I bet the people that held the rights to BETA were kicking themselves into head for not letting other manufacturers to produce their system.
The quality of sound and picture of BETA was superior, but the system was way too expensive compared to the massively produced VHS systems.
TV broadcasting still use Beta (Betacam SP mostly)
VHS v Betamax: Dawn of Formats lol
Hey Mike, when are we getting the re-re-re-re-re-releases of old Cinemassacre videos?
2:55 those things are for adjusting the chanel its like the the UHF Y VHF of tvs but the part that is inside the part that is for adjusting the quality of the image idk people that had knob tuned tv sets will understand
Those 2-13 buttons are for VHF while the little knobs under are for fine tuning in UHF stations (like U-62, we got it all, on UHF!)
I can't help but love this shit.
Great references! Thanks for the nostalgia :)
Beta is still used in TV, though it is being phased out. I work at a TV station, and we still get advertising companies sending in commercials using beta (though most use digital mediums now). Some of our older programming such as infomercials are delivered to us via beta as well, though at my station all beta tapes are transferred to hard disk before going to air.
I was born in 85 in Brazil, and in my childhood, BETA was the common format, we'd rent movies on BETAMAX format every weekend. Most people had one, it was pretty common.
All of my childhood home movies were shot on those mini VHS tapes. I always enjoyed the sound of the extender mounting the mini tape
We used Beta in movie postproduction till 2007 when HDCam tapes took precedence. All rushes on a 35mm film (obviously different on the Red Cam films) are transferred to HDCam through a DataCine then transferred to the Avid/FinalCutPro/Lightworks deck.
Its interesting that only 3 years ago when we were submitting footage to a local television stations they asked us for a BETA copy.
I remember in the mid to late 80's that we had a couple of rental places that had beta tapes and both of them had a whole separate section for beta. My dad used to work at one and it had both a beta and VHS machine that could be rented out and if it wasn't rented out on Fridays or Saturdays my dad would bring it home and we would have it til Monday(cuz it wasn't open on Sunday). Because beta wasn't as popular as VHS a lot of times it would be the beta machine my dad would bring home.
I think those nobs at 2:55 were used to fine tune the channel reception
I remember one Christmas. Years ago. My dad bought a Sanyo BETA machine. And bought VHS movies for it. When we opened it up and tried to play a VHS on the BETA. He was dumbfounded lol. But BETA was very good quality. Just hard to get movies for though. It was a front loader. And I can still my dad trying to put the VHS movie in sideways LMAO.
those circle things under the channel buttons are for tuning the channels in on the video player could record stuff of the tv or another video player.
You filmed an TV advert? Where can I find it?
Don't bother with him i tried to help him out by answering something that he didn't know about that Sanya betacord he did that video on all I got back from him was stop your lying.
Shelley Wayne
???
Henry Stanley
in the video he didn't know what the tuners were for he just saw them as knobs so I told him they are the tv station tuners then he didn't believe me I know I have the 1982 model he has the 1984 model in both models they are tv tuners. the 1982 model i grew up using in the 1980's wouldn't believe that to so he kept saying your lying but I wasn't lying Try and help him and negative feedback is all I got from him.
That's why I said to you don't bother with him he might come back the same way.(Cheers)
Shelley Wayne Okay...?
+Shelley Wayne The person you were conversing with was a user by the name of Full Metal Hobbit, not James.
the second he said "rewind" my brain exploded
"Nobody watches cassettes anymore except nutcases like myself."
And me as well.
I remember my dad had beta player and bunch of crazy ass 70's porno that I would watch, he had the exact player, all these memories flooded in as soon as I saw it, thank u.
The yellow buttons on the bottom and front right are for tuning the channels above them - were all analog in these days
my brother found a beauty and the beast beta video at a goodwill a few years ago
Ssj Ichigo I saw two or three beta tapes of 70's horror movies at a consignment shop in my town a few years back. I'd considered buying them and hoping to find a player sometime, but they wanted like $10 a piece for them. I never did find a player, either.
Mitch Awesomefoot yeah I saw 2 boxes full of old beta tapes with old TV shows and movies recorded onto them, all nicely labelled too. I would've bought them all if I had any confidence in ever finding a beta player :P
in case no one mentioned it, the ones marked A-L are tuners if you're trying to record something from a TV channel since at that time it had different frequencies similar to radio.
I enjoyed watching stuff on the Beta back then when I was younger. Watched a lot of bootleg cartoons on that format as a kid. I only switched to VHS when I was in my teens just as Anime started becoming popular globally with Dragon Ball Z.
I have worked in TV for the past 10 years, Beta is still widely used. In fact a lot of shows come to us on HDBeta tapes. However some places are now using digital transfer. But Beta is not going anywhere for at least the next 5-10 years.
I knew there were smaller VHS tapes, but I didn't know they were called BETA.
I kekd
***** They were the beta versions of VHS tapes. =P
***** You Beta believe it.
***** It was mentioned in Married with Children if you were a fan. They had one since they were poor.
Duck Avenger I wasn't a fan, but I watched it a lot along with my mother and never noticed that they mentioned it there.
But good to know.
I was born at tail end of '81, and I still remember our Beta player. There was a neighborhood video store that rented both Beta and VHS, and we owned a handful of Beta movies, one of which being Footloose. My dad also had a Laser Disc player later on.
I was born that year too.
Over here in Germany we had a 3rd video cassette system called Video 2000.
And the small yellow knobs are for tune in the channels.
I'm sure someone already commented about this, but those little dials on the bottom of the player were used to fine tune the channels.
I grew up with a beta player just like that one! I remember my parents recording Fraggle Rock for me off HBO. I still have those tapes
The Best most amazing thing in home entertainment for decades ! These players were massive and some Serious piece of Hardware !
Beta was still going in the UK in the late eighties. Video rental stores would have say 80% VHS and 20% beta. Although in the UK it was called Betamax.