The people love Windows XP 10143

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Betamax was way superior to VHS in its original design in terms of audio and video quality. It was really a cut-down Umatic machine. It supported more lines per frame (better definition in PC-speak), and superior audio quality.

What end Beta and left the field open for VHS was that the way the tape loaded in beta made it virtually impossible to produce a portable machine, and completely physically impossible to do a cam-corder. This was a direct artefact of using a cut-down u-matic design, rather than a 'new' design, which the VHS system was.

It should be borne in mind that both systems were originally taking on the Philips N1700-N1702 cbuttette systems, and the newly launched VideoDisc (the technology for which later became CD). In that respect, both products were originally successful, as the Philips competing system, the V2000, was launched almost 18 months late, and was ridiculously complex due to a *marketing* requirement to have the casette revsersible (ie., two-sided), like the audio-cbuttette. By the time the V2000 appeared, VHS and Beta were all over the place, and the Philips system was a mechanical nightmare, using drive-cord for tape threading and all kinds of cr*p.

So the war descended into Beta vs., VHS. Most of the 'techie' folks preferred Beta, because of the superior picture-audio, however, the consumers made their choice for the cheapest. Later versions of VHS improved the definition, with a high-band version, added stereo sound so that Europeans could record their stereo TV onto cbuttette (the Nicam system invented by the BBC - very good), and even were able to record teletext (another BBC invention). Stereo playback was popular world-wide, and allowed people outside of PAL countries to enjoy pre-recorded films with stereo audio.

It was many years before VHS got to the original quality of Beta. I know - I used to work on them.

-- end Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk The man on tops walks a lonely street; the "chain" of command is often a noose.