Why VHS won

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

Any requests or ideas for Why (INSERT COMPANY OR PRODUCT) Won?

[@Steakkiller]

Why Nintendo won. Both against Atari and Sega. "Blaming" only Nintendo is probably oversimplified but whatever.

[@matt45540]

Blu ray would be a natural progression, seems like Sony won that

[@haweater1555]

​@@Steakkiller The old video game systems companies got nailed by the Great Video Game Crash of 1983, when massive amounts of junk games flooded the market, and the hardware companies tried to add "home computer" functionality to legitimize them. After that, Nintendo intro their system to USA, with sanctioned quality games only available, and no pre-tenses to being a computer (despite being a very popular home computer platform in Japan).

[@feuby8480]

I'd be interested into why Steam (video game platform) won through physical sales and second hand market. Especially since at start I did not want it, and now, I'm all aboard...

[@RaymondHng]

Blu-ray Disc versus HD DVD. CompactFlash vs. Memory Stick vs. MultiMediaCard (MMC) vs. Secure Digital card (SD) vs. SmartMedia vs. Miniature Card.

[@QuestionMan]

When VHS and Beta were slugging it out, it was essentially a battle decided by early adopters. For my family, the decision came down to which format had the most movies available by the time we could finally afford a VCR, simple as that. (spoiler alert: it was VHS)

[@x--.]

And the reason more movies were available on VCR? Looks like the studios were making the same bet, Phil made a strong argument.

[@incars1000]

I'm surprised more people don't know it was complementary products that won the war. The actual video player/recorder was worthless without things to play on it

[@rods6741]

My father in law paid around $1000 for his first VCR, a VHS unit. He sadly died in the late 80's. He would be amazed by the technology today.

[@TylerMcHenry]

My family had a betamax in the *late* 80s and I remember being constantly disappointed as a kid browsing at video rental stores, and finding something I liked only to be told we couldn't get it because it was only on VHS.

[@originalsusser]

No spoiler alert needed there! It was the same for most att. I remember us renting our 1st VCR because we didn't want to spend the fortune needed to buy possibly the wrong one, like our neighbours did... sorry Lynn, lol. In '83 we bought a VHS for same reasons as u & never looked back.

[@throttleblip1]

Phil is an OG and no one else can keep up with his style of video.

[@dylanlastname6784]

He was here before us, and he’ll be here after us

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

lol we'll see

[@ow4744]

Pretty sure Jake Lafontrelle has a stronger mustache game though.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

@@ow4744 damn it, bested by lafontrelle once again!

[@headphoneboy]

@@PhilEdwardsInc Love this topic. Please considering covering other format wars: - DVD vs Laserdisc - Blu-ray vs HD-DVD - Minidisc vs CD Also, a retrospective of all of Sony’s failed attempts at launching new formats or standards would be 🔥

[@headphoneboy]

Love this topic. Please considering covering other format wars: - DVD vs Laserdisc - Blu-ray vs HD-DVD - Minidisc vs CD Also, a retrospective of all of Sony’s failed attempts at launching new formats or standards would be 🔥

[@vylbird8014]

Laserdisc was 1978-2001, DVD was 1996 onwards. By the time DVD came out, the failure of Laserdisc to displace videotape was already apparent. Minidisc vs CD is... complicated. You'd have to also include the connections with DAT and DCC, and the music industries crippling fear of any recordable digital medium. HD-DVD vs Bluray though, that's a straight-up format war: Released at almost the same time, coexisting for a period in competition until one achieved dominance.

[@senorverde09]

DVD was the next evolution in digital home disc media. Comparing that to Laserdisc is like comparing a horse to a car. Now CED and Laserdisc would be a more fair and contemporary discussion.

[@I_WANT_MY_SLAW]

Streaming killed all of them. Not that I'm shedding any tears. Walmart killed all the mom and pop stores. But now suddenly we're all supposed to be crying that Amazon is killing Walmart? No.

[@jordanmcgrory2171]

"How PlayStations changed everything", a Phil Edwards documentary.

[@susilgunaratne4267]

​​​​​@@senorverde09 Dat itself had two varieties: R-DAT & S-DAT. Digital Compat Cassette wasn't popular in consumer markets. Lossy format - reduced data systems all have gone with time except the CD & DVD.

[@mookiecookie44]

Appreciate the Technology Connections shoutout. Was the first thing I thought of when I saw this video.

[@TimurTripp2]

His videos are way more in-depth than this one when it comes to the technical reasons. Honestly the record time theory is very plausible as the demise of Betamax.

[@vincent412l7]

When I first bought a machine, I researched and read reviews, and Beta was my obvious choice. I made one final stop to check the selections at Blockbusters. They had one whole wall of Beta, and five walls of VHS. So I immediately disregarded five months of research and reading reviews and went with VHS. (Remember the blank VHS tapes used to be $60 each?)

[@rasmusalmqvist5960]

My mom worked as a TV journalist and we initially went down the Betamax route in 1982. The problem with Betamax was that video rentals didn't have as broad of a catalogie on Betamax as with VHS and often only one copy of a popular movie on Betamax. We switched to VHS within a couple of agonizing years, simply because of the more movies being available on VHS,

[@okaro6595]

Yes, that is what often happened. It was the second purchase that counted.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Excellent music this time! Love the factual-ness on it being down to ALL movie rentals, not just adult movies like some claim. Sony didn’t really ban it like people say.

[@Cookie_85]

Thats something that always bothered me that people said the adult movies were the downfall of beta.

[@jamesslick4790]

@@Cookie_85 I have quite a few "adult" titles on Betamax. (For historic research, of course!).

[@jamesslick4790]

Neither Sony nor JVC had any control over what someone put on either format. Much "adult" content was on Betamax.

[@therocknrollmillennial535]

I loved this video. A personal anecdote: I was born in the mid-90’s and, as my mom has never been the type to spend money unless she absolutely has to, I only knew VHS until I was about 10-11. The first DVD player we got was a portable one for road trips. Regarding your “be kind, rewind” throwaway line, I was blown away that you didn’t have to “rewind” a DVD, which, looking back, makes me laugh.

[@luigivincenz3843]

i remembered the "rewind policy" at Blockbuster. BB eventually removed it because a majority of returns were NOT rewound. I know because I had family who worked for BB. They ALWAYS had a tape rewinder beside them that was working the entire shift because of late returns. I miss Blockbuster. Saturday nights BEFORE CLOSING, you'll see lots of people loitering around just waiting for that hot movie people want to watch, every time a tape is returned thru the bin LOL

[@pummisher1186]

I remember VHS video quality being pretty good. Then on KZbin, people started using the nostalgia VHS filter to make their videos look like an old tape that's been played a thousand times and was damaged. To me, that is a false nostalgia making younger people think VHS format looked like complete garbage and we put up with it. Videos only really looked like garbage when you tried to copy them. The Macrovision copy protection which messed with the gain control causing the brightness to go all over the place. Also, the copy will look worse regardless.

[@bubbythebear6891]

Old crappily transferred public domain cartoons had that really bad look that people think of VHS now. The camcorder my family had was pretty terrible, even for the time. It reminds me a bit of the faux VHS look. Hell, footage from my mom's childhood looks better than mine. For some reason we used that camcorder until 2015 when I was 12! I don't know why we put up with it for so long. Of course we got rid of it right before it became trendy, go figure!

[@acrouzet]

Not to mention bad deinterlacing when digitizing which can halve the vertical resolution

[@robertromero8692]

“I remember VHS video quality being pretty good.” It looked ok compared to NTSC broadcasts on the typical 25 inch TVs of the time, but it’s VASTLY inferior to today’s digital formats, especially 1080p and 2160p. It would look godawful played on a 65 inch OLED or a 100+ inch projector screen. “Then on KZbin, people started using the nostalgia VHS filter to make their videos look like an old tape that's been played a thousand times and was damaged. To me, that is a false nostalgia making younger people think VHS format looked like complete garbage and we put up with it.” I think the false nostalgia is thinking that a paltry resolution of 333 x 480 (and 40 x 480 chroma resolution) is remotely as good as 1920 x 1080 or 3840 x 2160.

[@Mr_Kenneth]

VHS was just fine. Plus It certainly made a big quality difference if you played it in a decent VHS player and telly. I remember loaning out tapes to friends and the quality was shocking when the returned them . Dirty in fact

[@Mr_Kenneth]

Contrary to popular belief, when you played back NTSC VHS. On a PAL TV, the quality despite being 100 lines less (525), looked fine. It compensated for the loss by centering the image with a little border top and bottom. I used to import the latest VHS movie released before they were on UK cinemas

[@mcmillan.2k]

The crossing your arms for the basic cable bit.... god damn you nailed it.

[@JaykPuten]

Wow you managed to not bring up pornography which is what I'd heard won the format war Very classy to read a whole newsletter/zine about the topic, and to avoid the classically cited pornography (I think it's even mentioned in tropic thunder as the reason why)

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

yeah i am classy but i also just couldn't find any good proof!

[@JaykPuten]

@@PhilEdwardsInc (conspiracy voice) the lack of proof is the proof man And it sounds like something Jake Lafrontrelle would say Completely unsubstantiated, or he'd cite 200Xs tropic thunder as a source

[@seanwebb605]

@@PhilEdwardsInc Follow up with the Porno Wars.

[@NighttimeNubbs]

This was the myth I regularly heard for past couple decades in regards to the format war but higher production output makes more sense just not as clickbaity.

[@ChrisCooling]

It indeed drove the adoption of all home video formats. In the 1970s, the vast majority of titles available at rental stores were all pirated anyway. There was plenty of pornography on whatever you wanted. Cartrivision, VHS, Beta, U-matic....dubbing off copies of movies was one of the first things you learned how to do when you opened a rental store

[@perrybarton]

When this came up in my feed, my first thought was “yeah, I‘ve been down this road before.” But you immediately made it clear that you and Leather Boy had a different story to tell. Nice job, Phil. And bonus points for “Warner Siblings.” 😎

[@akira5506]

yo dude just wanted to say i really appreciate your vids and love coming back to them , you’ve introduced me to topics I’ve probably never look at myself and for that thank u

[@alison-ip8ky]

One thing to add - in the early/mid 80s, you could rent a VHS player to see a movie. My family didn't buy a VCR until around 1986. Before that when a major movie came out, we'd rent a VCR and invite the entire neighborhood over to see it. I remember being the most popular kid in my class when we rented a VCR and the first Ghostbusters movie. And I remember going to see Star Wars at a neighbor who had rented either a Betamax or VCR. I don't remember which. But it was a big deal to rent a player, not just the tapes. I don't remember anyone my neighborhood actually owning one until the mid 80s.

[@silkwesir1444]

yeah it wasn't until late 80s, early 90s that they became a common household item instead of being a rich people thing.

[@EndHall]

I still (try to) record VHS to this day. I have a VCR in my dorm and have so much fun rewatching very modern shows on tape and such. Great video and amazing storytelling!

[@vraaac2687]

Very nice video ! In Europe we had a third challenger : the philips and grundig's "V2000", from 1979 to 1988. V2000 was technically better with an image stabilizer but Philips and Grunding came after the battle, the VHS had already won.

[@mshonle]

Regarding recording length, the pertinent number is how many cassettes were required to hold a movie. In the VHS world, a double tape movie would be fairly rare and represent an actually long movie. It’s my understanding that a double tape Betamax movie was more common. Regarding recording quality, perhaps that is a matter of the quality of cameras, too. Local news organizations used Beta for a long time after the VHS won out on the consumer side.

[@bluetoes591]

Later, completely incompatible versions of the Beta tape were still the standard ENG camera recording medium until around 2010 when tape started to be phased out. But still being used today by professionals, which VHS definitely isn't.

[@SomePotato]

That was most likely Betacam, which was very successful in the professional market.

[@okaro6595]

In Europe the recording lenghts were different, The standard tape here was 3 hours and the longer 4 hours, with 195 minutes etc. in between. There even was a rare 5 hour tape. With Beta the standard length was 3 hours 15 minutes. On the other had on VHS LP was less common, only on better recorders and EP was very common, only appearing at the end of the VHS era (I have a Panasonic VCR that can record 12 hours on EP on a 4 hour tape. The tape speed in Europe was slower than in the US.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Though TV news used Betacam, not Betamax. The tapes themselves were (originally) physically the same, but the signal recorded onto them was different and incompatible -- and more suited to TV stations' needs. (Technology Connections made a video not long ago about Betacam and how it differed from Betamax. ...Including optional larger-size cassettes that could hold more tape than the Betamax-sized ones.)

[@ChristopherSmith-il6fo]

One thing I love about your videos is that while being informative, one comedic thing always takes me out. Like I have to pause to laugh and rethink my life kind of funny.

[@k.5152]

what if Phil collaborated with technology connections?

[@partywumpus5267]

I'd love that, they're of the best youtubers I watch!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i was very impressed by that beta vhs test!

[@dwarftoad]

Loved his really deep dive into RCA CED videodisc. Such a weird thing in retrospect. kzbin.info/aero/PLv0jwu7G_DFVP0SGNlBiBtFVkV5LZ7SOU

[@shaider1982]

That would be tight!

[@chrisgenovese8188]

If they had just named it ALPHAmax... Great video Phil. I really enjoy these videos of brand competition and companies we take for granted. There is usually an interesting story.

[@PsRohrbaugh]

It's also important to remember just how expensive these devices were. My parents graduated college in 1981, and didn't own a VCR until 1987.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

yeah the prices are mind boggling!

[@susilgunaratne4267]

Panasonic NV - 300 was the 1st less expensive model.

[@Rhomega]

Yeah, my parents graduated in 1982. They went with LaserDisc.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Meanwhile my parents bought a Betamax VCR _and_ a BetaMovie camcorder in the mid-'80s, with part of a windfall from a legal settlement. (They bought new cars in '85-'86 too.) They'd been Sony fans for years already -- _all_ our household TVs were Trinitrons, and many of our stereo components were Sony -- so Betamax seemed like an obvious choice to them. Our _second_ VCR, though, was a Sony VHS model, bought in the early '90s after the _last_ video store in our part of town that rented Beta ... stopped renting Beta.

[@kelvarnsen]

Prices of actual movies on tape was insane too. My dad owned a small video store that he started in the mid 1980's and I can remember those days him ordering tapes from his distributor and then costing around $100 bucks. Say what you will about Netflix killing video rental stores, the big killer was when a parent could just buy their kid a copy of The Little mermaid from Walmart for $20 and watch it forever rather than having to rent it every weekend.

[@KomradZX1989]

Watching this while having breakfast in town this morning and your line “We’re covering everything from Blu-Ray to Laserdisc to Protestantism!” Made me burst out laughing which got me a few odd looks. Just another great day watching one of your awesome videos 😂❤ Have a great day good sir 😝

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

thanks- likewise!

[@ryanortega1511]

OK, but how would Protestantism actually fit in to all this? I kid, I think I get the joke now.

[@KomradZX1989]

@@ryanortega1511 the randomness just hit my funny bone like a ton of bricks lol. It made me burst out a loud “HAHA!” And I look up with people like “uhhhhhh…” *STARE*

[@dwarftoad]

@@ryanortega1511 Something something, porn on VHS?

[@ryanortega1511]

I think it's the idea of Protestantism being a "format" of Christianity.

[@alli_mode]

I like the cameo of Jake Lafrontel. He should be on more episodes! 💛🧡💚

[@matt45540]

you mean Divorce Phil

[@michaelparks3106]

As someone who sold VCRs in the early days (the first Betamax was only available in a console with a 19" Trinitron TV for $2,000.) you pretty much nailed the reason VHS won, but overlooked why so many other manufacturers adopted VHS. Sony, like Apple, wanted total control of the format and actually resisted having other manufacturers make Beta machines. JVC by comparison licensed the technology to anybody and everybody who wanted to make a machine. Flooding the market this way created the snowball effect you mentioned: more people owned VHS, so movie companies released their movies primarily on VHS. Video rental stores mainly had VHS tapes, so more people bought VHS machines. Classic chicken-and-egg feeding each other. As for picture quality, testing resulted in slightly better numbers for Beta, but in a side-by-side in-store comparison, most people couldn't see any difference. Combine a lower price and longer recording time (in the early days) and VHS just steamrolled over Beta.

[@InfectiousGroovePodcast]

This was the first format war I remember as a kid. Our family was squarely in the VHS camp but I had an uncle who was very much on the Beta side of the fence. I seriously remember my dad and my uncle having loud arguments about it but I was too young to really know the ins and outs of their arguments. It's because of that format war, that I've taken it super slow with all tech since then.

[@ShovaSG1]

It was a reoccurring theme with Sony. They came up with a lot of stuff over the years that didnt pan out because of arrogance and/or over pricing. They seemed to have learned their lesson though

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

this is the first time i realized i forgot to mention this video was shot on a sony!

[@MattPlachecki]

Memory Stick, anyone?

[@gamewizardks]

That's why I jumped on the VHS format as a teenager back then. VHS became a bandwagon and most anyone you knew agreed that VHS was best because that was the machine they also bought. Matsushita brought down the cost better than Sony and that was the decisive factor.

[@ads998]

I have to admit, I've watched a lot of content on this topic (and lived through the format wars as a kid), but this is the most comprehensive breakdown to date. I was honestly convinced it was about recording time, but you've covered that really well here. Thanks for this, I feel better informed about a topic no one under 40 would understand haha!

[@seahawk124]

Jake Lafontrelle needs to be a recurring character with his own story arc, Phil!

[@BOABModels]

This was really interesting - I'm slightly too young to remember Betamax but I'm familiar with the battle between formats as I remember Blu ray vs HD DVD. It was Sony which ended up on the winning side that time around. I remember my PS3 could play Blu rays whilst my friend's Xbox 360 needed an additional update to play HD dvds.

[@coal.sparks]

I found this channel today and was bingeing as one does, and that first Format Wars Quick Fact popped up. It's weird when you find someone online who is so clearly a member of the same tribe. :) We live in the future.

[@pauljakeman]

Really loved this deep dive. Awesome video Phil.

[@soodalhandle]

lol your acting skills are sketches are getting so better. Good content as always

[@wkmr]

Saw this come out today just after watching Be Kind Rewind for the first time last night! What a fun celebration of movies and community

[@MrBaskins2010]

wow man another fire video. really loved VHS as a kid. remember how expensive the family switch to DVD was

[@aiadreamloss]

wow. found this video on a total whim and it’s really well done & researched. good stuff

[@Daniel-yc1ff]

A lesser-known format war: VHD vs. CED vs. LaserDisc The disk based format wars predating VideoDisc and DVD.

[@KennyRider137]

Our family went from Super 8 Heckle and Jeckyl films to dollar store Laurel and Hardy VHS tapes. The REAL war was between whether someone got to play Atari or some else watching a tape on the ONE television.

[@robk7266]

No. It wasn't porn. Thats just an urban legend. It doesn't even make sense if you think about it. Tapes weren't used for home video until the mod 80s. They were strictly used for recording tv

[@zamiadams4343]

Great video sir! I'm obsessed with VHS and Betamax.

[@tumslucks9781]

I used to be like you. Then I got myself a girlfriend.

[@Nickyy64]

Next on why blank won: Protestantism

[@ExperimentIV]

my dad was an early adopter of Beta, and all my early home movies are on it. he had a portable beta VCR and a camera with it, and when he was a young man in the 80s, he took that rig on Space Mountain, vcr between his knees, camera on his shoulder. beta was a lot better in Beta I (vs Beta II and Beta II), but Beta I recording was removed as an option for recording fairly early on. also, beta being mono-only (i don’t think it ever had stereo, but i could be wrong?) probably had an impact when people were buying stereos in the mid to late 80s.

[@ryanortega1511]

They did have "Beta Hi-fi".

[@caeserromero3013]

The story wasn't exactly the same everywhere but fairly similar. In the UK VHS won out because floods of cheap VHS players were available to the rental companies, as in the early days, many people in the UK rented their TV's and VCR's. The biggest rental companies had a deal with Thorn EMI and Philips to supply VHS players for the domestic rental market and the rest is history. My parents weren't well off but Dad liked to buy what he thought was 'The best' and saved up and bought a Sony Betamax (with Video camera setup) in 1980 (there's a tale of him coming home one night from work to find me, as a 2 year old, chewing on a 1hr tape that cost him something like £50+. He ended up splicing it back together and ending up with a 40 minute tape!). We still have Beta home move film from the early 80's that is playable. But as the majority of VCRs in the UK were VHS, the tape rental store only ever had a miniscule selection of Beta titles. That's how I ended up with a life long affection for Flash Gordon. I went in wanting Raiders of the Lost Ark (which I'd seen at my Aunts the weekend before on her Sanyo VHS) but they didn't have it. So I rented Flash Gordon instead. Most of the movies we had for the betamax were either taped from TV or pirate movies I got from my uncle (Terminator, Escape from New York, Conan the Barbarian & Battle Star Galactica). Dad finally caved in 1987 and we bought a VHS (which my brother promptly destroyed by trying to use a skateboard in the living room). But ever since '87, we only ever had VHS until DVD came along and we switched in the late 90's. I ended up having that old skateboard damaged VHS in my bedroom after dad repaired it. Many happy memories of that machine. Beta actually carried on in Japan and units were still made up until about 2000, I believe.

[@ThommyofThenn]

That "basic cable 'history'" satire is just too funny. After seeing that and your calvin and Hobbes video, I'm fully on board with this channel

[@JoshuaTime861]

your work is so amazing! please keep it up!

[@MontegaB]

Great video, and I love all the references in your description, very very good work. I think it's Mat-sooh-shee-ta though :)

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

Thanks! I tried to just copy Panasonics pronunciation video but it's a journey...

[@garrettwagner5270]

I like what youre doing to my feed, Phil. Great videos

[@realtsarbomba]

I think home videos played a significant role, I still remember (circa 1983-4) that in my hometown had just a couple of movie rental shops with BETA but tens of rental shops with VHS' and the latter had a much larger selection.

[@moonlitegram]

Our family initially had a Beta VCR and I remember going to our local video store to rent movies. The store itself was very tiny in comparison to what rental stores would become. And on top of that the Beta section was also much smaller than the VHS section. And that's what eventually became the deciding factor for us. My dad eventually caved and shelled out the money for another VCR, this time one that played VHS tapes, so that we'd stop bugging him about not having as big of a selection to choose from on movie nights.

[@The_Sofa_King]

I remember when I was young and vhs was so popular. It felt good to be able to watch movies as many times as I wanted! Never even heard of Betamax at all.

[@silkwesir1444]

Never even heard it? Ever? Not even in passing? Wow...

[@karehaqt]

I feel so old now, my family's first VCR was VHS and the remote was attached with a wire.

[@silkwesir1444]

ever seen a remote that worked by making a sound that the TV set would pick up?

[@zeenohaquo7970]

Betamax was popular in Nigeria, Philippines.

[@randomasdfx7891]

I remember the only reason my dad bought a betamax back in 84 was because the porn available locally was in that format LOL

[@tylera5010]

Thanks!

[@patrickmusson4571]

College Football, the NFL, and the MLB played a huge part in the success of VHS, as well as the invention of the VHS LP/SP feature, whereby you could record whole Football and Baseball games and watch them when you got home on a weekend.

[@thenewnostalgia]

Consistently, your content and delivery far outshine the competition.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

thanks!!

[@EvenFilms]

This gave me such strong mid 2000s “History” channel vibes. Great job as always!

[@Keith.Zielinski]

Enjoyed the trip down memory lane! All I knew as a boy, I was excited we had a VCR and my favorite gift from my aunt was the Ghostbusters VHS which got years of enjoyment! As a child growing up in that era I never correlated how financial clout lead to certain consumer products. Now as an adult, it's understandable, money makes the world turn.

[@3DJapan]

Another thing to note is that beta had several versions. Betacam continued to be used in TV production long after the consumers switched to VHS.

[@tsmith7146]

Betamax (consumer) and Betacam (professional) are completely different and incompatible products. They use the same sized tape housing and both have "Beta" in their names, but thats as far as it goes.

[@okaro6595]

@@tsmith7146 Yes, for one Betacam could record 30 minutes on the tape when Betamax could record hours. That is Betacam used much highter tape speed. Also the tape material was different.

[@kaasdale4660]

Nice Video. A kind of different take on the format wars!

[@theevilmuppet]

Beautifully done, especially the statement around the best technology not always winning. In the '80s, the Atari ST and Amiga were more capable machines than the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh, however they lost out terribly in the market - that's yet another example of your excellent observation!

[@pablocasas5906]

I had a VCR growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s, but I never seen a Betamax in my life. I only knew about it existence because of references in shows like The Simpsons

[@andrewrossy]

Great video … my only question is why is there not 500k views on this video ? Completely underrated.

[@Skittenmeow]

I know my national broadcaster ABC (Australia) required betamax format for any media submissions up until a few years ago. Unsure if that is still the case, but if you wanted anything featured on ABC you needed to submit it on Betamax cassette. Particularly for anyone wanting to submit their own dodgy home-made content (i.e. myself) to the music video programme "Rage" - meant there was a small but steady industry around converting VHS to Betamax for a long time in Australia.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

interesting!

[@magister61]

I love to see the vintage ads of the first video recorders. They take me to my young years and to remember the magic there was in those magic machines.

[@robdavlin]

Great attention to detail. Thanks for reminder that the user experience goes way beyond the technology, what is available in the complete ecosystem matters.

[@davidmylchreest3306]

We had Betamax growing up and I distinctly remember having to go through the door of the rental shop down to the back and round the corner to find the Betamax rack in a dimly lit corner. It was like one unit to ten VHS units.

[@andysims4906]

I believe in England one of the reasons VHS won was at the time several Of the big Rental company’s were all tied to Thorn . Possibly owned by them .Thorn at the time used JVC and just rebadged them . I myself have a DER and a Multi Broadcast VCR . Both were rental company’s tied to Thorn . There was a few more company’s as well One other company called Granada were using JVC but soon moved over to Hitachi againVHS machines rebadged.

[@robinayers]

Loving this channel!

[@contextwithjohnmalone]

Format Wars! lol I love it! Ok now you have to make a video on Monster Truck Rallies. “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!” 🤣 You make the most entertaining, educational, and nostalgic videos Phil.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

if i can figure out how to expense monster truck tickets, i will definitely do it

[@contextwithjohnmalone]

@@PhilEdwardsInc I’ll get you a hot pass so you can get into the staging area/garage with the trucks and drivers. My email is in my about section on my channel.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

@@contextwithjohnmalone haha shoot! alright i'm gonna do my research and add to my list!

[@contextwithjohnmalone]

@@PhilEdwardsInc let me know if you have any questions. I worked in racing over 25 years in NASCAR and IMSA and Formula1. My family owned an IndyCar team as well.

[@haweater1555]

Others consider the deciding factor that tipped into VHS favour was ability to record 3+ hours, for timeshifting sports programming.

[@AdrianClavijo]

Format wars ideas. Atari vs ..., HDdvd vs blur ray, beta vs cassette, mp3 vs mpa, pc vs mac, ms word vs word perfect, novell vs windows NT, netscape vs explorer, Altavista vs google, hotmail vs gmail, plasma vs LCD, zip drive vs cd drives. Thumb drives vs the cloud.

[@Super_Bros.]

VHS collecting has come back into style and they are even opening a store that specifically sells only VHS in a near city. I have actually begun collecting, as VHS is nostalgic.

[@morganaravens]

by the time i was a kid in the mid 80s almost everything worth getting was on vhs, so my parents got one for me and explained how easy to was to use. i remember seeing friends who had a beta but it was covered in dust even by the late 80s. simply put vhs made itself more available to everyone and won

[@joshtodd2369]

I just discovered this channel and I'm so glad I did 👏👏👏 Edit: if it helps, it was the NASA Graphics video that was thrown up on my feed.

[@room34]

I remember, as a kid, watching this battle play out in the '80s, simultaneously with the battle between Atari 2600 and Intellivision. In both cases it was clear that (nominally) superior technology didn't matter. What mattered was whether you could get the best games/movies/whatever on the device you had. And at least in the case of Atari 2600 - here's my hot take - its games ended up being superior to Intellivision in the later years, because it had so much more momentum behind it that game designers learned how to push the technical boundaries. (Not surprisingly, I lived in a VHS/Atari 2600 household.)

[@edgyman-fk]

Neat! I'd been led to believe for years that it was really just the adult content industry choosing VHS. And that the same thing happened with Bluray vs HDDVD

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

Yeah I ultimately just couldn't find the evidence.

[@SomePotato]

It's also a myth for the HD format wars. It pretty much also came down to just shipping units and when the PS3 entered the market, Blu-ray just sprinted ahead. In reality though, DVD still outsells Blu-ray. The public is shifting from DVD to streaming, and only enthusiasts buy physical.

[@robk7266]

It's just an urban legend. It doesn't even make sense if you think about it. Video tales weren't used for home video at first. That didn't become a thing until the mid 80s. Takes were strictly used for recording tv shows to watch later.

[@reganlandau]

A few of the local broadcast news stations I worked for really dug in their heels with beta. To be fair, editing tape-to-tape on beta was really simple (and easy to teach to a novice)-- but we were airing at least a portion of video in newscasts directly from beta decks until at least 2006

[@ryanortega1511]

You're thinking of Betacam. That's a similar but different format.

[@PSingletary]

Your posts are an excellent pairing with my CBS Sunday Morning watch.

[@JMartinsATV]

Phil is slowly descending into madness and I’m here for it.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

slowly?

[@qwertyTRiG]

"Do notte buy Betamax." Agnes Nutter.

[@tomburke5311]

I think it was actually "...betamacks".🤩

[@qwertyTRiG]

@@tomburke5311 You may well be right.

[@briansmith9439]

As you said, and most everybody knew, it was always a 'war' over marketing strategy - the one with the biggest share wins, whether it's VHS or Coca-Cola. Quality was not an issue at the time, in fact, I don't remember it ever being an issue. That came later and was presented as an example of 'the highest quality doesn't always win' argument.

[@timkennedy1192]

You explained well. I owned a Betamax and used it for several years, but eventually I had to go VHS. Now, there is streaming. Expensive too in a sneaky way.

[@esgee3829]

phil has upped his sound design game. and we notice phil. sound design + great copy + some goofiness = big views

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

thanks! it's a journey...

[@MikeTXBC]

As I recall, the video quality on Beta wasn't necessarily better, it just degraded a lot slower. Every time you played a videocassette (which includes recording), the image quality would degrade just a tiny bit. Now if you're playing a specific tape over and over and over, eventually you might see some noticeable degradation. It's in this very specific case that Beta presented a better picture than VHS. But most people didn't play their tapes repeatedly on a regular basis, so this was not a particularly important factor for home users. Now if someone or some company was repeatedly recording and re-recording over the previous recording it actually did matter, but the majority of people didn't do that and the relatively few industries that did didn't make a significant dent in the market.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

interesting

[@AnalogDave]

Hat backwards Phil is legit the coolest guy in that room!

[@dhpbear2]

The factor that steered me toward VHS back in 1979 was the running time.

[@Bflorio12]

This is great! I was kinda hoping for some stuff on RCA Selectavision too…that’s another weird 80s home Video thing. I still have one.

[@RobJaskula]

My grandparents had a Betamax VCR and I fondly remember a lot of the tapes, but they never had more than one wall at Blockbuster and by the early 90s you just couldn't find Beta except for like, the clearance section at Service Merchandise. Grandma and Grandpa got a VHS by 1992 but we still played the Beta tapes up until DVDs came out - they were high-quality cassettes.

[@sakumisan]

Phil, just wanted to say THANK YOU for not using a thumbnail with you making that funny face LOL. I get it, algorithm and for some reason that's what pulls in clicks, but how many perplexed faces can a single man make. You're giving Jim Carrey a run for his money!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

haha i am trying to wean myself from the goofy face. i may disappoint you this sunday though 😬

[@michaelinglis567]

I'm restoring my grandfathers tube radio currently. Pretty much done all the electrolytic and paper caps and aesthetic repairs. But my point is, it came with its stock Matsushita tubes and I just recently learned all about Matsushita. They made quality components for what they were at least. It's sad that they as well as so many other stopped making vacuum tubes / : The current production tubes available now that I use in my guitar amps are lucky to last 2 years, most die at a year to a year and a half. And that's dispite the fact I go to extreame measures to not run them too hard. But those Matsushita tubes (a budget option in their day) from 1960 are all still working, it's no myth that the quality of our manufacturing in most industrys has considerably decreased unfortunately.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

The founder has a pretty cool story I'd never heard of. Just cool to imagine a titan who saw the potential of...electricity...and ended up with this empire. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dnosuke_Matsushita

[@pocphotocompany]

Intersting-we bought a panasonic VHS player in 1980. Betamax did win out however in the broadcast arena. It became the standard for all ENG type stuff and was the go to for laying down all content that eventually made its way across the airwaves in North America and I'm guessing in most of the world as well. I worked in a studio that had at least 5 beta machines in the control room alone. Digibeta eventually became the standard as technology advanced. Though I'm sure places still use it beta-everything is moving towards files that live in the cloud.

[@davecerv]

Wonderful video! I never even knew about Beta growing up until my late teens. I’ve never watched a beta format video.

[@atomotron]

Short answer: because of Sony being Sony.

[@yoshitoshi98]

When I bought our first VCR, it was a choice between Betamax and Selectavision. Not only did the Beta clock cost extra, VHS tapes ran longer.

[@NickRaven]

"Thank you for calling your local cable monopoly, how can I help you today?" "Yes, I need whatever channel Phil Edwards is on." "Well, I'll be more than happy to help you with that today. Phil Edwards is part of the Delightful Cable Channel Tier and that goes for an additional $5 a month." "I'll take it! I'm literally throwing my cash at the phone receiver right now!" (everyone laughs, outro Local Cable Monopoly logo build)

[@dalton3870]

it’s similar to when xbox one and ps4 came out. it was more about what your friends were getting and what games were available/exclusive while no one really cared about the capabilities and differences of the consoles

[@MotownBatman]

Great Video! New Sub; Dryden, MI Atari vs Magnavox... Suggestion, but Imma go see what all you've done. Great Job Again!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

never encountered the magnavox story before - pretty interesting!!

[@dwarftoad]

The tech specs would have mattered more at the beginning, when it was a cool new technology for early adopters or even a luxury product. (But then price not as much a factor) but once it entered mass adoption then yes, the network effects of movie availability, availability in electronics stores (and which system the stores decided to promote or recommend), what your friends had, etc. would have been the main thing.