Remember those heavy beta max machines? What about the video discs?

Question

I don't think either one of them had a long life, that beta max was 4$700.00 and weighed about 60 lbs! Shortly after those came out, the VHS replaced it. That Video disc was as large as a full size record. Remember that, did you have one?

Answer 1

Yeah, the problem
they had with these was
the lack of convenience. Con-
venience sells, that's why the VHS
format and the DVD format did so well
in their day. I never had either because by
the time the price came down enough, there
was a better format available. Did you own either?

Answer 2

believe it or not....Betamax was TECHNICALLY BETTER than VHS. It had a better resolution, better technical specs...it was just plain better than vhs. The thing was, Sony invented the Betamax, they saw the market, and decided to corner it by refusing to license the patents to other corporations. Nobody but Sony [at first] could make Beta. A few years later, JVC invented VHS and kept the licenses cheap. It was this that helped VHS grow. It was more of an open format than Beta. It's one of the few cases where the more compact format died. Betamax tape shells were smaller than VHS tape shells..however they used the same size magnetic tape (my favorite trick is spooling blank vhs into a Betamax shell, making a new Beta tape). It was mostly Sony's hard hand on the content that made it to beta that killed it off, even toward the end when they opened up beta a bit when they themselves started making VHS machines. Beta machines disappeared from the home market, but Sony did make Betamax units up till 2002...and the format lives on in the form of Betacam (although it's been replaced with MiniDV in recent years). It's also been said the Video8 format was scaled down Betamax.

Videodiscs are a strange beast, becuase most people remember the huge 12" optical LaserDisc..which started off as an analog format invented in the late 50's...yes. It predates the audio CD. It was named DiscoVision in 69, when they changed to a reflective disc...demonstarted in 72 and released in limited markets in 1978. About the same time, RCA was coming out with SlectaVision which was similar to a phonograph record, except it didn't actually ride inside the groove and used capitance and electrical current changes to store and decode the media. It came out in 81 and they stopped making players in 84, discs lasting another 2 years. It was a funky format. Laserdisc held on for quite some time.

Now, I can't really even go into why DVD replaced laserdisc...i mean, the laserdisc is an analog video format while DVD uses a digital format...discs are smaller and since DVD's are dual-layer, you don't have to flip them (or spend extra on a player with two lasers).

Did I have one? I have a Betamax machine i use constantly. My Laserdisc player sees some use...and yeah, i do have a rare SelectaVision player...

Prices...well..they dropped because the cost to manfacture the componets dropped..and sizing componets down over time is just a natural thing. Look at TV's from the 50's, they were HUGE units but had a 12" screen...and now the screen uses a good 90% of the unit.

Answer 3

Remember both the beta max and the video discs. Never had the video disc though was tempted to purchase one when they were being phased out. Beta was not always big and heavy, they became smaller and smaller as technology grew, also the beta was first to give us hi-fi , way before VHS came out with theirs.

Answer 4

You actually remember those?? lol My family never had the money for either, but my uncle had both. The discs really shocked me when they came out, since i'd never seen anything on any kind of disc with video. Come to think of it, the top computers on the market were measured in kilobytes, and used 5'' floppy disks, which required writing your own programs in basic. Its amazing to see how far technology has come since then.

Answer 5

the vhs was pretty hefty too when it came out. My parents still have a pioneer/karaoke laserdisc at home. My dad bought a bunch of karaoke discs back in the late 80's. Still use them today with the preloaded 50000 song dvd/karaoke machine.

Answer 6

Laser discs came out in 1978 and I still have a player and about 100 discs. They were almost as good as DVDs are now.
Still have some movies in these that are not available in DVD.

Answer 7

there are various agencies in the united statesA. that grant this sevice, yet extremely some human beings do this out of their residences. They purchase extremely costly video kit and then reproduction issues for different individuals with a view to repay the kit. most of the "domicile" agencies could have the capacity to do it, yet will possibly not have a Betamax participant. in case you have one that works, perchance you could mortgage it to them and that they are in a position to hook it as much as their DVD recorder. look on your telephone e book. on occasion people who record your wedding ceremony on video for a residing grant those flow centers too. If not, perchance they are in a position to direct you to somebody who does.