Is Betamax better then VHS?

[Lacan]

I always wondered which format was better VHS or Betamax? In terms of picture quality and sound quality, etc?

[superplough]

personally i have no clue, this may help though
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotape_format_war

[The Million Dollar Prons]

I'm glad to know my betamax tapes will still be usable long after my great great great great great grandchildren die in a nuclear holocuast.

[Lacan]

I think I looked at that wiki a few minutes ago.

Should I get a Betamax, are there some rare anime on it?

[superplough]

i doubt it, unless japanese people recorded some off tv onto betamax before vhs became popular

[The Million Dollar Prons]

I forget, but I don't think there's any anime betamax in America.

[{NG}Fidel]

Beta Max was better but VHS won.

[RPGQueen]

Beta is so beter. I need a machine to play the format but I do own a few old tapes (is that what there called?.

[Suiko Eiji]

i doubt it, unless japanese people recorded some off tv onto betamax before vhs became popular

A lot of fans early in the US, mostly associated with C/FO, recorded their Masters (either direct from TV or Video in Japan) on Beta, until it was phased out. Later in the nineties, SVHS was released, which had enhanced quality (used by a lot of fansubbers) but it was never that widespread in the US and I doubt even in Japan.

To answer the OP's question, Beta is technologically superior, but a lot of the cost structure made it more costly than rival VHS. Running time was a big factor - the slowest running, highest quality VHS subformat was timed at 2 hours; the equivalent in Beta was 30 minutes. In order for beta to compete with VHS, they had to sacrifice quality - which was their strong suit. Can you imagine going to buy a movie and walking out with four little cassettes? Also, as I am sure the Wiki mentions it, but Sony refused to license Beta productions to the adult film industry; Toshiba had no such reservations and this is cited as the single most significant factor in the Format War between VHS and Beta.

I think I looked at that wiki a few minutes ago.

Should I get a Betamax, are there some rare anime on it?

I highly doubt it. I plan on buying a Beta deck and some associated materials just for fun and I would keep an eye out for old, home-recorded anime or JP television, but if you want a "serious investment" concerning old anime not available on R1 or R2 or any other Rx, I'd go with LaserDisc. LaserDisc was HUEG (like TEN X-BOXES) in Japan and nearly all anime from the 1980s up until 2000 or 2001 received dual releases on LD. Even some popular, older series were released on LD, such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Galaxy Express 999, and Space Battleship Yamato, etc. I know here in the States in the very early nineties, AnimEigo and CPM used to release on dual format, too like in Japan. LD players are readily available in very nice condition on Internet auction sites; a lot of schools had them and rarely used them and some technophiles are actually parting with their own collections for one reason or another. It's common to find a decent condition player and a collection of movies (20-100) for around $100 USD. Also, what's great, is that you can get many import LDs for damn cheap; I remember seeing some Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam LDs for $5 USD a pop and the entire set of Kodomo no Omocha with memorial box for right around $100. However, some can range to be very expensive: I saw one guy who sold his Galaxy Express 999 movie for $85 USD and an original printing of MS Gundam TV series for $2000.

LaserDisc vs DVD (http://j-fan.com/edit.cgi?selected=anime_ld). I found this link a couple of years ago when I was wrestling with my fandom and it really got me thinking.

[Stelok]

I forget, but I don't think there's any anime betamax in America.

Actually, I record hentai anime and Sakura Taisen video games on betamax.

[Lacan]

Another question how many Beta tapes of shows, movies, animation,etc where released?

[Suiko Eiji]

Another question how many Beta tapes of shows, movies, animation,etc where released?

To be honest, I don't remember ever seeing legitimately released anime on Beta. I only remember Beta because one of the first video stores I began renting from in the late 1980s and early 1990s still had a stock of Beta tapes* as well as some nerdy, personal research I did on the format in High School. I've a handful of Japanese advertisements which only mentioned a VHS and LD release, as well as VHS and LD players - but all of those are late 1980s through 1990s.

The Format War ended, what, 1985, '86? I was two or three then and even though I caught on to VCR and cassettes early, I wasn't even messing around with them at that age.

*I watched a lot of the VHS stuff we had at home but I remember most frequently renting pro-wrestling videos from that store I mentioned, so I think I saw Wrestlemania I-V available on Beta and I am sure most Hollywood blockbusters of the early to mid 1980s were available on Beta as well as VHS.

[HSaabedra]

Anime in the US was never released officially on Beta, but masters exist on U1 tapes, which are digital Beta tapes meant to be used as archives. As far as the market for Beta went, back in the 80ties you saw a lot of bootleg and deviant pron distributed on the format because of the relative ease of concealment.

[goddessofanime]

I vaguely remember Betamax period.

Only anime wasn't known AT ALL back in the day.

[The Million Dollar Prons]

Actually, I record hentai anime and Sakura Taisen video games on betamax.

Oh, yeah!

Are you gonna hook me up with copies of that or not?!

[Haro!]

My parents have a betamax player somewhere in their basement. And blank tapes. I don't think they have anything in the way of movies or stuff of the sort actually on beta though. Nothing that I wold know about anyway.

[Bernard_Monsha]

I always wondered which format was better VHS or Betamax? In terms of picture quality and sound quality, etc?


Laserdisk.

[Stelok]

Oh, yeah!

Are you gonna hook me up with copies of that or not?!

I'd love to but I will have to pay to hire an expert to transfer the Betamax recordings of the Sakura Taisen games to DVD copies. It would cost 1,200 Philippine pesoes to transfer two hours worth of Betamax tape recordings.

I will be someday going to finish my recordings and save my money.

[Suiko Eiji]

Actually, I'll half-step my previous comment about anime released on Beta:

DAICON III and IV (http://www.cjas.org/~leng/daild.htm) animations were released on Beta and LD. Why I say that I'll half-step back is that due to legal issues, the couldn't be legally 'released' on home video.

[Jatz]

There are still some places that sell betamax tapes in the US. The only two that I know of are the Beta Library (http://www.betalab.org/betalib.html) and Absolute Beta. (http://www.absolutebeta.com/) You can ask them if they have any Anime on beta.

[Anamin]

I was always told 'yes' and that VHS was just marketed better.

[The Million Dollar Prons]

The "other" formats sure were cool, Beta and LD.

If you're a simpsons fan, you'll notice that all the video tapes used to be Betamax tapes, and they did all their video shopping at the "Beta Barn." If I remember right, when DVD came out they started using Laser Disc.

[Scandiadream]

I vaguely remember Betamax being mentioned in catalogs when I was a very young child. We never had a Betamax machine. We got our first VHS VCR when I was in early elementary school. Not really sure which grade I was in.

I still have the VCR I bought in 1995. And the TV I bought in 1992.

[CrossboneGundam]

I find it humorous that people would be discussing the quality of magnetic tape as a video recording medium in a day and age where you can get digital recorders for your TV, download programs over the internet, etc. :naughty:

[Suiko Eiji]

I find it humorous that people would be discussing the quality of magnetic tape as a video recording medium in a day and age where you can get digital recorders for your TV, download programs over the internet, etc. :naughty:

My roommate said the same thing when I got onto my LaserDisc kick a couple of years ago. From a standpoint of technical progression, I like looking back at the past technology as much as I like looking ahead to the new stuff. Granted, my LD kick is a different beast.

Though, you'd be surprised: magentic tape, despite all of its flaws, is still a widely used storage medium in a lot of big data center type operations. My company probably has easily hundreds of terabytes of information backed up on tape and we still use it.