wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) (04/13/91)
In article <296@atacama.cs.utexas.edu> jonabbey@cs.utexas.edu (Jonathan David Abbey) writes: >The reason that VHS blew the doors off of Betamax included the fact that >only Sony supported Betamax, whereas the rest of the industry were >making cheaper and better VHS machines. Wait just a minute, while I don't want to turn this into a VCR format debate, I have to put my "two cents worth" in and say that VHS (& SVHS) HAS NEVER been as good as Beta (quality-wise). I have owned/repaired many vcrs. I currently own a five year old $400 Sony beta and a two year old $1000 NEC "top-of-the-line" S-VHS. The older Sony still gives me $1000-looking picture quality & spec/FX. I was VERY dissappointed in the S-VHS format! The reason that most of us now own VHS machines is NOT because of any quality difference...quite the contrary! The reason is because "Joe Public" can record more movies/shows on one tape. The "Beta vs VHS" analogy is VERY similar to that of "Amiga vs IBM,Mac,etc". You have a superior product that is not being sold to Joe "ignorant" Public because most Americans are too lazy to research/learn about what makes a good computer or VCR. This is quite unfortunate, but true. Americans don't seem to care about quality. The "thing" that sells products to the American public is NOT quality, but advertising/gimmicks/dreams. In other words, we sell the American dream. Most American manufacturers sell an inferior product, but use their profits on advertising. This is not their fault.....it's our own! We choose to buy these products because of what we are told, not what we know. What else would you expect them to do? Now, of course this doesn't apply to all manufacturers, just most. There are many exceptions. I am glad that C= has such a good product as the Amiga, but I wish some other company that could promote the product would have "inherited/bought" Amiga! Have any of you REALLY been impressed by Amiga commercials showing a boy "lift a house" with his computer? I can't help but "almost" want to go out and buy a Mac after watching one of their GREAT commercials. Now, I realize that their commercials are just glossy,superfluous BS, BUT the point is that they ARE selling to corporate and home "computer-ignorant" buyers. If you want to get rid of the "game machine" image, you've got to stop showing kids playing games on your commercials. How many IBM or Mac commercials do you see games? C= has got to get SERIOUS about their ad campaign. <<SORRY....stepping off of soapbox now 8) >> <<guess that was more than 2 cents worth! I owe ya!>> -- Art Warner wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu Amiga makes it happen.......IBM, Mac, Sun, and Next make it expensive!
ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies) (04/15/91)
In article <1991Apr13.165038.19410@en.ecn.purdue.edu> wwarner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Art Warner) writes: >In article <296@atacama.cs.utexas.edu> jonabbey@cs.utexas.edu (Jonathan David Abbey) writes: >>The reason that VHS blew the doors off of Betamax included the fact that >>only Sony supported Betamax, whereas the rest of the industry were >>making cheaper and better VHS machines. > > Wait just a minute, while I don't want to turn this into a VCR format debate, >I have to put my "two cents worth" in and say that VHS (& SVHS) HAS NEVER >been as good as Beta (quality-wise). I have owned/repaired many vcrs. I I don't believe Art was speaking of the picture quality. VHS never was as good as Beta (nor S-VHS as good as ED-Beta), but aside from that, in features and quality, the VHS machines were superior to the Beta machines available, and for less cost. -- First comes the logo: C H E C K P O I N T T E C H N O L O G I E S / / ckp@grebyn.com \\ / / Then, the disclaimer: All expressed opinions are, indeed, opinions. \ / o Now for the witty part: I'm pink, therefore, I'm spam! \/