ronc@fai.UUCP (Ronald O. Christian) (01/20/86)
In article <732@leadsv.UUCP> chris@leadsv.UUCP (Chris Salander) writes: > > It seems that the Beta format is going away on the >West Coast. It used to be 1/5th to 1/6th of the market and now >is only 1/8th to 1/10th. Many stores have stopped carrying >Beta tapes altogether. One store that does carry it does so only >because they are near a Naval Air Station, where people have VCR's >that they have bought abroad. Most stores carry 8 or 10 VHS >systems and only one or two Beta. >...[more blithering] **** I think these rumors get started when someone bases the rest of the world (or the west coast in this case) on one or two personal experiances. I have had no trouble getting pre-recorded tapes in the SF bay area. The stores I have frequented stock plenty of Beta tapes. Two of them are in the midst of expanding the area of the store where they keep Beta tapes. Since I'm going to buy a second deck soon, I'm also paying close attention to the amount of new beta equipment available. I have found that some of the discount stores, like Western Appliance in San Jose, are not yet stocking the Super Beta equipment, and are selling the older machines at discount prices. After overhearing the salemen push VHS there, it's apparent where a lot of the 'Beta is dying' rumors are coming from. My own opinion is that the salesmen are manipulating the truth in order to sell higher priced inferior equipment to Mr. and Mrs Non-Technical. I certainly wouldn't use this as a basis to sell my Sony stock. The Super Beta equipment is being pushed hardest in the video specialty shops, although I've seen units by Sanyo and Sony at two of the discount warehouses and the Sony units at Gemco. One company, I believe NEC, is manufacturing VCRs in both VHS and Beta formats. I have seen these decks in person. (So to speak.) So there's my own personal experiances. In my opinion, Beta is not going away. A lot of people wish it would, but end users that want higher quality still insist on buying Beta. When you hear rumors that Beta is dying, you might consider the possible motivation of the person or persons who started the rumor. BTW, I don't *really* own any Sony stock, nor have I ever been employed by Sony. Ron -- -- Ronald O. Christian (Fujitsu America Inc., San Jose, Calif.) ihnp4!pesnta!fai!ronc Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: "If you are seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it."
paver@milano.UUCP (Bob Paver) (01/26/86)
No problem finding Beta tapes here in Austin either. It is true that
many places carry VHS only.
Two friends who have recently bought VCR's (VHS) were both told by
sales people that Beta was dying and VHS was the only way to go. I'm
convinced that rumors of Beta death are with few exceptions the direct
result of salespeople who had to be trained in cassette insertion.}i
I like Beta, my friends {_like VHS. It's not that big of a deal. I
don't think either one of them will die soon, but they'll both die
eventually although not at the hands of 8mm which won't make it in
the non-camcorder market segment.
~radolph@ssc-vax.UUCP (Mark Adolph) (01/28/86)
> The Super Beta equipment is being pushed hardest in the > video specialty shops, although I've seen units by Sanyo > and Sony at two of the discount warehouses and the Sony > units at Gemco. > > So there's my own personal experiances. In my opinion, > Beta is not going away. A lot of people wish it would, but > end users that want higher quality still insist on buying Beta. > When you hear rumors that Beta is dying, you might consider the > possible motivation of the person or persons who started the rumor. When I was in NY for Christmas, I believe I saw Super Beta machines selling at Crazy Eddie, at what I considered an insanely low price. Seems to me that one can't get more down to earth than Crazy Eddie. Here in the Pacific Northwest, I've had no trouble finding Beta tapes for my machine to eat. I will not deny that there are a lot of video stores, most notably some of the larger chains, that are or are becoming all VHS, but there are still plenty of Beta tapes floating around in many video stores. None of these people seem to be making any moves toward canning Beta. -- -- Mark A. ...{uw-beaver|fluke}!ssc-vax!adolph "1 + 1 = 1, for sufficiently small values of 1..."
figmo@lll-crg.ARpA (Lynn Gold) (01/28/86)
I was just up at International Video in SF today; they're selling the top-of-the-line Sony Super-Beta HiFi unit for $976. If I want a tape, I go to Wherehouse or Tower. --Lynn UUCP: ...lll-crg!figmo ARPA: Lynn%PANDA@SUMEX-AIM