kevin@voder.UUCP (The Last Bugfighter) (04/24/85)
The following article is from the May `85 issue of Video Review.
BETA BEWARE? `85 MAY TELL
In the Beta-versus-VHS war, will Beta survive? 1985 could be the
make-or-break year for the half-inch video format and for fans who
own Beta VCRs.
Production of Beta VCRs in Japan last year rose 16.1 percent to 5.3
million VCRs, while the output of VHS models shot up 59.6 percent to
21.8 million, according to industry estimates. That left Beta with
just a 19.6 percent share of the world VCR market, down from 25.1 per-
cent share in `83
The outlook for `85 is for an even more significant decline. NEC,
Sanyo and Toshiba announced they would start selling VHS models in
Japan along with their Beta offerings. NEC has been selling VHS in
the US since early last year. Meanwhile, Teknika, a Beta brand in Japan,
has gone the VHS route in the US. All this leaves Beta developer Sony
as the only major Japanese manufacturer without an oar in VHS waters.
Sony hopes that its Beta Hi-Fi and upcoming Super Beta systems will
keep the format going strong. But the company is moving into the 8mm
format, which it hopes will develop into a major system over the next
five years.
---
Kevin Thompson {ucbvax,ihnp4!nsc}!voder!kevin
"It's sort of a threat, you see. I've never been very good at them
myself but I'm told they can be very effective."man@bocar.UUCP (M Nevar) (04/25/85)
This may be a stupid question, but what is "Super Beta?"
brown@nic_vax.UUCP (04/27/85)
> This may be a stupid question, but what is "Super Beta?"
Not so dumb a question, if you don't read the trade press, both consumer
and industrial.
In a nutshell, Sony has developed a method of increasing the bandwidth of
the Beta video recorders. Now they record about 240 lines of resolution.
The new method is supposed to increase that to about 300 lines and still
be compatable with the older beta units.
We shall see.
Mr Video