A Breakdown of Why VHS Beat Betamax in the Videotape Format Wars

Engineer Guy Bill Hammack takes on the videotape format wars of the late 1970s/early 1980s, explaining why Betamax ultimately lost out in spite having some clear advances over the VHS format in “How Sony’s Betamax lost to JVC’s VHS Cassette Recorder”.

Betamax versus VHS dispells the notion that simply being first to market is the most important issue. It reminds us that simply being better in one area isn’t enough — here the superior image quality of Betamax.