Written by James Fohl

Back in the late seventies, a new revolution was beginning to present itself. Cable television was making a splash, and a lot of new and exciting television shows were propping up literally everywhere. Television viewers were looking for a way that they could save and record their television shows so that they could watch them over and over again, or just be able to record the shows that they would not be able to watch due to other circumstances.

While the VHS (video home system) and VCR systems were a few years away from making their big splash, one device existed that really looked like it was going to be going places. That device, or standard was known as Betamax and was first released in 1975, a year earlier than its rival VHS was set to be released, and was released by Sony.

The format was initially called BetaMax, however when companies other than Sony released recorders / players, the format became known simply as Beta. Beta referred to a video player / recorder that used tapes to play or record media. Beta tapes were similar to the VHS videos that are common today, however Beta tapes were smaller, and produced a much sharper image due to the fact that although the Beta tapes were smaller, they used a wider tape. However Beta tapes did not provide superior audio when compared with the VHS format, due to the fact that the tape inside Beta tapes moved at a much slower rate then the tape inside VHS tapes.

When VHS first arrived on the scene in 1976, a year after the Beta format, many people believed that the Beta format was going to win, and VHS would die off rather quickly. However, VCR units quickly pulled away sales from the BetaMax format, and although Beta reached its peak of popularity in the year 1983, it soon would unravel into a downstream by the year 1985.

Today, you can not go into a video store and find any new movies on the Beta format. You also can not go into a retail store and purchase a Beta video player / recorder. Truth to the matter, is that you really haven't been able to purchase both players or videos for almost twenty years now. Go ahead and ask any person under the age of twenty five if they even know what a Betamax player is. You'll most likely be greeted with a blank stare or some totally incorrect answer.

The VHS was the clear winner in the fight, and it managed to stick around for some twenty odd years. But now, new movies are hardly ever released onto the VHS format, as the DVD format has overtaken it. Now, there is a lot of debate on what will be the next format that will replace the DVD format, which is less then a decade old. While this debate on which formats will be used continues, filmmakers should really just look into the past and realize that although you can have a bunch of different video formats, only one will be the clear winner.