Re Thoughts on Nodenet

Warrl kyree Tale'sedrin (warrl@blarg.net)
Wed, 10 Jun 1998 01:19:07 -0700


From: Brian D Williams <talon57@well.com>

> From: "Warrl kyree Tale'sedrin" <warrl@blarg.net>
>
> >When people cite that example, I often wonder what their intent
> >is. When I inquire, I usually find they are citing it as an
> >example of the technically superior system falling to an inferior
> >system with better marketing.
>
> >But on closer examination I find that Beta's technical superiority
> >over VHS has no significance in context; while VHS early on
> >developed a critical technical superiority over Beta, that was not
> >matched until it was too late to help.
>
> Huh? Next to a Betamax, VHS looked like someone drawing with dull
> crayons, it wasn't until they developed Super-VHS that the quality
> was compatible.

Next to VHS, broadcast TV looked like someone drawing with crayons. In fact,
I routinely recorded movies on VHS at 1/3 speed (three two-hour movies on a
tape) and couldn't tell the difference between VHS and cable.

Now if you can't tell the difference between VHS at its worst and broadcast at
its best, how much of an advantage can Beta's higher quality be?

The early technical superiority of VHS over Beta typically became apparent
approximately 61 minutes into the movie. This was when the Beta tape
reached its end and you had to change tapes -- missing part of the movie, if
you were recording. The VHS tape was only half gone.

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