The evolution of recording video (TV) in your home was a long time coming. There were many false starts and only one company had the audacity to make it work and make it easy. Sony, with their Betamax, ushered in one of the most interesting fire fights in modern history. Immediately they were criticized. The nerve! Here was some company from a country we defeated in WWII upsetting one our most sovereign institutions, television. Before they came along your TV set was made by RCA, Zenith, Admiral, Curtis Mathis, GE or some other familiar name. These guys owned the television marketplace back then. Sony already had upset their apple cart earlier by selling televisions made to a higher standard. Now here they were again with something new and clever. The stateside TV makers yearned to get in on this new thing but Sony decided it was best to hold on to complete control. So they went searching for different another company. Also from Japan. They embraced a competing format from Matsushita called VHS and made it their own. It used a format system that Sony had already abandoned (because they felt it was inferior) so it was up for grabs. Still from Japan but at least it wasn't SONY. But the hate didn't stop there. The movie industry decided to sue Sony over our right to record their media content, but they lost. While all this legal stuff was going on "the great format war" was raging. To prove they were up to muster the Betamakers had to be more innovative, more assertive and more visible than the competition. This resulted in the creation of some of the most exceptional devices to ever grace store shelves. This BETA FUN FACT is just one of the notable story lines that relates to this particular Beta model. |