Who Has Beta?

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Hawkwind

"Beta" in Japanese means "The entire surface" and they chose that word because a betamax uses all of the surface of the videotape compared to VHS which does not.

Originally Posted by Dude111

That must be why they look better!!

Why doesnt VHS use the full width??

Hawkwind is correct on the origin of the term "Betamax"; Sony's engineers came up with the alternate-azimuth recording method that eliminated the need for guard bands between adjacent lines of video on the tape, reducing the length of tape needed per minute (and thus the cost, the all-important issue in an era when a one-hour blank tape even at Beta's introduction cost a few hours' pay for an average worker).

VHS, in fact, DOES use all of the tape area, as it has the same alternate-azimuth recording technique as Beta.

Ironically, when multi-speed VCRs were released, using the faster speeds would result in guard bands anyway. Multi-speed VCRs have heads the width needed for the slowest speed (LP or SLP/EP for VHS, BIII for Beta), which are narrower than for the faster (SP or BI, BII) speeds. Four-head VHS VCRs have two heads for SP and two for SLP/EP. LP, if the VCR has it, uses the EP/SLP heads.