Home Video (part 2):

Sex, Lies and Longer Videotape

"You never get a second chance at making a first impression." And the Sony Betamax’s introduction to the home video market didn't impress too many. If you'll recall from Part 1, Sony's debut in the home video market was marked by a controversial television ad campaign and a rival format (VHS), which recorded for twice as long as the Betamax.

Although it was early in the game, Sony soon found itself in a "hurry-up offense" and started flinging "Hail Mary" passes to compete with the longer record times offered by its rival, the JVC Vidstar (sorry, folks; can't resist the football metaphor).

First came the "stacker," a Rube Goldberg–like device that attached to the unit and ejected the recorded tape and then inserted a blank one, in order to achieve longer recording times. Sony released the AG-120, followed by the AG-300. Both the original AG-120 and the improved, electrically powered AG-300 could hold up to three videocassettes at a time. The problem was that neither worked very well and soon became, like Sony's Cab Driver commercial (see Part 1), an industry joke.

It is said that when you're in a hole, you should stop digging, but Sony was digging with both hands when it decided to thin out the tape to get a longer recording time. The new L-750 (750 feet of tape vs. 500 feet of tape in the L-500) was thinner, and worked well in the newly designed Betamax SL-8200 (offering two recording speeds, Beta I & II) However, when it was used in the original Sl-7200, the thinner L-750 would often jam. (I recall a warning on the L-750 and L-830 packages, offering a toll-free number to call with advice on how to extract the tape if it jammed in the deck.) Meanwhile, JVC was strutting to "pay dirt" (sorry) when it introduced a 4-hour recorder and, soon thereafter, a 6-hour recorder, without having to thin out the tape or resort to "Rube Goldberg Stackers."

Buoyed by the early success of the much longer recording times, JVC licensed "Super Star" electronic giants like Panasonic, RCA, Quasar, Magnavox and GE, to name a few, to market VHS under their names. In the meantime, Sony never licensed enough manufacturers to make Beta, and chose "second stringers" Sanyo and Toshiba, who had far less market clout than the VHS all-star lineup. Add to this the limited software available, and Sony's refusal to allow adult videos to be released on Beta, and Betamax continued to “fumble” away the home video market. JVC waltzed its way into the “end zone,” and today VHS has nearly 90% of US household penetration.

But when the world gives you lemons, make lemonade. In 1982, Sony took the Betamax design, morphed it into a professional format called "Betacam" and for nearly a quarter of century, the Betacam formats have been the dominant medium in the professional market. Today, whenever a television program is produced—or if Sony were to release another “Cab Driver” commercial—both would most likely be recorded on the…“Cousin of Betamax”:... “Betacam.”
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