The Last Days of Beta
Not long ago, a reader sent
me a copy of an article from a British newspaper, speculating on the death of Beta. To his
credit, he didn't add "even though it was the superior video system" -- it
wasn't -- but concentrated instead on the fact that the VHS group focused on the whole
product, rather than just its technical performance. In the end, VHS marketing was
superior, and that's what won the day.
Now, VHS is threatened in its turn by DVD (which
really is superior technology). To get some perspective on how this has shaken out
over the years, I went back to a story I wrote exactly 15 years ago -- May, 1988 -- when
Beta's fortunes seriously began to slip. Here's some of it:
"In not much more than a year, the whole field of
consumer video has changed dramatically, and it may just be that some of the fragmentation
that has made things so confusing for buyers will be a thing of the past.
"Until recently, the most notable thing about video
was the squabbling among proponents of the different systems available: Beta, VHS and,
more recently, 8mm. Technically, there was little to choose between the basic systems,
although a significant element of videophilia tended to give a slight edge to Beta. But
corporate rivalries kept the pot boiling, with the result that not only was there no
single standard for home video but the systems and sub-systems were multiplying, making
matters worse.
"Now there is a glimmer of hope that some
consolidation will happen in the fairly near future. In January [1988], Sony announced
that it would begin marketing VHS recorders in the European market. Consumer electronics
industry observers were quick to pronounce this the death knell for Beta, although that
seems to be a bit extreme . . .
"There is very little chance that Sony will let Beta
die completely. For one thing, there are still a lot of devoted Beta supporters out there,
even if they are in the minority. In fact, there are parts of the world where Beta is
virtually the only system available, and Sony will have to service that market.
"What may gradually disappear are the Beta
upgrades: Super Beta and ED Beta. Technically this would be sad, because both are fine
systems, and a real advance on the somewhat limited performance of the original Beta. But
in just over a year, JVC's Super VHS -- developed in response to Sony's improvements to
Beta -- has become something of an informal standard. When journalists and others discuss
the quality of the new, improved television systems, they inevitably compare them to SVHS.
Most of the high-end monitors and receivers coming onto the market provide the special
inputs needed to take full advantage of SVHS . . .
"So maybe things are finally settling down. But all
this feverish activity has had at least one good effect: It has forced the video
manufacturers to improve the performance of their systems. Both Beta and VHS were
originally designed to provide the minimum acceptable performance at a time when there was
some doubt that home video could ever be a viable consumer product. Over the years, the
sophistication of programmability was addressed, size was reduced, portability enhanced,
and prices cut. But for most of the past decade, the technical quality of both systems
stayed about the same: lousy.
"The ongoing slugfest between the Beta and VHS camps
eventually changed that. Significantly, it was underdog Sony that initiated most of the
basic improvements in an effort to take back some of the market they had lost to the
competing system. JVC responded by more-or-less duplicating these advances with VHS --
something they probably wouldn't have done if not goaded by Sony.
"Whatever the motivation, the improvements to VHS have
at last turned home video into something approaching high fidelity. The parallel
development of high-definition television systems is another sign that manufacturers and
broadcasters alike are beginning to care about picture quality -- something that until now
seemed to be a concern only of the buying public.
"The frustrations that have characterized video for a
decade will not disappear overnight, of course. All those recording systems still exist
and compete, and we're very far from any sort of HDTV standard. But at least the trend
seems to be in the right direction."
My 1988 crystal ball was a bit clouded when it came to
the continued existence of Beta as a consumer standard, and I was obviously way too
optimistic about Super VHS. The makers of commercial videocassettes shunned Super VHS
absolutely rather than having to provide double inventory of their products, but improved
storage and display systems are now a reality, and I don't imagine it will be long before
the movie companies finally pull the plug on VHS.
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
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