Why VHS Won The Format Battle
The mid 1970`s up until the early years of the 2000 decade saw a battle between different formats of TV recording equipment.
Those main formats were, in date order of the beginning of production for consumer use - Betamax, VHS, and V2000 (or VCC). Many young people alive today only know about of DVDs and other recording mediums, not ever knowing a time when world renowned companies fought it out to establish themselves as market leaders in the field of video recorders.
Essentially all systems did the same thing, and were built for the same purposes. To record a program you are watching; record another channel; time shift, record programs while you aren`t there; and buy or rent movies etc to watch.
Sony of Japan was the first to introduce a mainstream recording system to the user in the street. Its system was called Betamax, and came out in 1975. Betamax was very much a Japanese invention, and the big electrical companies there, such as Aiwa, Toshiba, and Pioneer built their own versions of video recorders, based on the Beta format.
As time went on, although Betamax held an early lead in the format war by 1981 Betamax sales in the US had shrunk to only 25% of all sales.
Interestingly, one of the other top Japanese companies, JVC had decided to develop another system - VHS - rather than go with Betamax.
By 2002 Sony had stopped production of its Betamax models, the war had been partly lost, although a lot of machines are still in use by fans of the format. Clearly reliability was one of its key strengths.
Betamax`s biggest rival - VHS - was born a year later in 1976.
That was when JVC launched the Video Home System (VHS) in Europe, and several months later it was launched in the United States in 1977.
Although being a Japanese company who was prominent in its being brought to market, I`ve always thought of the VHS format as being connected with the United States.
The Americans demanded something that the earlier versions of Betamax couldn`t provide, longer recording times. In 1981, for example, some VHS machines were capable of recording up to 9 hours, compared to just 4 hours for Betamax in the US.
In reality, the format battle between Betamax and VHS was over by 1988 when Sony brought out its own line of VHS VCRs.
The third entrant to the video recorder market was the V2000 (or VCC). Machines were launched in 1979, 3 years later than VHS, and were sold mainly in Europe.
V2000 was created by two European companies, again big hitters in the industry, Philips and Grundig. The VCC had definite advantages over the other two formats. Picture quality was remarkably good. Also, as only half the tape was actually recorded on, the tapes could be turned over, which doubled the recording time. It reached the stage where it was possible to record up to 16 hours on some of their machines.
But, with all its plus points, the VCC format eventually caved in to VHS, ending production in 1988. There have been several reasons put forward as why the format failed. VHS and Betamax VCRs were reputedly more reliable. VHS and Betamax already had established market share in both machines and video cassettes, including the pre-recorded market.
The battle of formats between Japan, the US and Europe was eventually won by the US with the VHS system.
But even that battle has now been lost to new methods of recording - DVD players and recorders. By 2006, most major film studios stopped releasing new titles in VHS format, opting for DVD-only releases. And then, around 2007, retailers no longer stocked VHS machines, and the death of VHS came to pass.
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