May 13, 2024 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, here’s Bill “Engineer Guy” Hammack telling the story of how Betamax was defeated by the VHS tape.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. Over the years, there have
been many format and console wars, including Nintendo versus Sega,
(00:30):
PlayStation versus Xbox, Apple versus Android, but there was one
full fledged format war that ruled them all. Years before
we had to decide between streaming the latest video or
taking it home on DVD or Blu Ray, a format
war between Sony's Betamax and JVC's VHS began. Battle lasted
(00:53):
for more than a decade, with neither Betamax nor VHS
giving up. Hammock is a professor of chemical and biomolecular
engineering at the University of Illinois. He is known as
the Engineer Guy as the creator and host of his
popular YouTube channel explaining the engineering of everyday object. And
(01:15):
we're telling this story because on this day in nineteen
seventy five, Betamax was released. It catalyzed the on demand
of today by allowing users to record TV shows, and
the machine ignited the first new media intellectual property battle
in only a decade, this revolutionary machine disappeared, beaten by
(01:37):
JVC's VHS cassette recorder. Here's bill engineer Guy Hammock telling
the story of how Betamax was defeated by the VHS tape.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
This mighty machine sparked a revolution in our use of media.
It's a Sony Beta Max videocusette recorder from nineteen seventy nine.
This monster weighs about thirty six pounds. The engineer he
finds it fascinating. There's nothing digital. It's a truly analog machine,
all moving pieces and parts. You're obviously a man who
was having travels at home.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You're constantly fighting with your family over what TV shows
to watch.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, fortunately you're looking at a simple solution to your problems.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Sony Betamax.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Early adopters of the Beta Max used it to record
television shows, a revolutionary concept of the time because prior
to the Beta Max, you had to watch a show
when it was broadcast. It threatened the entertainment industry so
much that in nineteen seventy nine they argued that recording
television shows at home infringed on their copyright. It all
came to a head in a Supreme Court case Sony
(02:45):
Corporation of America versus Universal City Studios, where five justices
allowed home recording.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
The Sony Betamax and its only purpose is to serve.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Although Sony won this court battle, they ultimately lost out
to a machine that used this size tape. This is
a VHS recorder made by Sony's great rival JVC. Both
machines solve the same problem, how to store information compactly
on a tape. Here's the brilliant innovation used by both machines.
The machine grabs the tape drags it forward as this
(03:23):
silver drum starts to spin rapidly. The drum has two
electromagnets called heads arranged on opposite sides of the drum
that read the magnetic information on the tape. That rotating
head allowed for a compact recorder and many previous recorders.
The magnetic heads didn't move, only the tape because there
was a limit to how fast the tape could move.
It took a lot of tape about a seven inch
(03:43):
reel to record an hour, which meant that a movie
would need two seven inch reels inside a cassette. So
the rotating heads dramatically reduced the amount of tape needed,
reducing the size to where it could be easily held
in a cassette. So if the machines are so similar,
why did Beta Max lose to JVC. Many thought the
Beta Max machine would win. It had the better image quality,
(04:06):
and the Beta Max is decidedly better built. Compare ejecting
a tape on the Beta Max to the VHS. First
watch the Beta Max, Note how smooth it is, and
then watch the VHS. That's abrupt and we'll wear out
the mechanism. Yet, to my engineer's eye, the VHS was
the better solution. First, the VHS was lighter than the Betamax,
(04:29):
twenty nine and a half pounds compared to thirty six
pounds for this Beta Max machine. That's a huge difference
for a mass manufactured object. It impacts everything from material
costs to assembly timed to shipping costs. So at the
low end of the market, the VHS machines were cheaper
than Sony's Betamax. Second, the earliest Betamax tapes played for
only one hour. VHS played for two hours. Enough time
(04:52):
for a movie, Marty, You'll scare the fish.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
We're missing the big football Jax.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
My VHS home video record order is taping it right now? Terrific?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Watch terrific. Suppose it's only three hours? What Panasonic VHS
takes up to four hours of sports movie specials on
one cassette. Bob VHS for me, oh Gay, best catch
of the day.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, VHS the four hour system from Panasonic and other
leading companies. The ultimate killer, though, was the rental market. Well.
Beta Max focused its ads and energies on time shifting.
Their ads featured headlines like watch whatever whenever. Well JBC,
the maker of the VHS system, created relationships with the
nascent video rental industry. When this market grew, VHS dominated
(05:41):
in titles, and you could for a while find both formats. Eventually,
retailers began giving shelf space to the slightly more dominant brand,
which then dominated even more so. The Betamax versus VHS
dispels the notion that simply being first to market is
the most important issue. It reminds us that technical excellence
in one area isn't enough. Here the superior picture quality
(06:04):
of Beta Max, But did all technical aspects matter? For
any mass manufactured object, the winner is usually the one
that is just good enough. I'm Bill hammock the Engineer.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Guy, and that is so true. Just good enough often
does it, And what a terrific story. And all of
us were old enough to remember these days, my goodness,
just a simple idea that you could tape a show
and watch it later. For anyone under the age of
thirty five, this is nonsense to you. You can't even
imagine a world where you know, don't get to watch
(06:36):
what you want, where you want, and when you want.
But back in the day there were three channels, three ABC,
NBC and CBS, and there was a PBS station and
if you held the rabbit ears up to the satellite
you could maybe get a little better picture. And it
all turned off at the end of the night with
a national anthem, and then it was just a gray screen.
(06:57):
Hard to imagine in what progress in this great cuntry
relates to content and the tremendous amount of creativity that's
been unleashed by technology for artists and very special thanks
to Bill Hemmick, aka Engineer Guy, for sharing this story
with us. The story of Betamax, which was released on
(07:17):
this day in nineteen seventy five. Here on our American Stories, folks,
If you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do. We're asking you to become
a part of the Our American Stories family. If you
(07:39):
agree that America is a good and great country, please
make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Go to Our American Stories dot com now and go
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's Our American Stories dot com.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. Over the years, there have
been many format and console wars, including Nintendo versus Sega,
(00:30):
PlayStation versus Xbox, Apple versus Android, but there was one
full fledged format war that ruled them all. Years before
we had to decide between streaming the latest video or
taking it home on DVD or Blu Ray, a format
war between Sony's Betamax and JVC's VHS began. Battle lasted
(00:53):
for more than a decade, with neither Betamax nor VHS
giving up. Hammock is a professor of chemical and biomolecular
engineering at the University of Illinois. He is known as
the Engineer Guy as the creator and host of his
popular YouTube channel explaining the engineering of everyday object. And
(01:15):
we're telling this story because on this day in nineteen
seventy five, Betamax was released. It catalyzed the on demand
of today by allowing users to record TV shows, and
the machine ignited the first new media intellectual property battle
in only a decade, this revolutionary machine disappeared, beaten by
(01:37):
JVC's VHS cassette recorder. Here's bill engineer Guy Hammock telling
the story of how Betamax was defeated by the VHS tape.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
This mighty machine sparked a revolution in our use of media.
It's a Sony Beta Max videocusette recorder from nineteen seventy nine.
This monster weighs about thirty six pounds. The engineer he
finds it fascinating. There's nothing digital. It's a truly analog machine,
all moving pieces and parts. You're obviously a man who
was having travels at home.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You're constantly fighting with your family over what TV shows
to watch.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, fortunately you're looking at a simple solution to your problems.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Sony Betamax.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Early adopters of the Beta Max used it to record
television shows, a revolutionary concept of the time because prior
to the Beta Max, you had to watch a show
when it was broadcast. It threatened the entertainment industry so
much that in nineteen seventy nine they argued that recording
television shows at home infringed on their copyright. It all
came to a head in a Supreme Court case Sony
(02:45):
Corporation of America versus Universal City Studios, where five justices
allowed home recording.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
The Sony Betamax and its only purpose is to serve.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Although Sony won this court battle, they ultimately lost out
to a machine that used this size tape. This is
a VHS recorder made by Sony's great rival JVC. Both
machines solve the same problem, how to store information compactly
on a tape. Here's the brilliant innovation used by both machines.
The machine grabs the tape drags it forward as this
(03:23):
silver drum starts to spin rapidly. The drum has two
electromagnets called heads arranged on opposite sides of the drum
that read the magnetic information on the tape. That rotating
head allowed for a compact recorder and many previous recorders.
The magnetic heads didn't move, only the tape because there
was a limit to how fast the tape could move.
It took a lot of tape about a seven inch
(03:43):
reel to record an hour, which meant that a movie
would need two seven inch reels inside a cassette. So
the rotating heads dramatically reduced the amount of tape needed,
reducing the size to where it could be easily held
in a cassette. So if the machines are so similar,
why did Beta Max lose to JVC. Many thought the
Beta Max machine would win. It had the better image quality,
(04:06):
and the Beta Max is decidedly better built. Compare ejecting
a tape on the Beta Max to the VHS. First
watch the Beta Max, Note how smooth it is, and
then watch the VHS. That's abrupt and we'll wear out
the mechanism. Yet, to my engineer's eye, the VHS was
the better solution. First, the VHS was lighter than the Betamax,
(04:29):
twenty nine and a half pounds compared to thirty six
pounds for this Beta Max machine. That's a huge difference
for a mass manufactured object. It impacts everything from material
costs to assembly timed to shipping costs. So at the
low end of the market, the VHS machines were cheaper
than Sony's Betamax. Second, the earliest Betamax tapes played for
only one hour. VHS played for two hours. Enough time
(04:52):
for a movie, Marty, You'll scare the fish.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
We're missing the big football Jax.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
My VHS home video record order is taping it right now? Terrific?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Watch terrific. Suppose it's only three hours? What Panasonic VHS
takes up to four hours of sports movie specials on
one cassette. Bob VHS for me, oh Gay, best catch
of the day.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, VHS the four hour system from Panasonic and other
leading companies. The ultimate killer, though, was the rental market. Well.
Beta Max focused its ads and energies on time shifting.
Their ads featured headlines like watch whatever whenever. Well JBC,
the maker of the VHS system, created relationships with the
nascent video rental industry. When this market grew, VHS dominated
(05:41):
in titles, and you could for a while find both formats. Eventually,
retailers began giving shelf space to the slightly more dominant brand,
which then dominated even more so. The Betamax versus VHS
dispels the notion that simply being first to market is
the most important issue. It reminds us that technical excellence
in one area isn't enough. Here the superior picture quality
(06:04):
of Beta Max, But did all technical aspects matter? For
any mass manufactured object, the winner is usually the one
that is just good enough. I'm Bill hammock the Engineer.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Guy, and that is so true. Just good enough often
does it, And what a terrific story. And all of
us were old enough to remember these days, my goodness,
just a simple idea that you could tape a show
and watch it later. For anyone under the age of
thirty five, this is nonsense to you. You can't even
imagine a world where you know, don't get to watch
(06:36):
what you want, where you want, and when you want.
But back in the day there were three channels, three ABC,
NBC and CBS, and there was a PBS station and
if you held the rabbit ears up to the satellite
you could maybe get a little better picture. And it
all turned off at the end of the night with
a national anthem, and then it was just a gray screen.
(06:57):
Hard to imagine in what progress in this great cuntry
relates to content and the tremendous amount of creativity that's
been unleashed by technology for artists and very special thanks
to Bill Hemmick, aka Engineer Guy, for sharing this story
with us. The story of Betamax, which was released on
(07:17):
this day in nineteen seventy five. Here on our American Stories, folks,
If you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do. We're asking you to become
a part of the Our American Stories family. If you
(07:39):
agree that America is a good and great country, please
make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Go to Our American Stories dot com now and go
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's Our American Stories dot com.
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