Consumer Electronics

VHS AND BETA FORMATS

The Japanese formats, VHS and Beta, each underwent a train of developments in Japan and the United States. For each format, playing time was increased in stages by the introduction of slower tape speeds. In May 1975 Sony announced a Beta video recorder that offered 1 hour's playing time. In early 1977 the format was modified to give 2 hour's playing time. At around the same time JVC developed the VHS system, which from the start offered 2 hour's playing time from a single cassette. Subsequently, options were built in both VHS and Beta machines to increase the playing time further, by switching the machine to run at slower speeds. Thus the actual playing time per cassette depends both on the running speed selected and the ...