WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Hello and welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:06.360 we are opening up a time capsule. We are dusting 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:09.240 off a topic that for so many people is really 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.019 just a punchline. Oh, yeah. It's the go -to example. 00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:14.980 It is. It's the cultural shorthand for, you know, 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.039 failure in the business world. It's the reference 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:20.739 you make when you want to talk about betting 00:00:20.739 --> 00:00:23.260 on the wrong horse. It really has become a meme, 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:25.600 hasn't it? It's kind of the ultimate what could 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.820 have been story in tech. We are talking, of course, 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:31.719 about Betamax, the videotaped format that, well, 00:00:31.820 --> 00:00:34.479 it fought the law. And in a way, it actually 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:37.380 won the legal battle, but just got crushed in 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:39.340 the marketplace war. And that's the part that 00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:41.140 gets lost. It is. And that's what we're here 00:00:41.140 --> 00:00:43.340 to unpack. Because when you actually dig into 00:00:43.340 --> 00:00:45.280 the source material we have today, which is a 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:48.520 really comprehensive breakdown from Wikipedia 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:50.780 covering the history, the tech specs, the legal 00:00:50.780 --> 00:00:54.280 fights, you realize something. What's that? Calling 00:00:54.280 --> 00:00:57.200 Betamax a failure is, I mean, technically true 00:00:57.200 --> 00:00:58.600 if you're just looking at market share, but it 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:01.020 is wildly inaccurate when you look at the technology 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:03.399 itself. I think that is the perfect way to frame 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:05.519 it. If you look at the actual engineering, the 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:10.599 innovation, and the legacy it left behind, Betamax 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:13.019 wasn't a failure at all. It was a misunderstood 00:01:13.019 --> 00:01:18.950 marvel. Frankly, without Betamax, the media landscape 00:01:18.950 --> 00:01:23.150 we have today, I mean, the very ability to legally 00:01:23.150 --> 00:01:25.930 record a show and watch it later, it just might 00:01:25.930 --> 00:01:27.909 not exist. That's how big the stakes were. That 00:01:27.909 --> 00:01:30.390 is a huge claim. And I definitely want to get 00:01:30.390 --> 00:01:32.329 there. But let's let's start with the vibe check, 00:01:32.450 --> 00:01:34.849 because when people think of Betamax now, they 00:01:34.849 --> 00:01:37.150 think of that clunky, dusty machine in the attic. 00:01:37.489 --> 00:01:40.439 But in the beginning. This thing was the future. 00:01:40.579 --> 00:01:42.480 Oh, it was absolute cutting -edge technology. 00:01:42.500 --> 00:01:44.420 You have to kind of transport yourself back to 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:46.900 the mid -70s. The whole idea that you could watch 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:49.200 a movie whenever you wanted right there in your 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:51.500 own home was basically science fiction. So let's 00:01:51.500 --> 00:01:54.700 set the scene. It's 1975. Television is what, 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:57.620 three networks, maybe a local UHF station if 00:01:57.620 --> 00:01:59.540 you were lucky. And that was it. Appointment 00:01:59.540 --> 00:02:01.140 viewing is the only kind of viewing there is. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:03.659 Yeah, exactly. If you missed an episode of Kojak 00:02:03.659 --> 00:02:07.239 or, you know, the nightly news, it was just gone. 00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:09.620 It vanished into the ether forever. There was 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:13.210 no rewind button on reality. Right. So. Into 00:02:13.210 --> 00:02:17.590 that world on May 10th, 1975, in Japan, Sony 00:02:17.590 --> 00:02:20.349 introduces Betamax. It didn't even hit the U 00:02:20.349 --> 00:02:23.590 .S. until November of that year. But they rolled 00:02:23.590 --> 00:02:26.250 this out as the next evolution of television 00:02:26.250 --> 00:02:28.689 itself. In what stands out immediately in the 00:02:28.689 --> 00:02:31.830 research. Is that first unit they sold? The LV 00:02:31.830 --> 00:02:35.090 -1901. Yeah, the LV -1901. This wasn't just some 00:02:35.090 --> 00:02:37.090 black box you plugged into your TV with a mess 00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:39.129 of wires in the back. No, not at all. It was 00:02:39.129 --> 00:02:41.389 a piece of furniture. It was a console. It had 00:02:41.389 --> 00:02:44.569 a beautiful 19 -inch Trenatron television built 00:02:44.569 --> 00:02:46.750 right into it. So you didn't buy a VCR. You bought 00:02:46.750 --> 00:02:48.569 a television station. That's what they were selling. 00:02:48.689 --> 00:02:51.280 That feels so 70s. It implies that this isn't 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:52.979 some accessory. This is the new hearth of the 00:02:52.979 --> 00:02:54.800 home. This is the center of the living room. 00:02:54.900 --> 00:02:57.280 It was. And it used these cassettes with half 00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:59.960 -inch wide videotape. Now, looking at the lineage 00:02:59.960 --> 00:03:02.460 here, this was a direct descendant of the professional 00:03:02.460 --> 00:03:05.120 U -matic format, which used three -quarter inch 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:07.240 tape. So they were basically taking professional 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:10.360 grade broadcast tech. Shrinking it down, yeah. 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:12.280 And putting it in your living room. It was a 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:14.599 huge leap. Okay. Before we dive into the war 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:17.740 with VHS, I have to ask about the name, Betamax. 00:03:18.460 --> 00:03:20.680 I always just assumed it was, you know, a cool 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:24.199 sounding sci -fi word like Galacticon or something. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.900 A lot of people did. But the sources point out 00:03:26.900 --> 00:03:29.039 there's actually a double meaning here that I 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:31.080 totally missed. There is. And it's actually, 00:03:31.219 --> 00:03:33.759 it's quite poetic from an engineering standpoint. 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:37.360 It really gives you a window into how the Japanese 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:40.219 engineers at Sony viewed their own creation. 00:03:40.539 --> 00:03:42.860 Poetic engineering. Okay, great. Let's hear it. 00:03:42.979 --> 00:03:45.659 I'm intrigued. So first you have the Japanese 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:49.439 word beta. In Japanese, this word describes the 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:52.039 way signals are recorded on the tape. It basically 00:03:52.039 --> 00:03:54.819 implies a full, dense coverage of the signal. 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:57.360 Like a richness of information. Exactly. A richness. 00:03:57.419 --> 00:03:59.500 So it's not just beta, like, you know, the second 00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:01.020 letter of the Greek alphabet. But that's the 00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:03.219 other meaning, right? That brings us to the second 00:04:03.219 --> 00:04:05.439 meaning. The visual pun. A visual pun. Yeah. 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:08.419 If you look at the lowercase Greek letter beta, 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:12.099 the AD symbol. It looks kind of like a bee with 00:04:12.099 --> 00:04:14.939 a long tail that loops around. Exactly. And that 00:04:14.939 --> 00:04:17.740 shape, that specific loop, actually resembles 00:04:17.740 --> 00:04:20.459 the path the tape takes inside the machine when 00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:22.220 it's threaded around the spinning head drum. 00:04:22.339 --> 00:04:24.699 Oh, that is clever. So the name is literally 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:27.360 a tiny diagram of how the machine works. It is. 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:29.339 It's a little schematic hidden in plain sight. 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:31.740 And then, of course, you have the suffix max. 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:34.480 Which I'm assuming just stands for maximum. The 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.220 maximum greatness. Nope. Sony was not being humble 00:04:37.220 --> 00:04:39.379 about this at all. They knew they had built something 00:04:39.379 --> 00:04:41.860 superior. They were signaling to the whole world, 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:44.399 this is the pick. This is as good as it gets. 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:47.660 And from a technical standpoint, they really 00:04:47.660 --> 00:04:50.420 did have some innovations that set a new standard, 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:52.800 didn't they? I saw the term azimuth recording 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:56.139 popping up a lot in the specs. Ah, yes. My eyes 00:04:56.139 --> 00:04:58.220 kind of glazed over reading the technical details. 00:04:58.540 --> 00:05:02.399 But this seems to be the secret sauce. So what 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:06.079 exactly does that mean for us non -engineers? 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:08.540 Okay, this is a really critical piece of the 00:05:08.540 --> 00:05:11.279 puzzle. To understand why Betamax was special, 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:13.360 you have to understand the core problem with 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:16.180 magnetic tape. In older video formats, when you 00:05:16.180 --> 00:05:18.319 recorded diagonal tracks of information on a 00:05:18.319 --> 00:05:20.540 tape, you had to leave empty space between the 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:23.279 tracks. Why? What for? Because if the reed had 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:26.220 drifted even a microscopic amount, it would start 00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:28.240 to pick up the signal from the track right next 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:30.699 to it. That's called crosstalk. And it creates, 00:05:30.759 --> 00:05:32.839 you know, a ghosting effect or a bunch of static 00:05:32.839 --> 00:05:35.949 on the screen. Right, I've seen that. So to prevent 00:05:35.949 --> 00:05:39.389 that, engineers put guard bands between the tracks. 00:05:39.470 --> 00:05:41.889 Like a buffer zone or like the median strip on 00:05:41.889 --> 00:05:44.290 a highway. Exactly like a median strip on a highway. 00:05:44.410 --> 00:05:46.529 It keeps the cars in their lanes and stops them 00:05:46.529 --> 00:05:48.810 from crashing into each other. But here's the 00:05:48.810 --> 00:05:52.629 problem. Median strips are wasted space. Right. 00:05:52.689 --> 00:05:54.410 You're not driving on them. And if you're trying 00:05:54.410 --> 00:05:56.569 to design a compact cassette that can fit in 00:05:56.569 --> 00:05:59.290 a purse or a jacket pocket, you can't afford 00:05:59.290 --> 00:06:01.689 wasted real estate. You want those tracks packed 00:06:01.689 --> 00:06:03.670 right up against each other, bumper to bumper. 00:06:04.269 --> 00:06:07.689 So how did Beta solve it without all the signals 00:06:07.689 --> 00:06:10.009 crashing into each other? As a Muth recording. 00:06:10.329 --> 00:06:13.170 It's brilliant. Instead of leaving empty space, 00:06:13.470 --> 00:06:15.850 they angled the recording heads differently. 00:06:16.490 --> 00:06:19.069 So one head is angled slightly one way, let's 00:06:19.069 --> 00:06:21.589 say plus seven degrees, and the next head is 00:06:21.589 --> 00:06:24.050 angled the other way, minus seven degrees. Like 00:06:24.050 --> 00:06:26.089 a zipper pattern or a herringbone? A herringbone 00:06:26.089 --> 00:06:28.930 is a perfect analogy. Now think of it like polarized 00:06:28.930 --> 00:06:32.089 sunglasses. You know how if you hold two polarized 00:06:32.089 --> 00:06:34.750 lenses over each other and turn one 90 degrees, 00:06:34.870 --> 00:06:37.009 they go black. They completely block the light. 00:06:37.269 --> 00:06:40.470 It's the same basic physics. Because the heads 00:06:40.470 --> 00:06:42.970 are angled differently, if the A head accidentally 00:06:42.970 --> 00:06:45.829 brushes against the B track, it literally cannot... 00:06:45.870 --> 00:06:48.209 read the signal because the angle the azimuth 00:06:48.209 --> 00:06:50.569 is wrong it just ignores it completely that is 00:06:50.569 --> 00:06:53.449 brilliant so you can pack the tracks tight against 00:06:53.449 --> 00:06:55.829 each other with no gaps no guard bands needed 00:06:55.829 --> 00:06:58.350 it allowed for a much much denser recording and 00:06:58.350 --> 00:07:01.290 as you said a smaller cassette size and interestingly 00:07:01.290 --> 00:07:04.910 vhs eventually used the exact same trick but 00:07:04.910 --> 00:07:07.610 betamax was the pioneer here they proved you 00:07:07.610 --> 00:07:10.170 could have high density without high noise so 00:07:10.170 --> 00:07:13.240 okay we have a superior machine It's got a clever 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:15.319 name. It's got a Trenatron TV attached to it. 00:07:15.379 --> 00:07:19.579 It launches in 1975. And then in comes the villain 00:07:19.579 --> 00:07:22.300 or, you know, the hero, depending on your wallet. 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:25.920 JVC and the VHS format. The format war. It's 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:27.519 a classic business school case study, right? 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:29.759 It is. The one they teach every first year MBA 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:31.800 student. Let's break down the tail of the tape, 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:36.000 literally. When these two formats clashed, what 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.500 were the actual stats? Because Sony's marketing 00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:41.279 was all about superior picture quality. Was that 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:43.910 true? Or was it just hype? It was absolutely 00:07:43.910 --> 00:07:46.589 true, but we need to nuance how true it was. 00:07:46.709 --> 00:07:48.750 Okay. If we look at the numbers provided in the 00:07:48.750 --> 00:07:51.209 technical details, the original beta format, 00:07:51.370 --> 00:07:53.769 specifically at its highest quality speed, which 00:07:53.769 --> 00:07:57.209 was called BAPE -1, offered 250 horizontal lines 00:07:57.209 --> 00:08:00.089 of resolution. And VHS. 240 lines. Okay, I'm 00:08:00.089 --> 00:08:01.649 going to play devil's advocate here. 10 lines 00:08:01.649 --> 00:08:03.490 difference. That doesn't sound like a landslide 00:08:03.490 --> 00:08:05.170 victory. Yeah. If I'm sitting on my couch in 00:08:05.170 --> 00:08:08.329 1976, am I really going to notice 10 lines? That's 00:08:08.329 --> 00:08:10.990 a fair question. And today in the digital age, 00:08:11.149 --> 00:08:13.829 we think in terms of pixels. So 10 lines sounds 00:08:13.829 --> 00:08:16.889 like nothing. But in the analog world, resolution 00:08:16.889 --> 00:08:19.389 is only one part of the story. You also have 00:08:19.389 --> 00:08:21.689 to look at things like signal noise and stability. 00:08:22.269 --> 00:08:25.189 Beta had a higher theoretical bandwidth around 00:08:25.189 --> 00:08:28.689 3 .2 megahertz versus a slightly lower spec for 00:08:28.689 --> 00:08:30.930 VHS. So translate that to the viewing experience 00:08:30.930 --> 00:08:32.870 for me. What does that actually look like on 00:08:32.870 --> 00:08:35.610 the screen? It meant a sharper image, yes, but 00:08:35.610 --> 00:08:38.899 also... less of that grain or snow in the picture. 00:08:39.019 --> 00:08:41.059 The colors were more stable, more saturated. 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:44.019 The edges of objects didn't jitter as much. If 00:08:44.019 --> 00:08:46.919 you were a real videophile in 1976 watching a 00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:49.179 high -quality broadcast, you could absolutely 00:08:49.179 --> 00:08:51.500 see the difference. It just felt more solid, 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:53.899 more professional. Okay, so Sony has the better 00:08:53.899 --> 00:08:55.519 picture. They have the head start in the market. 00:08:55.700 --> 00:08:58.200 How on earth did they lose? They lost because 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:01.639 of one single fatal flaw, a flaw that seems so 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:04.120 incredibly obvious in hindsight, but at the time 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.700 was a calculated risk. they took. What was it? 00:09:06.779 --> 00:09:09.320 Recording time. The one hour limit. The one hour 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:12.940 limit. The early Betamax tapes, the standard 00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:16.419 L500 cassettes could only hold 60 minutes of 00:09:16.419 --> 00:09:19.039 footage. And most movies are. 90 minutes, two 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:22.460 hours. And let's not forget the single biggest 00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:26.100 driver of television ratings in America, football. 00:09:26.419 --> 00:09:28.500 Right. You sit down and record the Super Bowl 00:09:28.500 --> 00:09:31.519 or even just a regular Sunday game. and the tape 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:33.919 runs out before halftime. Imagine the frustration. 00:09:34.340 --> 00:09:36.500 You buy this expensive cutting -edge machine, 00:09:36.779 --> 00:09:39.200 you set it to record the big game, you come home 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:42.139 from being out, and you find out you missed the 00:09:42.139 --> 00:09:44.399 game -winning touchdown because the tape just 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:47.299 ended. I'd be furious. Sony was obsessed with 00:09:47.299 --> 00:09:49.840 quality. They refused to lower the tape speed 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:51.960 to get more time because it would introduce more 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:54.299 noise into the picture. They thought people will 00:09:54.299 --> 00:09:57.480 want the best possible picture. And JVC. JVC, 00:09:57.639 --> 00:10:00.159 the makers of VHS, looked at the consumer and 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:02.820 said, no, people want to record the whole movie. 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:06.200 Convenience over quality. It feels like that's 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:08.779 the story of almost every mass market tech war. 00:10:08.940 --> 00:10:11.399 It is the defining story of consumer tech. I 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:13.840 mean, think about it. MP3s weren't technically 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:16.840 better than CDs, but they were way more convenient. 00:10:17.080 --> 00:10:19.500 Streaming isn't always better than a 4K Blu -ray, 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:23.269 but it's infinitely more convenient. VHS launched 00:10:23.269 --> 00:10:25.690 with two hours, then they quickly figured out 00:10:25.690 --> 00:10:28.710 a four -hour mode, and eventually six and even 00:10:28.710 --> 00:10:31.029 eight hours on a single tape. Sony must have 00:10:31.029 --> 00:10:32.669 panicked, right? They couldn't just sit there 00:10:32.669 --> 00:10:34.789 with a one -hour limit while JVC was offering 00:10:34.789 --> 00:10:37.759 four. They pivoted. They had to. They introduced 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:40.639 what they called the gate to speed, which doubled 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:43.399 the time to two hours. But here is the massive 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:47.059 kicker. To do that, they had to slow the tape 00:10:47.059 --> 00:10:49.840 down. Which lowers the quality. Exactly. It reduced 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:52.860 the resolution and increased the noise. So by 00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:55.600 trying to catch up to VHS on recording time, 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:58.039 they completely killed their main selling point, 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:00.259 which was superior quality. So they were suddenly 00:11:00.259 --> 00:11:03.320 playing JVC's game, but on JVC's turn. And they 00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:05.690 were losing because the Betamax cassette. was 00:11:05.690 --> 00:11:08.509 physically smaller, it held less tape to begin 00:11:08.509 --> 00:11:10.990 with. So even when they slowed it down, VHS could 00:11:10.990 --> 00:11:13.409 always slow theirs down more and get even longer 00:11:13.409 --> 00:11:16.070 times. They were in a trap. They were mathematically 00:11:16.070 --> 00:11:19.730 cornered. They were. But even then, even with 00:11:19.730 --> 00:11:22.190 all that, they might have survived if not for 00:11:22.190 --> 00:11:24.710 the business strategy. This is the part of the 00:11:24.710 --> 00:11:26.370 story that always gets brought up in boardrooms. 00:11:26.929 --> 00:11:30.230 The licensing issue. Right. The infamous walled 00:11:30.230 --> 00:11:32.830 garden approach. This was the absolute nail in 00:11:32.830 --> 00:11:35.570 the coffin. Sony wanted to be the Apple of the 00:11:35.570 --> 00:11:38.490 1970s. They wanted to control the standard completely. 00:11:38.769 --> 00:11:41.169 So they resisted licensing the Betamax format 00:11:41.169 --> 00:11:44.070 to other manufacturers. Fiercely. They wanted 00:11:44.070 --> 00:11:46.870 to dictate how it was used, the quality control, 00:11:47.090 --> 00:11:50.250 the pricing, everything. And GVC. JBC did the 00:11:50.250 --> 00:11:52.389 polar opposite. They essentially said, we want 00:11:52.389 --> 00:11:54.269 this to be the standard. We don't care who makes 00:11:54.269 --> 00:11:57.610 the machines. They went to Hitachi, Sharp, Mitsubishi, 00:11:57.789 --> 00:12:00.250 Panasonic, all of them, and said, here's the 00:12:00.250 --> 00:12:03.470 blueprint. Go for it. Go make VCRs. So suddenly 00:12:03.470 --> 00:12:05.870 you walk into an electronics store and there's 00:12:05.870 --> 00:12:09.009 one, maybe two, Sony Betamax players. And then 00:12:09.009 --> 00:12:11.870 there are five, six, ten different brands of 00:12:11.870 --> 00:12:14.309 VHS players. And because there are ten brands, 00:12:14.629 --> 00:12:16.529 they're all competing with each other on price. 00:12:17.070 --> 00:12:20.690 Precisely. The prices of VHS players just plummeted 00:12:20.690 --> 00:12:23.230 because Sharp wanted to beat Panasonic, who wanted 00:12:23.230 --> 00:12:26.850 to beat Hitachi. Meanwhile, Sony was sitting 00:12:26.850 --> 00:12:29.029 over there with their premium pricing, refusing 00:12:29.029 --> 00:12:31.509 to engage in a race to the bottom. And the market 00:12:31.509 --> 00:12:34.309 share numbers, they reflect that brutal reality. 00:12:34.309 --> 00:12:39.149 They do. The source says that by 1980, VHS already 00:12:39.149 --> 00:12:41.830 controlled 60 % of the North American market. 00:12:42.029 --> 00:12:45.370 In the UK, Betamax had a pretty decent foothold, 00:12:45.409 --> 00:12:49.870 about 25%. in 1981, but by 1986, it had completely 00:12:49.870 --> 00:12:53.370 collapsed to just 7 .5%. Wow. It's amazing how 00:12:53.370 --> 00:12:55.610 fast that happens once the momentum shifts. It's 00:12:55.610 --> 00:12:57.269 the network effect. It's the perfect example 00:12:57.269 --> 00:12:59.409 of the network effect. And in the era of physical 00:12:59.409 --> 00:13:01.730 media, the network effect is literally physical. 00:13:01.950 --> 00:13:04.230 If all your friends have VHS, you want VHS, you 00:13:04.230 --> 00:13:05.970 can swap tapes. Hey, did you record the game? 00:13:06.029 --> 00:13:07.769 Can I borrow the tape? If you have a beta player, 00:13:07.870 --> 00:13:10.370 you're on an island. A very lonely, high -resolution 00:13:10.370 --> 00:13:13.009 island. And then the video rental stores followed 00:13:13.009 --> 00:13:15.110 the numbers, of course. That's the feedback loop. 00:13:15.190 --> 00:13:19.669 It is. If 70 % of your customers have VHS, you're 00:13:19.669 --> 00:13:21.629 going to stock more VHS tapes. You're not going 00:13:21.629 --> 00:13:24.470 to waste precious shelf space on beta, which 00:13:24.470 --> 00:13:26.929 then forces the remaining beta owners to switch 00:13:26.929 --> 00:13:29.129 because they can't rent the latest movies. It's 00:13:29.129 --> 00:13:31.929 a death spiral. A total death spiral. So Betamax 00:13:31.929 --> 00:13:36.309 is losing the living room. Badly. But, and this 00:13:36.309 --> 00:13:38.929 is a huge but, while they were losing the sales 00:13:38.929 --> 00:13:41.049 war on the shelves, they were fighting a completely 00:13:41.049 --> 00:13:43.309 different battle in the Supreme Court that changed 00:13:43.309 --> 00:13:45.610 everything. This is the part of the story that 00:13:45.610 --> 00:13:47.809 so often gets overshadowed by the whole format 00:13:47.809 --> 00:13:50.970 war narrative. But the legal battle, Sony Corps 00:13:50.970 --> 00:13:54.049 of America v. Universal City Studios, is arguably 00:13:54.049 --> 00:13:56.509 more important to history than the tape format 00:13:56.509 --> 00:13:59.210 itself. This is the famous Betamax case. That's 00:13:59.210 --> 00:14:01.509 the one. And we need to understand the sheer 00:14:01.509 --> 00:14:03.950 panic that was happening in Hollywood. Universal 00:14:03.950 --> 00:14:07.669 Studios and Disney, they sued Sony. They argued 00:14:07.669 --> 00:14:09.649 that by selling a machine that could be used 00:14:09.649 --> 00:14:12.690 to record copyrighted TV shows and movies, Sony 00:14:12.690 --> 00:14:15.110 was therefore liable for copyright infringement. 00:14:15.149 --> 00:14:17.669 They basically argued that the VCR was, by its 00:14:17.669 --> 00:14:20.370 very nature, a piracy machine. They viewed it 00:14:20.370 --> 00:14:23.590 as theft. Pure and simple. There is a famous, 00:14:23.649 --> 00:14:26.809 almost infamous quote from Jack Valenti, who 00:14:26.809 --> 00:14:28.809 was the head of the Motion Picture Association 00:14:28.809 --> 00:14:31.210 of America at the time. Oh, I think I know this 00:14:31.210 --> 00:14:33.769 one. He gave this testimony to Congress in 1982 00:14:33.769 --> 00:14:38.610 and he said, I say to you that the VCR is to 00:14:38.610 --> 00:14:41.730 the American film producer and the American public 00:14:41.730 --> 00:14:44.789 as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home 00:14:44.789 --> 00:14:49.370 alone. Whoa. The Boston straggler. That is some 00:14:49.370 --> 00:14:51.429 intense imagery for a tape recorder. It shows 00:14:51.429 --> 00:14:54.230 you the level of fear. They truly, genuinely 00:14:54.230 --> 00:14:56.330 believed that if people could record shows for 00:14:56.330 --> 00:14:58.750 free, the entire advertising model of television 00:14:58.750 --> 00:15:01.129 would collapse and the movie industry would just 00:15:01.129 --> 00:15:03.769 cease to exist. They wanted the VCR banned entirely. 00:15:04.250 --> 00:15:06.090 Which is just so ironic considering how much 00:15:06.090 --> 00:15:08.029 money they all eventually made from home video 00:15:08.029 --> 00:15:10.549 sales and rentals. It basically saved the industry 00:15:10.549 --> 00:15:12.610 a few years later. Incredibly ironic. But at 00:15:12.610 --> 00:15:14.230 the time, they couldn't see that future. They 00:15:14.230 --> 00:15:17.970 just saw a loss of control. Total chaos. So what 00:15:17.970 --> 00:15:19.730 happened in the Supreme Court? What was the actual 00:15:19.730 --> 00:15:22.149 turning point in the case? Well, the court had 00:15:22.149 --> 00:15:25.450 to decide a really fundamental question. Is Sony 00:15:25.450 --> 00:15:28.230 responsible for what its users do with the machine? 00:15:28.690 --> 00:15:32.389 It's a legal concept called contributory infringement. 00:15:32.470 --> 00:15:35.129 It's like if I buy a hammer. and go break a window. 00:15:35.509 --> 00:15:37.970 Do you sue the hardware store that sold me the 00:15:37.970 --> 00:15:40.929 hammer? That's the perfect analogy. And in 1984, 00:15:41.230 --> 00:15:44.090 the Supreme Court ruled in a 5 -4 decision. I 00:15:44.090 --> 00:15:46.350 mean, it was that close that home videotaping 00:15:46.350 --> 00:15:49.070 is legal. And in their ruling, they coined a 00:15:49.070 --> 00:15:52.250 very specific and now very famous term. Time 00:15:52.250 --> 00:15:54.590 shifting. Time shifting. Yes. The idea that you 00:15:54.590 --> 00:15:56.789 are recording a program not to sell it, not to 00:15:56.789 --> 00:15:58.870 distribute it, not to exhibit it publicly, but 00:15:58.870 --> 00:16:01.429 simply to watch it at a later time that is more 00:16:01.429 --> 00:16:03.710 convenient for you. I see. And the court said 00:16:03.710 --> 00:16:06.909 this constitutes a substantial non -infringing 00:16:06.909 --> 00:16:10.019 use. That phrase seems to be the key. Substantial 00:16:10.019 --> 00:16:12.399 non -infringing use. It is the golden key. It 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:14.299 is the legal precedent that has shaped all of 00:16:14.299 --> 00:16:16.919 media technology since. It means that just because 00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:19.220 a technology can be used for illegal things like 00:16:19.220 --> 00:16:22.080 piracy, you can't ban the technology itself if 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:24.820 it also has significant substantial legal uses. 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:27.720 That precedent must have enormous ripple effects. 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:30.299 Massive. I mean, connect the dots to the future. 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:34.220 This exact ruling was cited in the big MGMV Grokster 00:16:34.220 --> 00:16:37.379 case in 2005, which was about peer -to -peer 00:16:37.379 --> 00:16:39.580 file sharing. Ah, Napster and all that. Exactly. 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:43.259 It's the legal foundation for MP3 players, for 00:16:43.259 --> 00:16:46.539 DVRs, for TiVo, even for things like cloud storage 00:16:46.539 --> 00:16:49.779 to some extent. If Betamax hadn't fought and 00:16:49.779 --> 00:16:52.620 won that fight, the iPod might have been declared 00:16:52.620 --> 00:16:55.720 an illegal device. So in a strange way, Betamax 00:16:55.720 --> 00:16:58.549 took the bullet for the entire industry. It fought 00:16:58.549 --> 00:17:01.570 the legal battle, won the right for all of us 00:17:01.570 --> 00:17:04.490 to record TV, and then VHS just swooped in and 00:17:04.490 --> 00:17:06.609 reaped all the profits. It is a truly tragic 00:17:06.609 --> 00:17:09.009 hero story. Beta won the legal war that allowed 00:17:09.009 --> 00:17:11.769 the entire VCR industry to exist, even as it 00:17:11.769 --> 00:17:13.869 was dying in the marketplace. Now, you mentioned 00:17:13.869 --> 00:17:16.410 dying, but the funny thing is, Betamax didn't 00:17:16.410 --> 00:17:18.789 just roll over and die in the early 80s. Sony 00:17:18.789 --> 00:17:21.250 kept iterating. They kept trying to make it better. 00:17:21.470 --> 00:17:23.690 And looking at these later models, I mean, some 00:17:23.690 --> 00:17:25.089 of this tech is just mind -blowing. It really 00:17:25.089 --> 00:17:26.470 makes you wonder what would have happened if 00:17:26.470 --> 00:17:28.279 they had just... won that marketing war. Oh, 00:17:28.299 --> 00:17:30.880 absolutely. While the general public was buying 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:34.220 cheap VHS players, Sony was turning Betamax into 00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:36.720 the audiophiles and the videophiles' absolute 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:39.960 dream format. They started adding features that 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:42.640 VHS just couldn't match, or at least couldn't 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:44.599 match very well. Let's talk about the trick play 00:17:44.599 --> 00:17:46.819 features. I love that term. It sounds like a 00:17:46.819 --> 00:17:48.880 football maneuver or something. It does, doesn't 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:51.519 it? Trick play refers to things like high -speed 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:55.200 search, freeze frame, slow motion. Sony introduced 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:58.069 a feature called Betascan. This allowed you to 00:17:58.069 --> 00:18:00.490 fast forward or rewind while still seeing the 00:18:00.490 --> 00:18:02.609 picture on the screen. Which we totally take 00:18:02.609 --> 00:18:04.789 for granted now, but back then, usually if you 00:18:04.789 --> 00:18:07.910 hit rewind on a BCR, the screen just went to 00:18:07.910 --> 00:18:11.069 blue or static. Right. Or you'd risk the machine 00:18:11.069 --> 00:18:13.819 eating the tape. Sony also had something they 00:18:13.819 --> 00:18:16.220 called Beta Skip Scan, which they also called 00:18:16.220 --> 00:18:18.779 Peep Search. You could hold down the fast -forward 00:18:18.779 --> 00:18:20.400 button to see where you were in the tape, and 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:22.039 as soon as you let go, it would go right back 00:18:22.039 --> 00:18:24.599 to play. Which is extremely useful for skipping 00:18:24.599 --> 00:18:27.539 commercials. Very. And a fun little legal footnote 00:18:27.539 --> 00:18:30.079 here. Sony originally wanted to call this feature 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:33.119 Videola. Videola. Yeah, like the Moviola editing 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:35.319 machines that were used in Hollywood. But the 00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:37.440 Moviola company threatened to sue them, so they 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:39.900 had to drop it. And Sony really could not catch 00:18:39.900 --> 00:18:42.069 a break with the lawsuits, could they? seems 00:18:42.069 --> 00:18:44.289 to be the constant soundtrack of their existence 00:18:44.289 --> 00:18:47.069 in the 80s. But speaking of soundtracks, let's 00:18:47.069 --> 00:18:48.990 get to the sound. Because the source material 00:18:48.990 --> 00:18:52.509 mentions beta hi -fi and makes this claim that 00:18:52.509 --> 00:18:56.390 it had CD sound quality. Now that is a bold claim 00:18:56.390 --> 00:18:59.150 for a videotape. It is a very bold claim, but 00:18:59.150 --> 00:19:01.509 the specs actually back it up. This was introduced 00:19:01.509 --> 00:19:06.690 in June of 1983. Before this, VCRs recorded audio 00:19:06.690 --> 00:19:09.569 on this tiny, thin strip along the very edge 00:19:09.569 --> 00:19:12.670 of the tape. It was awful. It was mono, hissy, 00:19:12.730 --> 00:19:15.329 low fidelity. Like a bad AM radio playing in 00:19:15.329 --> 00:19:16.829 a tunnel. That's a great description. Exactly. 00:19:16.950 --> 00:19:19.349 So Sony figured out a brilliant way to do something 00:19:19.349 --> 00:19:21.970 called frequency multiplexing. Okay, unpack that 00:19:21.970 --> 00:19:24.569 for me. How do you fit high -quality stereo sound 00:19:24.569 --> 00:19:27.500 onto a tape that is already full of video? information. 00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:30.359 It's genius, really. In the NTSC video format 00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:33.119 used in the US, they found a way to place a pair 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:35.759 of FM audio carriers between the color signal, 00:19:35.940 --> 00:19:38.519 the chroma, and the brightness signal, the luminance. 00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:41.740 They literally squeezed high fidelity stereo 00:19:41.740 --> 00:19:45.079 sound into the unused gaps of the video signal 00:19:45.079 --> 00:19:47.880 itself. So the sound is basically embedded inside 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:50.869 the picture signal. Effectively, yes. The video 00:19:50.869 --> 00:19:52.930 and audio heads were reading it all at the same 00:19:52.930 --> 00:19:55.690 time. And the result was an 80 decibel dynamic 00:19:55.690 --> 00:19:59.450 range, extremely low wow and flutter. It truly 00:19:59.450 --> 00:20:01.650 was comparable to the compact disc, which was 00:20:01.650 --> 00:20:03.970 just launching around that same time. In VHS. 00:20:04.430 --> 00:20:06.269 Did they have an answer to this? They tried, 00:20:06.410 --> 00:20:08.109 but they had to do it differently because of 00:20:08.109 --> 00:20:10.849 how their signal was structured. VHS Hi -Fi used 00:20:10.849 --> 00:20:13.730 a technique called depth multiplexing. They actually 00:20:13.730 --> 00:20:16.250 recorded the audio deep into the magnetic coating 00:20:16.250 --> 00:20:18.809 of the tape first and then recorded the video 00:20:18.809 --> 00:20:21.349 signal on top of it. That sounds risky. You're 00:20:21.349 --> 00:20:22.970 just writing one signal right on top of another. 00:20:23.369 --> 00:20:25.910 It kind of worked, but both formats had their 00:20:25.910 --> 00:20:28.210 little issues. You'd sometimes get what was called 00:20:28.210 --> 00:20:31.450 carrier buzz or pumping artifacts where the noise 00:20:31.450 --> 00:20:33.890 reduction would sort of breathe in and out. But 00:20:33.890 --> 00:20:36.369 generally speaking, a beta hi -fi was seen as 00:20:36.369 --> 00:20:38.829 the absolute gold standard for home theater sound 00:20:38.829 --> 00:20:41.829 in the 80s. If you were a movie buff recording 00:20:41.829 --> 00:20:44.490 a film off the air, you wanted it on beta. But 00:20:44.490 --> 00:20:46.990 Sony didn't stop at audio. They kept pushing 00:20:46.990 --> 00:20:49.529 the picture quality, too. I'm looking at these 00:20:49.529 --> 00:20:52.549 two terms here. Super Beta and ED Beta. What 00:20:52.549 --> 00:20:54.109 were these? Were they just incremental updates? 00:20:54.349 --> 00:20:57.329 Super Beta came out in 1985. And what they did 00:20:57.329 --> 00:20:59.549 was they shifted the luminance carrier signal 00:20:59.549 --> 00:21:02.410 up by about 800 kilohertz. And what does that 00:21:02.410 --> 00:21:04.849 do? It essentially creates more bandwidth for 00:21:04.849 --> 00:21:07.109 detail in the picture. It pushed the resolution 00:21:07.109 --> 00:21:10.910 from 250 lines up to about 290 lines. That is 00:21:10.910 --> 00:21:13.269 getting really close to actual broadcast quality. 00:21:13.569 --> 00:21:16.329 It was a noticeable improvement. But Ben, 1988. 00:21:16.970 --> 00:21:20.549 ed beta the monster ed stands for extended definition 00:21:20.549 --> 00:21:23.109 the specs on this are just crazy 500 lines of 00:21:23.109 --> 00:21:25.509 horizontal resolution 500 lines to give you some 00:21:25.509 --> 00:21:28.269 context that is comparable to dvd quality but 00:21:28.269 --> 00:21:31.289 this was 1988. dvd wouldn't even arrive for almost 00:21:31.289 --> 00:21:33.529 another decade it's insane so you could have 00:21:33.529 --> 00:21:37.569 had dvd quality video in your home in the late 00:21:37.569 --> 00:21:40.380 80s so why didn't this take over If it was that 00:21:40.380 --> 00:21:44.700 good. I mean, 500 lines versus VHS is 240. That's 00:21:44.700 --> 00:21:47.059 more than double the quality. Too little, too 00:21:47.059 --> 00:21:50.299 late, and way too expensive. By 1988, the war 00:21:50.299 --> 00:21:53.359 was over. VHS had already won the masses. ED 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:56.920 beta was an extremely niche product for wealthy 00:21:56.920 --> 00:21:59.559 videophiles and, you know, semi -pros. And it 00:21:59.559 --> 00:22:01.079 needed special tapes, right? That's the other 00:22:01.079 --> 00:22:03.960 thing. It required a special ED metal tape formulation, 00:22:04.119 --> 00:22:06.180 which they had to borrow from their professional 00:22:06.180 --> 00:22:08.680 beta cam line. The machines were proprietary, 00:22:09.099 --> 00:22:11.579 they were expensive, and they lacked some pro 00:22:11.579 --> 00:22:13.960 features like timecode, so it was stuck in this 00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:15.920 awkward middle ground. Too expensive for Joe 00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:18.369 Sixpack. But not... Quite robust enough for a 00:22:18.369 --> 00:22:21.349 TV station. It's the classic tragedy of superior 00:22:21.349 --> 00:22:23.730 tech. It doesn't matter if you have 500 lines 00:22:23.730 --> 00:22:26.509 of resolution if you can't rent Top Gun at Blockbuster 00:22:26.509 --> 00:22:29.470 in that format. Exactly. Content is king. And 00:22:29.470 --> 00:22:31.890 all the content was on VHS. All of it. Speaking 00:22:31.890 --> 00:22:33.829 of creating content, we have to talk about the 00:22:33.829 --> 00:22:36.450 camcorder. Right. Because this is another area 00:22:36.450 --> 00:22:39.930 where Sony had a brilliant yet deeply flawed 00:22:39.930 --> 00:22:43.829 idea. The beta movie. Ah, the beta movie. The 00:22:43.829 --> 00:22:46.730 world's first all -in -one consumer camcorder. 00:22:46.930 --> 00:22:49.029 It looks cool in the pictures. You rest it on 00:22:49.029 --> 00:22:51.809 your shoulder like a news camera. But there was 00:22:51.809 --> 00:22:54.950 a massive catch. A catch so big, I honestly can't 00:22:54.950 --> 00:22:56.750 believe they shipped it like that. It's a huge 00:22:56.750 --> 00:22:59.650 catch. To make the unit small and light enough 00:22:59.650 --> 00:23:02.170 to carry on your shoulder, they had to simplify 00:23:02.170 --> 00:23:05.089 the internal mechanism. They reduced the size 00:23:05.089 --> 00:23:07.349 of the head drum. And the result of that compromise 00:23:07.349 --> 00:23:10.750 was, it was a record -only device. Wait, wait, 00:23:10.750 --> 00:23:14.339 so, no playback. At all. No playback. You could 00:23:14.339 --> 00:23:16.460 look through the optical viewfinder to see what 00:23:16.460 --> 00:23:18.380 you were shooting in real time, but you could 00:23:18.380 --> 00:23:20.960 not rewind the tape and watch what you just recorded 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:22.799 on the camera. So if you wanted to check if you 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:25.480 actually got the shot of your kid blowing out 00:23:25.480 --> 00:23:27.220 the birthday candles. You couldn't. You had to 00:23:27.220 --> 00:23:29.039 take the tape out of the camera, go back to your 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:31.200 living room, put it into your full -size Betamax 00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:33.420 deck, and only then could you watch it on the 00:23:33.420 --> 00:23:37.339 TV. That completely kills the spontaneity. And 00:23:37.339 --> 00:23:39.859 it assumes you're near a TV. It also meant you 00:23:39.859 --> 00:23:42.200 had to own a separate Betamax home deck. You 00:23:42.200 --> 00:23:44.339 couldn't just plug the camera into the TV to 00:23:44.339 --> 00:23:47.960 watch your footage. Meanwhile, JVC released their 00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:51.720 VHS -C camcorders. Right, the little tapes. Yeah, 00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:54.740 they used a smaller cassette that went into an 00:23:54.740 --> 00:23:57.279 adapter, but most importantly, you could play 00:23:57.279 --> 00:23:59.019 back the video right there in the viewfinder. 00:23:59.099 --> 00:24:01.519 That's game over right there. The ability to 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:03.799 check the gate, as they say in the film world, 00:24:03.859 --> 00:24:06.259 to make sure you got the shot. It really was. 00:24:06.339 --> 00:24:09.339 It was a fatal design flaw. It forced Sony to 00:24:09.339 --> 00:24:12.799 eventually abandon beta for camcorders and invent 00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:15.220 the Video 8 format, which is a whole other deep 00:24:15.220 --> 00:24:17.799 dive. But Video 8 eventually came to dominate 00:24:17.799 --> 00:24:21.720 the camcorder market for years. But... And here 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:24.240 is the big twist in the story. While consumers 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:26.980 were abandoning beta in the living room and for 00:24:26.980 --> 00:24:29.200 their home movies, the professionals were doubling 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:32.119 down on it. Yes. This is where the whole Betamax 00:24:32.119 --> 00:24:34.500 was a failure narrative just falls apart completely. 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:37.240 So explain Betacam. Because the names are so 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:39.099 similar, I think a lot of people get them confused. 00:24:39.319 --> 00:24:42.880 Right. So in 1982, Sony released a professional 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:46.400 format called Betacam. It used a cassette that 00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:48.859 looked almost identical to a consumer Betamax 00:24:48.859 --> 00:24:51.079 tape. Same shape, same size. You could probably 00:24:51.079 --> 00:24:52.819 mistake one for the other. But they weren't the 00:24:52.819 --> 00:24:55.930 same. Not at all. The recording format inside 00:24:55.930 --> 00:24:58.349 the magnetic signal on the tape was completely 00:24:58.349 --> 00:25:01.170 different and much higher quality. It recorded 00:25:01.170 --> 00:25:03.529 the video signals in a component format, which 00:25:03.529 --> 00:25:06.490 was a huge deal for quality and editing. And 00:25:06.490 --> 00:25:08.950 this format completely replaced the old heavy 00:25:08.950 --> 00:25:11.589 U -matic cameras for electronic news gathering, 00:25:11.769 --> 00:25:14.210 what they call ENG. So the local news crews. 00:25:14.430 --> 00:25:17.230 Every news crew. If you watch the news any time 00:25:17.230 --> 00:25:19.329 from the mid -80s all the way through the early 00:25:19.329 --> 00:25:22.190 2000s, chances are that footage was shot on a 00:25:22.190 --> 00:25:24.069 descendant. of Betamax. Really? For that long? 00:25:24.190 --> 00:25:27.230 Oh, yes. First Betacam, then Betacam SP, then 00:25:27.230 --> 00:25:31.230 digital Betacam. It became the absolute undisputed 00:25:31.230 --> 00:25:34.470 industry standard for decades. The phrase shoot 00:25:34.470 --> 00:25:37.130 on beta became synonymous with professional news 00:25:37.130 --> 00:25:39.970 gathering. So in a way, Betamax didn't die. It 00:25:39.970 --> 00:25:42.200 just got a job. It went corporate. It put on 00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:44.619 a suit and went to work. It was reliable, it 00:25:44.619 --> 00:25:47.339 was rugged, and it offered much better editing 00:25:47.339 --> 00:25:50.200 capabilities than anything else out there. And 00:25:50.200 --> 00:25:53.299 not just in video. It found this other life in 00:25:53.299 --> 00:25:56.640 high -end audio mastering too. The PCM adapters. 00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:01.220 Right. The Sony PCM -F1. This was this magical 00:26:01.220 --> 00:26:05.119 box that took pure digital audio, turned it into 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:08.559 what looked like a video signal, basically a 00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:10.839 pattern of black and white bars, and recorded 00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:13.650 it. perfectly onto a standard Betamax tape. So 00:26:13.650 --> 00:26:15.759 what was that used for? Audio engineers in the 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:18.519 80s and 90s used this setup to make the final 00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:20.960 digital masters for albums. You're telling me 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:23.140 there are hit albums from the 1980s that owe 00:26:23.140 --> 00:26:25.579 their existence to a Betamax tape sitting in 00:26:25.579 --> 00:26:28.319 a studio. Absolutely. Because it was a reliable 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:30.680 and more importantly cheap way to store high 00:26:30.680 --> 00:26:33.279 quality digital data before digital audio tapes 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:36.099 and big hard drives became common. That is fascinating. 00:26:36.259 --> 00:26:38.480 It really challenges the whole idea of obsolescence. 00:26:38.539 --> 00:26:40.619 Just because it wasn't in your living room anymore 00:26:40.619 --> 00:26:42.539 doesn't mean it wasn't essential somewhere else. 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.380 It really does. technology rarely just disappears 00:26:45.380 --> 00:26:48.180 entirely. It evolves or it finds a niche where 00:26:48.180 --> 00:26:50.980 its specific strengths are still valued. But 00:26:50.980 --> 00:26:53.619 eventually all things must pass. Let's trace 00:26:53.619 --> 00:26:55.559 the timeline of death for the consumer format. 00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:58.240 Because it held on for a lot longer than I thought. 00:26:58.380 --> 00:27:00.980 Much, much longer. So the first white flag was 00:27:00.980 --> 00:27:04.500 officially waved in 1988. That's when Sony shocked 00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:06.319 the world and announced they would start making 00:27:06.319 --> 00:27:08.859 VHS recorders. That must have been a painful 00:27:08.859 --> 00:27:11.299 press release to write. If you can't beat them, 00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:14.160 join them. It was a massive admission of defeat. 00:27:14.380 --> 00:27:18.380 But, and this is the key, they didn't stop making 00:27:18.380 --> 00:27:20.720 Betamax machines. They kept producing them for 00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:23.970 the diehards and the loyalists. Until when? The 00:27:23.970 --> 00:27:26.569 mid -90s. They didn't stop producing new Betamax 00:27:26.569 --> 00:27:30.309 recorders until 2002. 2002. That's well into 00:27:30.309 --> 00:27:33.529 the DVD era. The Matrix was out on DVD and Sony 00:27:33.529 --> 00:27:35.650 was still making Betamax players. It is hard 00:27:35.650 --> 00:27:38.250 to believe, but it gets even crazier. They didn't 00:27:38.250 --> 00:27:41.170 stop manufacturing the blank tapes until... You're 00:27:41.170 --> 00:27:45.230 ready for this. Hit me. March 2016. 2016, no. 00:27:45.549 --> 00:27:48.109 Yes. They announced the end of production in 00:27:48.109 --> 00:27:51.029 November 2015, and the final shipment went out 00:27:51.029 --> 00:27:54.490 in March of 2016. That is 41 years after the 00:27:54.490 --> 00:27:56.569 format was launched. That is absolutely incredible. 00:27:56.849 --> 00:28:00.509 I mean, I was streaming Netflix in 4K in 2016, 00:28:00.650 --> 00:28:04.329 and somewhere in the world, a factory was churning 00:28:04.329 --> 00:28:06.960 out a brand new Betamax tape. It speaks to the 00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:09.160 loyalty of the user base, especially in Japan, 00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:11.920 and the durability of the format. People had 00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:14.380 these huge libraries of content they didn't want 00:28:14.380 --> 00:28:16.539 to lose. And his footprint in pop culture is 00:28:16.539 --> 00:28:18.859 pretty durable, too, even if it is usually as 00:28:18.859 --> 00:28:21.480 a joke or a symbol of something obsolete. It 00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:23.900 is. It's the go -to reference for old tech. I 00:28:23.900 --> 00:28:25.720 mean, Videodrome. We have to talk about David 00:28:25.720 --> 00:28:28.440 Kornenberg's Videodrome. The classic body horror 00:28:28.440 --> 00:28:32.119 film. James Woods' character develops a... well, 00:28:32.220 --> 00:28:34.799 a vaginal -like slot in his stomach. A literal 00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:37.599 tape slot. Yeah, to insert these videotapes that 00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:40.279 reprogram his reality. And the production designer 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:43.519 specifically chose Betamax cassettes. Why? Was 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:45.740 it product placement? No, it was purely practical. 00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:48.480 Betamax tapes were slightly smaller and more 00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:51.019 compact than VHS tapes. They just fit better 00:28:51.019 --> 00:28:52.980 into the prosthetic stomach appliance without 00:28:52.980 --> 00:28:55.279 making the actor look too bulky. That is somehow 00:28:55.279 --> 00:28:58.000 both disgusting and incredibly practical. I love 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:00.759 it. Then you have the anime cowboy bebop. There's 00:29:00.759 --> 00:29:03.079 a whole... Episode dedicated to the crew, Spike 00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:05.559 and Jet, trying to find a working player for 00:29:05.559 --> 00:29:07.680 an ancient Betamax tape they found. And Spike 00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:09.500 ends up breaking it, right? He tries to force 00:29:09.500 --> 00:29:12.059 the tape in, gets impatient, and completely destroys 00:29:12.059 --> 00:29:15.079 the rare player. It's this great little commentary 00:29:15.079 --> 00:29:18.680 on how frustrating old tech can be and how lost 00:29:18.680 --> 00:29:22.099 media becomes this treasure hunt. And even Doctor 00:29:22.099 --> 00:29:24.160 Who took a jab at it. Yeah, in the episode The 00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:27.259 Idiot's Lantern. The Doctor traps an enemy inside 00:29:27.259 --> 00:29:30.079 a videotape back in the 1950s, which is a huge 00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:32.240 time - line error since tapes didn't exist then. 00:29:32.339 --> 00:29:35.099 And he just shrugs it off and says, it's just 00:29:35.099 --> 00:29:38.160 Betamax. Brutal. Even a Time Lord is mocking 00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:41.000 it. And even in Pixar's WALL -E, when WALL -E 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:42.779 is in his truck watching his favorite movie. 00:29:42.980 --> 00:29:45.119 Hello, Dolly. That's a beta tape he puts in. 00:29:45.160 --> 00:29:47.619 I never noticed that. It looks exactly like one. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:50.319 Though the real nerds online point out it's technically 00:29:50.319 --> 00:29:53.339 a yellow Betacam SP tape, which actually makes 00:29:53.339 --> 00:29:56.369 more sense. Why? Because Wally would want the 00:29:56.369 --> 00:30:00.329 professional archival durability. A consumer 00:30:00.329 --> 00:30:03.049 VHS tape would have degraded into dust after 00:30:03.049 --> 00:30:05.769 700 years in a trash pile. He's a connoisseur, 00:30:05.769 --> 00:30:07.809 of course. He knows quality when he sees it. 00:30:07.890 --> 00:30:10.470 But my absolute favorite cultural reference, 00:30:10.690 --> 00:30:13.089 the one that really shows its legacy, is actually 00:30:13.089 --> 00:30:15.269 from the Philippines. Oh, the street food slang. 00:30:15.509 --> 00:30:18.789 Yes. In the Philippines, the word Betamax is 00:30:18.789 --> 00:30:21.269 common slang for a specific type of street food. 00:30:21.609 --> 00:30:24.150 What is it? It's cubes of coagulated chicken 00:30:24.150 --> 00:30:26.609 or pig blood that are put on skewers and grilled. 00:30:26.809 --> 00:30:29.269 Why? Why would they call it Betamax? Because 00:30:29.269 --> 00:30:32.289 the blood coagulates into these dense, rectangular, 00:30:32.410 --> 00:30:34.849 almost perfectly black blocks. They look exactly 00:30:34.849 --> 00:30:37.309 like the Betamax cartridges. That is amazing. 00:30:37.490 --> 00:30:40.190 Talk about a legacy. You start as a failed video 00:30:40.190 --> 00:30:43.430 format, but you live on as a delicious, if slightly 00:30:43.430 --> 00:30:45.910 intimidating, snack. It just shows how deeply 00:30:45.910 --> 00:30:48.369 the shape and the name embedded themselves in 00:30:48.369 --> 00:30:50.690 the global consciousness. It transcended the 00:30:50.690 --> 00:30:53.569 technology to become an iconic shape. So let's 00:30:53.569 --> 00:30:56.009 bring this all back home. We started this deep 00:30:56.009 --> 00:30:58.809 dive saying Betamax wasn't a failure but a misunderstood 00:30:58.809 --> 00:31:01.759 marvel. Right. We've looked at the superior resolution, 00:31:02.180 --> 00:31:05.319 the azimuth recording, the hi -fi audio, the 00:31:05.319 --> 00:31:08.240 fact that it literally saved us all legally with 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:10.759 the Supreme Court, and its incredible professional 00:31:10.759 --> 00:31:13.980 afterlife as Betacam. When you stack it all up 00:31:13.980 --> 00:31:16.859 like that, Betamax was a clear triumph of engineering, 00:31:17.119 --> 00:31:19.960 but it was a catastrophic failure of strategy. 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:22.359 That seems to be the ultimate lesson here. You 00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:24.460 can have the best specs in the world, 250 lines 00:31:24.460 --> 00:31:27.319 versus 240, incredible hi -fi sound, smaller, 00:31:27.460 --> 00:31:30.529 sleeker tapes. But if you don't solve the user's 00:31:30.529 --> 00:31:32.829 core problem... The user's problem was, I want 00:31:32.829 --> 00:31:34.869 to record a whole football game, and I want to 00:31:34.869 --> 00:31:37.210 be able to rent movies cheaply. VHS solved those 00:31:37.210 --> 00:31:39.150 two problems better and more simply than Beta 00:31:39.150 --> 00:31:42.509 did. End of story. And VHS was open. That licensing 00:31:42.509 --> 00:31:45.309 decision was key. Open ecosystems almost always 00:31:45.309 --> 00:31:47.450 beat closed ones in the long run. The market 00:31:47.450 --> 00:31:49.809 floods with options, prices drop, and the standard 00:31:49.809 --> 00:31:53.029 is set by the crowd, not by the creator. Sony 00:31:53.029 --> 00:31:56.130 wanted to be the king, but JVC was happy to just 00:31:56.130 --> 00:31:58.200 be the parliament. It really makes you think 00:31:58.200 --> 00:32:00.799 about today's tech landscape. It does. It raises 00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:03.200 a really important kind of provocative question 00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:05.119 for anyone listening right now. What's that? 00:32:05.279 --> 00:32:07.500 We are constantly choosing between formats and 00:32:07.500 --> 00:32:12.019 ecosystems, Android versus iOS, PC versus Mac, 00:32:12.180 --> 00:32:14.099 all the different streaming services and their 00:32:14.099 --> 00:32:17.940 codecs. The question is, are we currently right 00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:21.970 now using a VHS? product. Oh, that's a good one. 00:32:22.069 --> 00:32:23.970 Is there a piece of technology in your life that 00:32:23.970 --> 00:32:25.849 you use every day just because it's cheap, it's 00:32:25.849 --> 00:32:28.809 available, and it's good enough, while a Betamax 00:32:28.809 --> 00:32:31.210 alternative, something that is technically superior, 00:32:31.329 --> 00:32:34.049 better built, higher quality, is slowly dying 00:32:34.049 --> 00:32:36.049 out because it's just a little too proprietary 00:32:36.049 --> 00:32:38.049 or a little too expensive? That is a haunting 00:32:38.049 --> 00:32:41.029 thought. Are we all settling for 240 lines when 00:32:41.029 --> 00:32:43.490 we could have 250? We might be. History tends 00:32:43.490 --> 00:32:46.450 to repeat itself. And usually the cheapest, most 00:32:46.450 --> 00:32:49.420 convenient option wins the war. Not necessarily 00:32:49.420 --> 00:32:51.039 the best one. Well, on that note, I'm going to 00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:52.700 go check my parents' attic for any old tapes. 00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:54.680 You never know what you might find. Maybe a copy 00:32:54.680 --> 00:32:58.259 of Top Gun on beta. Just don't try to play it 00:32:58.259 --> 00:33:00.480 in a VCR that hasn't been run in 20 years. You'll 00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:03.859 probably eat the tape. Good advice. Thanks for 00:33:03.859 --> 00:33:05.859 listening to this deep dive into the world of 00:33:05.859 --> 00:33:08.440 Betamax. We will catch you on the next one. Keep 00:33:08.440 --> 00:33:08.940 rewinding.