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what was the deal with Betamax though? was VHS actually easier or have any advantages, or did it just win due to marketing? (honest curiosity here, i don't know the technicalities)

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One benefit I heard called out was that early Betamax capped the tape capacity to one hour, which meant you couldn't record things like full sports games and quite a few movies. Sony didn't change this until VHS came along with its slower tape speeds and more recording time, and by then it was too late.

Also, VHS was cheaper, and while Betamax was technically inferior, it wasn't inferior in a way that the average buyer would notice.

interesting thanks!

The porn industry adopted VHS and managed to make it the standard, basically

This is a myth. Porn was available on Beta and far more non-porn VHS tapes were being sold than porn. Porn only made up a small fraction of VHS sales. Even the idea that Beta was strictly better than VHS is mostly modern myth.

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