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Comparing Beta & VHS on Quality: Was Beta Really Better?

Technology ConnectionsCited 4× on HN, 2022–2026
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explainer · general · evergreen · 2022–2026 on HN

Technology Connections compares Betamax and VHS picture quality using footage from a 1979 RCA VCR and argues the Beta quality advantage was largely marketing.

Cited as evidence that Betamax was not meaningfully better than VHS.

Audio & video engineeringTech company stories & documentaries#betamax#vhs#videoquality#formatwar

4 comments from Hacker News

@leoc2026-08 · in “Atom is better than RSS, in ways that matter”

While a worse format surely could have won something like the video wars, it doesn't seem that VHS was in fact the worse format overall: link (Part 2: link . Quality comparison: ▶ this video ) Beta was basically optimised for one thing, reasonable cassette size, and the tradeoffs turned out probably not to be worth it.

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@gwbas1c2025-11 · in “The lost cause of the Lisp machines”

This just reminds me of the people who whine about Betamax (or CCS) being better. FWIW: Technology Connections did a teardown of why Betamax wasn't better than VHS: ▶ this video And the whole series if you actually enjoy watching these things: link

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@philistine2025-09 · in “How RSS beat Microsoft”

In tests done by Technology Connections, the difference was so small as to be inconsequential. It was technically better at its slowest speed, but you could barely perceive the difference and more importantly Sony disabled the feature in the vast majority of machines sold. People wanted more than 60 minutes out of one tape. They wanted 2 hours. ▶ this video

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@philistine2022-04 · in “Is the DTS vs. Dolby war effectively over?”

We've all collectively fallen for Sony's marketing for Betamax. It was not clearly higher quality. ▶ this video

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