<< > One last thought. I always hear that they reason VHS won out over Beta was > because you could fit more time on a VHS cassette. This was because the > VHS cassette was a little bigger and could hold more take than Beta. << I think it has more to do with the fact that Sony refused to license the format to othe vendors. THe competitors all had to go with VHS, and since there was more VHS equipment than Beta, Beta lost out. Same with Apple computers. >> (J. Coon) This is not true. Sony *did* license Betamax to other companies, among them, Sanyo, Toshiba, Zenith, and NEC. (FAST FORWARD: HOLLYWOOD, THE JAPANESE, AND THE VCR WARS, by James Lardner, pp. 159, 307) Those companies eventually switched their loyalties, however, to the VHS format, as that format increased in popularity (mainly due its longer recording time). VHS VCR's were also generally cheaper than Betamax VCR's, and Sony's licensing fees were higher than JVC's, I believe, making it less attractive to prospective manufacturers. All these factors worked against Betamax and doomed it to the electronic dustbin of history, where it now resides with 8-track and other failed consumer electronic formats.... Daryl ----------------------------------------------------------------- To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
