> 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 > > The first Sanyo was about $400 to $450. A very good price for Beta at the > time. I have no information about Sony's licensing fees, so I can not comment > on that. But I do want to add that all of the hype about Beta having higher quality reproduction is something I never saw. I still have a Sony Beta Hi Fi VCR, but like almost everything I ever bought from Sony, it is not working properly. The death of the 8 track is obvious. Inferior sound quality and planned self destruction. Because the tape pulled out on itself from the center, eventually it would destroy itself. 8 track did offer one good feature. Quadraphonic sound on selected recordings. This was true desecrate Quad. instead of getting 8 tracks, you got 2 pairs of 4. Panasonic among others offered Quad 8 track car receivers. What the 8 track lost in sound quality it made up for on it's desecrate Quad tapes. I even had a home Quad 8 track home deck recorder. Funny that Quad died, but thanks to Video, multi channel sound is back. Larry ----------------------------------------------------------------- To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
