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

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This video has been re-uploaded with the VHS footage captured from the RCA VDT-600, a VCR from 1979. This is a much fairer comparison than using the Panasonic unit as the VHS playback device. Many people believe that Beta was a vastly superior product to VHS, but I think this was mostly marketing prowess on Sony's part. People seemed to think that they were giving up something of quality if the went with VHS over Beta. But as this video will demonstrate, I don't think that was really the case.

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[TechnologyConnections]

Who's watching in 2018?
To clear methods up (my intro is confusing): The Panasonic modern VCR was used only to record _onto the VHS tape_ and the RCA unit from 1979 was used to play the tape back. This may have given the VHS recording a *slight* edge because a more advanced machine was used to create it, but a machine FAR LESS advanced than the Beta model was used to play the tape and capture the resulting output. I think whatever edge the Panasonic VCR gave to the original recording is cancelled out due to the fact that a venerable dinosaur played it back. After all, it can't magically become better than it was when built at playing a tape. This is also probably why the VHS recording is slightly overexposed as it is not playing its own recording.

[KarlBunker]

Darnit, I still can't decide which one to buy.

[elton]

First off I love your videos 
but you used a ß instead of a β - unforgivable lol

[ULTRAWIDE.]

Even recording the modern world on tape makes it look old and nostalgic. Love it

[isaacbailey]

Two things:
-The amount of mileage you get out of your own theme song is incredible.
-Actually getting to hear a longer section of it shows that it's actually even better than I thought, and I already liked it.

[CJ]

I worked at a video place back in the late 70's-early 80's. We were a JVC and Sony authorized dealer and as such we sold both vhs and beta, and we set up side-by-side a/b comparisons from time to time for customers. As I recall the beta looked slightly better. Slightly. But back then, blank tapes were $35 - $40 on sale. Because of that, and also due to longer recording times on vhs, beta video being slightly better did not matter to most of our customers who bought vhs. The "videophile" types bought beta. Both sets of customers seemed happy with their choice. Back then, just being able to record shows and play them back later was a minor miracle. But my thought on it at the time was that home videotape recordings were so poor regardless of system, it would never be a truly viable archival medium.

[lindah]

My dad bought one of the first Magnavox VHS VCR. $7, 000. 1980. And then he bought the VHS Camcorder $4, 000. That thing was a monster. He went free lance in the news business. It was a good call. He was making crazy money for his footage from fires and accidents. He used a scanner to get to the scene first. Some reporter took pictures. My dad took video. That was like gold to the tv news.

[CaveyMoth]

1:07 WTF?! At first, I thought that this segment was recorded via either beta or VHS, and I was blown away by the quality! But then you said it was from your smartphone.

[dgravare]

Difficult choice, still can’t decide which one to buy. I guess I’ll have to wait and see which one becomes de facto standard.

[onee]

The differences are less noticeable than I expected.

[velinion]

Does anyone else think the BETA did a better job of maintaining detail in highlight areas? Look at the distant brickwork at 3:55 or the white stripes on train at 4:27 for example - areas seem washed out in the VHS that maintain detail in the BETA, also the church steeple at 4:35. Heck, even the letters on the sign at 4:35 show an improvement in detail. Or the silver truck at 4:43

[arthurdurham]

It really made a difference switching which vcr you played out of. In the original video VHS looked much better but here they're pretty equivalent (though beta seems to have better contrast imo)

[heene]

When my family decided to rent a video recorder in 1981 we weren't sure which to get. Blank tapes were about the same price on both formats, expensive at around a tenner for a just one 3 hour tape. One of the main reasons we got a video recorder was to rent films. After looking in several rental shops we noticed that there were 10 times more to rent on VHS than there were on Betamax, so that's why we went for VHS. We didn't consider which was the better quality at all.

[ExperimentalFun]

I forgot how crappy TV use to be and how good it has actually gotten, thanks for the reminder. I imagine in 20 years the VR systems will be nearly indistinguishable from real life :)

[summersky]

Great upload! So here is where the half truths get put to rest. Yes, Beta was the superior format...initially. However, when Sony had to half the tape speed from BI to BII in order to get 2 hours on an L-500 cassette (3 hours on L-750) the picture quality advantage was gone. Both were now very comparable. BII, the technical equivalent to VHS's LP mode, produced an image quality only slightly better than VHS on machines of that era. (Remember VHS kept evolving for two more decades and more modern decks produce much better images than a VHS machine of the early 80s.) It was only when the SuperBeta standard came out that quality of the BI speed became achievable on the BII speed. Some higher end models could record in SuperBeta on the BI speed producing a near broadcast quality image. However, it was too little too late and it was clear that recording time and economics far outweighed picture quality in the consumer realm. A tough lesson that Sony had to learn a few times, actually. Thank-you Technology Connection.

[chardonwaite]

Looks like more contrast and clarity in the beta picture which is probably what people seen as a sharper picture. The shot with the focus chart shows how the VHS holds more of the black gradients. Good video 👍

[richards]

Interesting video, thank you. Such a difficult comparison to draw. The quality of playback that you got back from a VCR was very dependent on the quality of the tape used. As no one is making good tapes now, and tapes degrade significantly, it is probably impossible to properly test now. What this film does show I think is that there was not enough difference to be able to say one was much better than the other when using old or sub-par tape which would have been common, even in the heyday. color test

[Phlegethon]

This is becoming one of my favorite channels, the narration speed and tone is terrific too unlike those regular YouTube people’s annoying constipated voice

[Synystr]

4:25 This feels like a 90s sunday afternoon soap opera intro.

[newphilmz]

I think Beta looks better. VHS looks overexposed