3 ms·

Something I've heard brought up regarding the length is that early Betamax couldn't tape the average sports game, while early VHS could. I'd imagine that was a

• olyjohn 7y ago
  The early Betamax recorders didn't have a timer on them. Plus the tapes were super short. So if you had a show at 3pm you wanted to tape, you had to be there at 3pm to push the record button, then be stuck with only 90 minutes of recorded content.
  • kalleboo 7y ago
    The first Betamax recorder sold in the US was the LV-1901 which included a 24 hour timer. The first standalone Betamax VCR was the SL-7200 on which the timer was a $45 optional add-on. Also at the time people were already buying wall socket timers for their reel-to-reel tape decks to record the radio, these would also work with a Betamax deck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbNgbtZJAcU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbNgbtZJAcU