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> Proprietary cassettes for dishwashing machines? That's next level. Sony had proprietary cassettes for all kinds of products over the years, even when there w

> Proprietary cassettes for dishwashing machines? That's next level. Sony had proprietary cassettes for all kinds of products over the years, even when there were standards available (Betamax is the most famous but only one example) I have 4 handheld voice recorders from the 1970s from my father. Philips, Norelco, Sony, and one other brand. All use the same size microcassette except the Sony. Fuck you, Sony.

dogma1138 6y ago
Betamax wasn’t any more proprietary than VHS which was developed by JVC. It has a fairly large number of manufacturers that produced VCRs including NEC, Toshiba, Aiwa and Pioneer the issue was mainly cost and the fact that Betamax cam recorders could not be miniaturized as efficiently and as cheaply as VHS so you ended up with a two stage solution still for home movies and amateur movie production (porn played a big role here).
- kmeisthax 6y ago
  >porn played a big role here Beta had porn. Furthermore, that's not how home video worked. VHS and Beta were sold on their TV recording capabilities, not their home video libraries. Home video was supposed to be handled by disc formats (Laserdisc, CED, VHD, etc); selling movies on $100-ish tapes was prohibitively expensive compared to ~$15 discs. Eventually this was worked around with video rental shops and falling prices of VHS tape, but a consequence of this is that neither Sony nor JVC were licensing content for distribution on their tapes. Remember, you could record whatever you wanted on the tape; that was the point.
  - dogma1138 6y ago
    By home movies I mean replacing the super 8 format. The design behind VHS made camcorders cheaper to make as well as enabled them to be used to play video. Betamax at the time had a more complicated solution where a separate player was needed and also initially a two stage solution where different tapes had to be used.
city41 6y ago
I don't think Beta really counts here. Probably the best example of Sony doing this is their Memory Stick, despite compact flash, sd and usb storage being readily available.
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  Yep. Also mini disc and DAT and a dozen others. I don’t know why people focused on my Betamax comment when the portable dictation device is more to the point.
- jamiek88 6y ago
  Minidisc was cool.

dogma1138 6y ago

Betamax wasn’t any more proprietary than VHS which was developed by JVC. It has a fairly large number of manufacturers that produced VCRs including NEC, Toshiba, Aiwa and Pioneer the issue was mainly cost and the fact that Betamax cam recorders could not be miniaturized as efficiently and as cheaply as VHS so you ended up with a two stage solution still for home movies and amateur movie production (porn played a big role here).

kmeisthax 6y ago
>porn played a big role here Beta had porn. Furthermore, that's not how home video worked. VHS and Beta were sold on their TV recording capabilities, not their home video libraries. Home video was supposed to be handled by disc formats (Laserdisc, CED, VHD, etc); selling movies on $100-ish tapes was prohibitively expensive compared to ~$15 discs. Eventually this was worked around with video rental shops and falling prices of VHS tape, but a consequence of this is that neither Sony nor JVC were licensing content for distribution on their tapes. Remember, you could record whatever you wanted on the tape; that was the point.
- dogma1138 6y ago
  By home movies I mean replacing the super 8 format. The design behind VHS made camcorders cheaper to make as well as enabled them to be used to play video. Betamax at the time had a more complicated solution where a separate player was needed and also initially a two stage solution where different tapes had to be used.

city41 6y ago

I don't think Beta really counts here. Probably the best example of Sony doing this is their Memory Stick, despite compact flash, sd and usb storage being readily available.

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
Yep. Also mini disc and DAT and a dozen others. I don’t know why people focused on my Betamax comment when the portable dictation device is more to the point.
jamiek88 6y ago
Minidisc was cool.