4 ms·

Is this because Betamax recorders and/or tapes had the same sort of 29:59 limit that some cameras have today (e.g. cheaper Canons)?

dylan604 5y ago
No. Today's digital/tapeless cameras are probably limited to some FAT 4GB filesize limit, and they have decided to not do the common file rollover. It may or may not have something to do with chip temps as well. It also helps push people to buy video cameras in lieu of video on stills cameras only. Essentially, it's as much corporate political decisions as much as technical ability. Betamax was limited to tape speed and how much tape could fit in the cassette. It was one of the downfalls of Beta. It only recorded at one speed. VHS could record in 3 speeds SP (normal), EP (half speed doubling record time), or SLP (third speed tripling record time). At the end of VHS, they were able to create an extremely thin tape allowing for 180 minutes of SP time in the cassette. In SLP, that's 9 friggin hours of record time. It looked horrible, but people loved it. People were essentially running their own DVR with a programmable VCR in SLP with a 180 minute load. You had to fast forward/rewind to find your shows, but even commercials we being skipped.
- crtasm 5y ago
  I've always read that it's down to an EU tax, without that limitation the device gets classed as a video camera and has a sizable import fee: https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/video-recording-limits-in-mirrorless-and-dslr-cameras/ https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/video-recording-limits-in-... An answer here https://photo.stackexchange.com/a/21181 https://photo.stackexchange.com/a/21181 says it's to do with codec licensing but the businesswire link is dead and I can't find anything else to back it up.
- pwg 5y ago
  > It only recorded at one speed. In the beginning, yes. As time went on, Beta also offered three speeds (Beta I, II, and III) exactly as was offered by VHS and their three speeds. Maximum recording time for Beta ended up at 5 hours on a single cassette (L830 cassette and Beta III speed). The L750 cassette was more commonly available, it recorded 4.5 hours at Beta III speed. Of course, VHS's physically larger cassette always allowed it to have a somewhere longer recording time at every step of the competition. Edit: Add link to Wikipedia page for Beta tape lengths and recording times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax#Tape_lengths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax#Tape_lengths
pwg 5y ago
No, this is because the original Beta cassette size that Sony first offered contained enough tape for 1/2 hour of recording. As time went on, longer cassettes and slower recording speeds were released and Beta recorders eventually had tape cassettes available that recorded for 4.5 hours (L750) or 5 hours (L830) of time on a single cassette.

dylan604 5y ago

No. Today's digital/tapeless cameras are probably limited to some FAT 4GB filesize limit, and they have decided to not do the common file rollover. It may or may not have something to do with chip temps as well. It also helps push people to buy video cameras in lieu of video on stills cameras only. Essentially, it's as much corporate political decisions as much as technical ability. Betamax was limited to tape speed and how much tape could fit in the cassette. It was one of the downfalls of Beta. It only recorded at one speed. VHS could record in 3 speeds SP (normal), EP (half speed doubling record time), or SLP (third speed tripling record time). At the end of VHS, they were able to create an extremely thin tape allowing for 180 minutes of SP time in the cassette. In SLP, that's 9 friggin hours of record time. It looked horrible, but people loved it. People were essentially running their own DVR with a programmable VCR in SLP with a 180 minute load. You had to fast forward/rewind to find your shows, but even commercials we being skipped.

crtasm 5y ago
I've always read that it's down to an EU tax, without that limitation the device gets classed as a video camera and has a sizable import fee: https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/video-recording-limits-in-mirrorless-and-dslr-cameras/ https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/video-recording-limits-in-... An answer here https://photo.stackexchange.com/a/21181 https://photo.stackexchange.com/a/21181 says it's to do with codec licensing but the businesswire link is dead and I can't find anything else to back it up.
pwg 5y ago
> It only recorded at one speed. In the beginning, yes. As time went on, Beta also offered three speeds (Beta I, II, and III) exactly as was offered by VHS and their three speeds. Maximum recording time for Beta ended up at 5 hours on a single cassette (L830 cassette and Beta III speed). The L750 cassette was more commonly available, it recorded 4.5 hours at Beta III speed. Of course, VHS's physically larger cassette always allowed it to have a somewhere longer recording time at every step of the competition. Edit: Add link to Wikipedia page for Beta tape lengths and recording times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax#Tape_lengths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax#Tape_lengths

pwg 5y ago

No, this is because the original Beta cassette size that Sony first offered contained enough tape for 1/2 hour of recording. As time went on, longer cassettes and slower recording speeds were released and Beta recorders eventually had tape cassettes available that recorded for 4.5 hours (L750) or 5 hours (L830) of time on a single cassette.