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by q-big 1540 days ago
A central limitation of Betamax that is rarely mentioned is that the tapes were too short to fit very long movies on them; see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Videotape_format_...

"While VHS machines' lower retail price was eventually a major factor, the principal battleground proved to be recording time. The original Sony Betamax video recorder for the NTSC television system could record for only 60 minutes, identical to the previous U-matic format, which had been sufficient for use in television studios. JVC's VHS could manage 120 minutes, followed by RCA's entrance into the market with a 240-minute recorder using VHS. These challenges sparked a mini-war to see who could achieve the longest recording time."

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Betamax&oldid=107...