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I always like it when people pretend they had some sort of background that they never had. But if you are an expert, go over and fix the wikipedia entry, although its been pretty well set for about 5 years now.

Picture quality

When Betamax was introduced in Japan and the United States in 1975, its Beta I speed of 1.5 ips offered a slightly higher horizontal resolution (250 lines vs 240 lines horizontal NTSC), lower video noise, and less luma/chroma crosstalk than VHS, and was later marketed as providing pictures superior to VHS's playback. However the introduction of Beta II speed, 0.8 ips (two-hour mode), to compete with VHS' two-hour Standard Play mode (1.3 ips) reduced Betamax's horizontal resolution to 240 lines.[3] The extension of VHS to VHS HQ increased the apparent resolution to 250 lines so that overall a Betamax/VHS user could expect virtually identical luma resolution and chroma resolution (≈30 lines) wherein the actual picture performance depended on other factors including the condition and quality of the videotape and the specific video recorder machine model. For most consumers the difference as seen on the average television of the time was negligible.
Another improvement would be SuperBeta (sometimes called High Band Beta) in 1985. SuperBeta allowed for a gain of 20% to 290 lines in horizontal resolution and some mechanical changes to reduce video noise but Betamax's American and European share had already dropped to less than 10% of the market."

Every other source says the same thing, and as I mentioned, I was in the store buying them, comparing them side to side and owned them both. The betamax had better PQ in 1 hour mode. Past that, they were about equal. Nobody used 1 hour mode on either recorder technology that much. Even comparing the best PQ options, the beta format was only marginally improved and the difference was probably not evident to most.

Why did production companies use them? Because the tape and the recording devices were somewhat smaller and easier to handle. Not because they had better PQ, because as we already covered...it doesn't.

So sadly, your ~25 year old recollection sucks, and you're wrong. But it was fun to see a sony fanboy in the wild. I thought they were extinct.

LOL!!!!! Ironic how you left out this rare warning from Wikipedia about that article you quoted.

"This article may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. "

Also, the beta format that production companies used was not the same as that used by consumers. Betacam versus Betamax. They didn't use it because the recorders were smaller, they used it because the PQ was the best. There were many challengers in the day, Pansonic MII comes to mind which had even smaller recorders, but no one could best them. In the professional market, Sony has ruled since the days of U-matic.

LOL! And the article has sat there since 2008 without mods, so apparently every 'expert' who read it agreed with it. You can go fix it if you have the citations that back a different version. I don't see any.

Seems we're also guessing as to which fan we're dealing with: sony or vhs.

Not what the other "expert" said. He said betamax. And yes, they did like the format/size of the portable equipment, as beta uses smaller tapes and can get by with a smaller, lighter frame. In any case, we wandered a bit far afield...the original pseudo expert declared that VHS won over Beta even though Beta had a better PQ, and we were talking about home use, not professional products. He threw that in to muddy the water a little.

This is urban legend, where people liked the story about how an inferior technology won anyhow. VHS won because it was cheaper, recorded more hours, and had roughly equivalent PQ. Betamax had SLIGHTLY better PQ in one hour mode, but many tv's of the day couldn't display the increased number of lines of resolution, and its unlikely that a non-videophile could tell the difference, and then only side by side.

So who will rule when Sony goes out of business? Do they have market leadership in any category these days?

LMAO!!!! How do you know they didn't and that the fanboi didn't just change it right back? That's the problem with Wikipedia, anybody can change it or change it back. To settle it, maybe that's why Wikipedia put that warning up. A rare warning. So rare, I've never seen it before.

We may not know which fan we are dealing with in the Wikipedia article, but it's pretty clear which side you fall on. What do they say.... "Birds of a feather, flock together".

And you brought up Beta in the professional market. Clearly you thought it was the same Beta. It was/isn't.

Betamax was/is better. I take it you've never used it. Look back into old editions of Perfect Vision. You'll have to visit a library and look it up on microfiche, '80s you know. They did articles on Beta and VHS. While the luma resolution was close, the chroma was definitely not. Betamax was 160 lines and VHS was 80. If you have ever used Beta and VHS this would be no surprise. Your eyes would clearly have seen the difference. Talk to any video editor that has touched Beta/VHS and to a person they'll say that Beta is a better source.

In the 1 hour mode the original betamax product was better than the original vhs product. By the time it came down to a decent fight, vhs hq was out and there was absolutely no difference in picture quality, chroma and luma. Oh, and both beta and vhs hit 240/250 lines at some point in their lives. The opinions of some mysterious group of video editors doesn't mean much to me. I did own one of the first betamax products, and ended up replacing it with a vhs hq deck because it recorded twice as much and was a lot cheaper. At that point, the quality was absolutely the same. Even the sales people didn't try to push the betamax units on me the second time.