"infamous videotape format war of the early 1980s, when Sony was marketing the Betamax system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC. In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketbase and became the worldwide standard for consumer VCRs. While Betamax is for all practical purposes an obsolete format, a professional-oriented component video format called Betacam that was derived from Betamax is still used today, especially in the television industry, although far less so in recent years with the introduction of digital and high definition. In 1985, Sony launched their Handycam products and the Video8"
"format war. However, by 1981, United States' Betamax sales had dipped to only 25-percent of all sales. There was debate between experts over the cause of Betamax's loss. Some, including Sony's founder Akio Morita, say that it was due to Sony's licensing strategy with other manufacturers, which consistently kept the overall cost for a unit higher than a VHS unit, and that JVC allowed other manufacturers to produce VHS units license-free, thereby keeping costs lower. Others say that VHS had better marketing, since the much larger electronics companies at the time (Matsushita, for example) supported VHS. Sony would make its"
"major standards were Sony's Betamax (also known as Betacord or just Beta), and JVC's VHS (Video Home System), which competed for sales in what became known as the format war. Betamax was first to market in November 1975, and was argued by many to be technically more sophisticated in recording quality, although many users did not perceive a visual difference. The first machines required an external timer, and could only record one hour, or two hours at lower quality (LP). The timer was later incorporated within the machine as a standard feature. The rival VHS format, introduced in Japan by"
"and Great Time Machine from Quasar. The Beta/VHS format war soon began, while the other competitors quickly disappeared. Betamax sales eventually began to dwindle, and after several years VHS emerged as the winner of the format war. In 1988, Sony began to market its own VHS machines, and despite claims that it was still backing Beta, it was clear that the format was no longer viable in most parts of the world. In parts of South America and in Japan, Betamax continued to be popular and was still in production up to the end of 2002. Later developments saw analog"
"February 19, 2008, Toshiba officially announced that it would stop the development of the HD DVD players, conceding the format war to the Blu-ray Disc format. The Blu-ray/HD DVD conflict resembled the earlier videotape format war between VHS and Betamax, partly because of Sony's strong involvement in both episodes. These format wars have often proved destructive to both camps because consumers, afraid of committing to a losing standard, would refrain from purchasing either. Format wars have been avoided in notable cases such as the DVD Forum for the unified DVD standard (except for a minor war from 1998 to 1999"
"available until March 2016, when Sony stopped making and selling them. Like the rival videotape format VHS (introduced in Japan by JVC in October 1976 and in the United States by RCA in August 1977), Betamax has no guard band and uses azimuth recording to reduce crosstalk. According to Sony's history webpages, the name had a double meaning: ""beta"" is the Japanese word used to describe the way in which signals are recorded on the tape; and the shape of the lowercase Greek letter beta (β) resembles the course of the tape through the transport. The suffix ""-max"", from the"
"format war ended in victory for Sony's Blu-ray Disc in February 2008. Videotape format war The videotape format war was a period of intense competition or ""format war"" of incompatible models of consumer-level analog video videocassette and video cassette recorders (VCR) in the late 1970s and the 1980s, mainly involving the Betamax and Video Home System (VHS) formats. VHS ultimately emerged as the preeminent format. The first video cassette recorder (VCR) to become available was the U-matic system, released in September 1971. U-matic was designed for commercial or professional television production use, and was not affordable or user-friendly for home"
"format war with DVD-Audio. At present, neither has gained a major foothold with the general public. CDs are preferred by consumers because of ubiquitous presence of CD drives in consumer devices. In 1983, Sony followed their counterpart Philips to the compact disc (CD). In addition to developing consumer-based recording media, after the launch of the CD Sony began development of commercially based recording media. In 1986 they launched Write-Once optical discs (WO) and in 1988 launched Magneto-optical discs which were around 125MB size for the specific use of archival data storage. In 1984, Sony launched the Discman series which extended"
"For VTR and archive use, Panasonic expanded the D-5 specification to store compressed HD streams and called it D-5 HD. The first consumer videocassette recorders (VCR) were launched in 1971 (based around Sony U-matic technology). Philips entered the domestic market the following year with the N1500. Sony's Betamax (1975) and JVC's VHS (1976) created a mass-market for VCRs and the two competing systems battled the ""videotape format war"", which VHS ultimately won. In Europe Philips had developed the V2000 format, which did not find favour with the TV rental companies in the UK and lost out to VHS. At first"
"format became a classic marketing case study. Sony's attempt to dictate an industry standard backfired when JVC made the tactical decision to forgo Sony's offer of Betamax in favor of developing its own technology. JVC felt that accepting Sony's offer would yield results similar to the U-Matic deal, with Sony dominating. By 1980, JVC's VHS format controlled 60% of the North American market. The large economy of scale allowed VHS units to be introduced to the European market at a far lower cost than the rarer Betamax units. In the United Kingdom, Betamax held a 25% market share in 1981,"
"to DVD. Opposing HD DVD was the Blu-ray format, led by the Blu-ray Disc Association, which shares many members with the DVD forum. With HD DVD launched in March 2006 and Blu-ray launched in June of the same year, a format war started. Industry analysts likened the situation to the VHS/Betamax format war of the 1980s. At the time of their launch, consumer awareness of either high-definition format was severely limited, with the end result that most consumers avoided both formats, already content with DVD. In February 2008, Toshiba capitulated, citing low demand for HD DVD and the faster growth"
"During the height of the format war, some studios supported both formats, including Paramount Pictures, BBC, First Look Studios, Image Entertainment (including the Discovery Channel), Magnolia Pictures, Brentwood Home Video, Ryko and Koch/Goldhil Entertainment. The format war's resolution in favour of Blu-ray was primarily decided by two factors: shifting business alliances, including decisions by major film studios and retail distributors, and Sony's decision to include a Blu-ray player in the PlayStation 3 video game console. Studio alliances shifted over time. Before October 2005 and the release of either format, each had the exclusive support of three of the Big Six."
"also could be purchased with a magnetic audio track, allowing for synchronized sound home movies. Single-8, a competing product from Fujifilm, was also introduced in 1965. It used the same new format as Super 8 but on a thinner polyester base and in a different type of camera cartridge. The introduction of the Beta VCR in 1975 and VHS in 1976 heralded a revolution in the making of home movies. Videocassettes were extremely inexpensive compared to film and they could even be erased. This had the effect of greatly increasing the hours of footage of most family video libraries. It"
"the 2000s such as Cyber-shot digital cameras, Handycam digital camcorders, VAIO PCs and the PlayStation Portable handheld game console, with the format being licensed to a few other companies early in its lifetime. With increasing popularity of SD card, in 2010 Sony started to support the SD card format, which was seen as a Sony loss in the format war. Despite this, Sony continued to support Memory Stick on certain devices. The original Memory Stick, which was launched in October 1998, was available in sizes up to 128 MB. In October 1999 Sony licensed the technology to Fujitsu, Aiwa, Sanyo,"
"but by 1986, it was down to 7.5% and continued to decline further. By 1984, 40 companies made VHS format equipment in comparison with Beta's 12. Sony finally conceded defeat in 1988 when it, too, began producing VHS recorders (early models were made by Hitachi), though it still continued to produce Betamax recorders until 2002. In Japan, Betamax had more success and eventually evolved into Extended Definition Betamax, with 500+ lines of resolution. Betamax Betamax (also called Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog-recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video. It was developed by Sony and"
"the three major Allied leaders. It was the first video production to be produced in the 1125-line high-definition television (HDTV) format. It was converted to NTSC for broadcast in the United States. The HDVS brand and logo is still used by Sony nowadays (as ""Digital HDVS"", since the original HDVS line of equipment from 1984 used wideband analog video to achieve the 1125-lines of resolution) on their current digital high-definition HDCAM-format cameras such as the Sony HDW-750 and HDW-F900. Camera System Camera System/Optional Accessories VTR System Optional Accessories Post-Production Equipment Optical Fiber Transmission System Projection System Color Monitors Sony HDVS"
"Blu-ray format war. Ultimately, the Blu-ray format won out, but that didn't help Microsoft after they have already made HD DVD compatibility a feature. Nintendo had still yet to release a system compatible for viewing films. Instead, Nintendo unveiled the Wii and revolutionized the industry with the interactive gameplay that its brand new controller provided. It would not be until the next decade that Sony or Microsoft would release a similar motion controller to the Wii as an accessory (""See: Kinect and PlayStation Move""). The 1990s decade oversaw the transition from 2D-based gaming to fully immersive three-dimensional environments and gameplay."
"Digital-S D-9 or Digital-S as it was originally known, is a professional digital video videocassette format created by JVC in 1995. It is a direct competitor to Sony's Digital Betacam. Its name was changed to D-9 in 1999 by the SMPTE. It was used to a small extent in Europe and Asia and saw some use in the US, notably by the Fox News Channel, but was a commercial failure compared with Digital Betacam. It was superseded by high definition tapeless formats. D-9 uses a tape shell of the VHS form factor, but the tape itself uses a much higher"
"and how-to topics were available for purchase. An optional monochrome camera could be bought to make home videos. Cartrivision was first sold in June 1972, mainly through Sears, Macy's, and Montgomery Ward department stores in the United States. The system was abandoned thirteen months later after poor sales. VCR started gaining mass market traction in 1975. Six major firms were involved in the development of the VCR: RCA, JVC, AMPEX, Matsushita Electric / Panasonic, Sony, and Toshiba. Of these, the big winners in the growth of this industry were Japanese companies Matsushita Electric / Panasonic, JVC, and Sony, which developed"
"DAT to professional use, Sony set to work to come up with a simpler, more economical digital home format. By the time Sony came up with MiniDisc in late 1992, Philips had introduced a competing system, DCC. This created marketing confusion very similar to the Betamax versus VHS battle of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sony attempted to license MD technology to other manufacturers, with JVC, Sharp, Pioneer, Panasonic and others all producing their own MD systems. However, non-Sony machines were not widely available in North America, and companies such as Technics and Radio Shack tended to promote DCC"
"appeal to the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry, thus beginning the format war. Manufacturers also introduced other systems such as needle-based, record-style discs (RCA's Capacitance Electronic Disc, JVC's Video High Density disc) and optical discs (Philips' LaserDisc). None of these disc formats gained much ground as none was capable of home recording; however, they did hold small niche markets. CED's inexpensive record-like format (using a fine keel-shaped stylus to read an electronic signal rather than mechanical vibrations) made it attractive to low-income families during the 1980s, and LaserDisc's 5 megahertz/420 line resolution made it popular with discerning videophiles until"
"commercially available in 2006. The format emerged as the standard for HD media over the competing format, Toshiba's HD DVD, after a two-year-long high-definition optical disc format war. In 1983, Sony introduced 90 mm micro diskettes (better known as floppy disks), which it had developed at a time when there were 4"" floppy disks, and a lot of variations from different companies, to replace the then on-going 5.25"" floppy disks. Sony had great success and the format became dominant. 3.5"" floppy disks gradually became obsolete as they were replaced by current media formats. Sony launched in 1998, their Memory Stick"
"JVC presented it own version of a camcorder, the GR-C1, for the VHS format. Although it too had a miniature head drum, the JVC engineers developed a different solution to drum miniaturization which made it possible to record a standard video signal on the tape. Thereby, the user of a VHS camcorder could review footage on location and copy it to another VCR for editing. Sony was unable to duplicate the functionality of the VHS camcorders. This disadvantage was a primary reason for the early loss of market share by the Betamovie. Despite this development, Sony held on to the"
"commercially in September 1971 after working out industry standards with other manufacturers. Sony later refined it to ""Broadcast Video U-matic"" or BVU. Sony continued its hold on the professional market with its ever-expanding 1/2"" (1.27 cm) component video Betacam family (introduced in 1982), which, in its digital variants, is still among the professional market leaders. Panasonic had some limited success with its MII system, but never could compare to Betacam in terms of market share. The next step was the digital revolution. Among the first digital video formats was Sony's D-1, which featured uncompressed digital component recording. Because D-1 was"
"Corporation and WEGA Corporations contracted with Sony to produce VCRs for their product lines. The department stores Sears (in the United States and Canada) and Quelle (in Germany) sold Beta-format VCRs under their house brands, as did the RadioShack chain of electronic stores. Betamax and VHS competed in a fierce format war, which saw VHS win in most markets. One other major consequence of the Betamax technology's introduction to the U.S. was the lawsuit ""Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios"" (1984, the ""Betamax case""), with the U.S. Supreme Court determining home videotaping to be legal in the United States, wherein"
"VHS-C camcorders, and seeing the rapid loss of market share, eventually introduced the Video8 format. Their hope was that Video8 could replace both Beta and VHS for all uses. For more information, see the article on camcorders. On November 10, 2015, Sony announced that it would no longer be producing Betamax video cassettes. Production and sales ended March 2016 after nearly 41 years of continuous production. Third party manufacturers continue to make new cassettes. While these cassettes are designed for use with the Betacam format, the cassettes are interchangeable with traditional Betamax systems. The VHS format's defeat of the Betamax"
"The end of Trinitron marked the end of Sony's analog television sets and monitors. Sony used the LCD WEGA name for its LCD TVs until summer 2005. The company then introduced the BRAVIA name. BRAVIA is an in house brand owned by Sony which produces high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors, home cinemas and the BRAVIA home theatre range. All Sony high-definition flat-panel LCD televisions in North America have carried the logo for BRAVIA since 2005. Sony is the third-largest maker of televisions in the world. , Sony's television business has been unprofitable for eight years. In December"
"available to manufacture video heads wasn't up to the task yet, but halving the tape speed and track width was a possibility. However, the picture quality would be degraded severely, and at that time Sony engineers felt the compromise was not worthwhile. Soon after, RCA met with execs at the Victor Corporation of Japan (JVC), who had created their own video format christened ""VHS"" (which stood for ""Video Home System""). But JVC also refused to compromise the picture quality of their format by allowing a four-hour mode. JVC's parent corporation, Matsushita, later met with RCA, and agreed to manufacture a"
"early 1977. Sony's Betamax competed with VHS throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s (see Videotape format war). Betamax's major advantages were its smaller cassette size, higher video quality, and earlier availability but its shorter recording time proved to be a major shortcoming. Originally, Beta I machines using the NTSC television standard were able to record one hour of programming at their standard tape speed of 1.5 inches per second (ips). The first VHS machines could record for two hours, due to both a slightly slower tape speed (1.31 ips.) and significantly longer tape. Betamax's smaller-sized cassette limited the"
"competitors at much lower prices. Sony responded by introducing their flat-screen FD Trinitron designs (WEGA), which maintained their premier position in the market into the early 2000s. However, these designs were surpassed relatively quickly by plasma and LCD designs. Sony removed the last Trinitron televisions from their product catalogs in 2006, and ceased production in early 2008. Video monitors are the only remaining Trinitron products being produced by Sony, at a low production rate, although the basic technology can still be found in downmarket televisions from third parties. The name Trinitron was derived from ""trinity"", meaning the union of three,"
"models were formed with a single lens reflex component combined with an interchangeable lens. And to give them flexibility, one or two versions also had lens mount adapters. The Mavica line has been discontinued. Sony continues to produce digital cameras in the Cyber-shot and Alpha series, which use Memory Stick and other flash card technologies for storage. There were other digital cameras that used disk storage as memory media. Sony Mavica Mavica (""Magnetic Video Camera"") was a brand of Sony cameras which used removable disks as the main recording medium. In August 1981, Sony unveiled a prototype of the Sony"
"for a subwoofer. A prototype for five-channel surround sound, then dubbed ""quintaphonic sound"", was used in the 1975 film ""Tommy"". 5.1 dates back to 1976 when Dolby Labs modified the track usage of the six analogue magnetic soundtracks on Todd-AO 70 mm film prints. The Dolby application of optical matrix encoding in 1976 (released on the film, ""Logan's Run"") did not use split surrounds, and thus was not 5.1. Dolby's first use of split surrounds was with 70mm film, which received wide release in 1979 with ""Apocalypse Now"". Instead of the five screen channels and one surround channel of the"
"April 2008, the firm estimated a total of 10.5 million Blu-ray households, including Blu-ray consoles and Blu-ray-enabled PlayStation 3s. High-definition optical disc format war The high-definition optical disc format war was between the Blu-ray and HD DVD optical disc standards for storing high-definition video and audio; it took place between 2006 and 2008 and was won by Blu-ray Disc. The two formats emerged between 2000 and 2003 and attracted both the mutual and exclusive support of major consumer electronics manufacturers, personal computer manufacturers, television and movie producers and distributors, and software developers. Blu-ray and HD DVD players became commercially available"