[mythtv-users] Cheap SCSI scanners - was:The Bigger... Disk contest, Fall 2007 edition

[Brian Wood]

David Brodbeck wrote:
> On Oct 20, 2007, at 3:41 PM, Brian Wood wrote:
> 
>> Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
>>> On Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 02:14:50PM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
>>>> Beta is still in use by commercial broadcasters, while the "pro"  
>>>> variant
>>>> of VHS (DVC Pro) is used only by very low-budget outfits.
>>> Beta is only-just-barely still in brodcast use; anything top-30  
>>> markets
>>> is into at least DigiBeta, which shares nothing but the cartride.
>> Well the "small shell" beta, in all of its incarnations, certainly  
>> had a
>> great run. From camcorders (dockable and otherwise), BetaCart  
>> machines,
>> the Sony LMS machines...
> 
> How much did BetaCam really resemble the Beta consumer standard,  
> though?  Did it share anything except the housing?  I've seen  
> consumer Beta and BetaCam next to each other and the difference in  
> quality is stark, even more than VHS vs. SVHS.

One big difference was the tape speed. The small-shell betas would run
20 minutes in the broadcast realm, and a few hours for the consumer
stuff. The recording format was very different as well.

> I'm not sure the fact that Sony managed to lock broadcasters into a  
> proprietary format that happened to carry the same name is a sign of  
> the original format's superiority.

True, and has been pointed out Sony loves to try and lock people into
something they own or control.

But it was a de-facto standard for a long time, and was far better than
the old U-Matic (also a Sony creation).

beww