Hello! And welcome to the first video of 
No-Effort November!
A series of videos for the month of November
where no effort is made.
Today, we are doing another Beta and VHS comparison.
But, unlike ye olde format war, we’re not
focusing on things like recording time,
picture quality, or silliness of their respective
names.
Instead, we are going to look at their actual
videocassettes,
and I think you’ll find that the VHS cassette is a fair bit cleverer than that of Beta.
I’ve made a lot of videos covering the format
war which can you check out through the card
that should be popping up right about now,
though YouTube seems to have problems lately getting the card to --
oh, there it is.
See, that joke might not have worked for some
of you because it actually didn’t appear!
Anyway, there’s also a link in the description
for the inevitable case of the card not appearing.
Now we just have to hope that I remembered
to put it there.
Moving on then, I have a pair of almost-randomly-selected videocassette recorders in front of me.
One of them is, of course, a VHS machine.
And the other, is a Beta machine.
Now, the age difference between these two
doesn’t matter because what we’re after
in this here video is a closer look at the
way their tape transport mechanisms interact
with the tape in the cassettes.
Take a look at the bottom of a Beta cassette,
and you’ll see two sprocket holes, and a
gaping triangular hole carving a nice little
canyon down towards the center.
It annoys me very much that they didn’t
go all the way and instead made a trapezoid.
Oh well.
By the way, in North American English it is
indeed pronounced “bay-da”.
Not “bee-tah."
Feel free to comment on why we’re wrong.
You’ll find the write-protect tab down here,
as well as a notch in the upper right which
contains this little wedgey thing that unlocks
the lid of the cassette.
A pokey thing inside the VCR pushes the wedgey
thing in, which unlocks the lid, and the action
of the lid opening unlocks the spools of the
tape and allows them to rotate.
This locking device makes it rather difficult
to open the lid with one’s hands, which
arguably makes it a better design for protecting
the tape, but comes with the tragic downside
of making the cassette a terrible fidgeting
device.
Look at the bottom of a VHS cassette and you’ll
also find a pair of sprocket holes…
which I realize... sprocket holes is not the correct
word.
I believe I meant cogs for the tape reels.
Anyway.
And, you’ll also see a larger and wider
variety of other holes, including
this one that you may have never even noticed before.
Such subtlety.
Notice how these two both have curves.
This one accommodates the absolutely chunky
tape reels that JVC crammed in here because
they, rightly, knew that recording time was
gonna be important.
But this one is way more subtle.
You’re gonna love what that curve is for
when I tell you.
Now, we’ve also got this hole, which a spike
inside the VCR will rudely insert itself into,
and that unlocks the tape reels, and this
bigger one is for lightbulbs on sticks which
help the VCR detect when the end of the tape
has been reached.
VHS cassettes have the lid unlocker placed
here, which is excellent because it makes
the cassette a much better fidgeting device.
Now, if you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid, you’ll
have undoubtedly been told that Beta was a
much more well-engineered product, and that
VHS was just a sloppy knock-off.
Well, I don’t know about you, but this gaping
hole sure seems to leave more of the tape
exposed and vulnerable.
Yeah there are these half-width guards that
help, a little, and you could totally still
stick your fingers in the two larger holes
of a VHS cassette, but on the whole
(pause with an obnoxious smirk)
the VHS cassette seems to do
a better job protecting the precious tape.
And all those holes are there for specific
purposes.
Let’s now take a look at the VCRs.
The first thing to know is that all videocassette
recorders will contain some sort of device
that makes your heads spin.
That’s the shiny silver drum
here, and
here.
Of note is that the Beta drum is a fair bit
larger, which means that the speed the heads
travel at is a little bit higher than that
of VHS, because both drums spin at the same
rotational speed.
This is one of the many reasons people would
tell you back in the ‘80s that Beta had
a better picture quality.
Which, from my admittedly decades-down-the-road
experience I find to be a fairly dubious claim
(or at the very least, largely insignificant)
But ya know, better point it out!
There are people out there who are still mad
that Beta didn’t win the format war, and
it’s a fair bet they’ll let you know about
it in the space below this video.
Anyway, while I do love pressing buttons,
let’s move on.
♫ dubious and largely insignificant music ♫
One thing that inevitably comes up whenever
I or presumably anybody makes a video comparing
Beta and VHS is the fact that Beta continued
to be used in the professional market for decades.
So, yes it failed in the consumer market but
because the professional market continued
to use Beta we know that it was truly the
better product and consumers were idiots for
backing VHS.
Now, I will agree that consumers often make
silly choices.
However!
You are not talking about Betamax.
You’re talking about Betacam.
Betacam was the professional version of Betamax
which continued to be used for many decades
after the format war ended.
Now, I understand why you would confuse the
two.
They’re both called “Beta something”
and in fact Betacam cassettes look an awful
lot like this, some are identical in fact
(they just say Betacam, not Betamax) but they’re
not the same formats.
You can’t play a Betacam tape in a home
Beta VCR and expect anything good to come
out of it, if anything at all.
Betacam continued to be updated through the
years, in fact it was eventually moved to
HD and even digital signals.
So, yes, Betacam did keep going in the professional
realm but it is very much only tangentially
related to Betamax.
Anyway, let’s continue.
Both of these machines have to get the tape
out of the cassette, and make sure it touches
a laundry list of items.
Of course, it needs to wrap at least 180 degrees
around the head drum, but it also needs to
pass by the erase head, the audio and tracking
heads, and in the case of the Beta machine,
these two sensors (which I will explain shortly).
Now, with a cassette in place, but not yet
threaded, you’ll immediately see a few differences
between these formats.
First is that the head drum on the Beta machine
is quite a bit farther away from the cassette
than the VHS drum.
You’ll also notice that there’s a not-insignificant
amount of space behind it as well.
The VHS transport was always a fair bit more
compact than that of Beta, and while in the
early days of the format war it’s not like
that mattered at all since the machines were massive,
in our soon-to-happen lust for miniaturization
this would prove kind of annoying for Sony.
While their Betamovie camcorder solved that
problem in a very clever (though incredibly
compromised) fashion, VHS enjoyed a more compact
mechanism from day one, perhaps somewhat ironic
when you consider that the cassette itself
is significantly larger.
But then again, that larger cassette allowed
them to create the VHS-C format and use simple
adapters for use in full-size VCRs.
Anyway, the component I deliberately left
out of the discussion of all the things the
tape needs to pass through so I could save
that for right now is the capstan.
Tape-based formats generally use Captain Stan
over here to move the tape through the transport
at a steady speed.
A rubber pinch roller will squeeze the tape
between itself and the capstan, and the constant
rotational speed of the capstan in turn causes
the tape to move through the transport at
a constant linear speed.
Now, let’s look at where the Capstan’s
Quarters are for both of these machines.
VHS puts it right here, and you’ll see its
accompanying pinch roller right next to it.
On Beta, it’s way the frick over there for
some reason.
And its pinch roller is nowhere to be found.
Ah!
Now we’re getting to the point of this video.
See, Beta and VHS used entirely different
methods of removing the tape from the cassette shell.
VHS uses what’s called an M-load.
The two largest holes on the bottom of the
cassette
(manages to completely miss)
-- those two --
allow these two moveable
tape guides to slip behind the tape when it’s
lowered on top of them.
When the transport is engaged, these move
towards the rear of the machine, looping the
tape around the drum, and a little helper
will usually swing out once the guides have
passed it to pull the tape against the erase
head.
Since this kinda-sorta forms the shape of
the letter M, the name M-load was chosen.
Now, going back to Beta, look around a little
harder and you’ll eventually find the pinch roller…
here.
Nowhere near the capstan.
In a Beta machine, the pinch roller does double
duty.
Just as the VHS cassette gets lowered on top
of the tape guides, the Beta cassette is lowered
on top of the pinch roller.
When it’s time to get the tape out of the
cassette, it
(along with the tape guides flanking it on either side)
YANKS OUT about a mile
of tape
and makes a very, and literal, roundabout trip to the capstan.
Once it’s there, a little lever dude will
put pressure on the pinch roller, pushing
it against the capstan, and now the tape can
be moved through the mechanism.
This loading mechanism is essentially just
a miniaturized version of the U-load system
Sony devised for their earlier U-matic.
You see, if you look at this from overhead,
you’ll find that the tape makes the shape
of the letter U.
Now, somehow, this got named the B-load system
when it was moved to Betamax, and it’s said
that the name Betamax came from the fact that
this resembles the greek letter Beta.
I am to this day baffled by that anecdote,
as I cannot seem, no matter how I try, to imagine this shape as reminiscent of that shape.
But whatever.
So, there are two things worthy of note, or
noteworthy.
First is this explains why the hole on the Beta cassette is so fricken big
as the rather large pinch roller and
those tape guides all need to fit behind the
tape in that space.
And second is that once the tape has been
removed from the cassette, none of the tape
transport components are very close to it
at all.
Sony designed the Beta cassette as just a
container of tape.
The machine removes it from the box, and from
that point on it might as well not exist.
But the VHS cassette is much more clever.
It is designed to become *part* of the tape
transport.
The fact that the head drum is closer to the
cassette is no coincidence.
Everything is closer to the cassette.
And some things are even inside of it.
That small hole up there is designed to accommodate
the capstan.
When the cassette falls down into the loaded
position, the capstan is already behind the tape.
And that curve in the plastic is there so
that the pinch roller can squeeze the capstan
without rubbing against the cassette itself.
Such an elegant solution!
In this particular machine we find a rather
small pinch roller, and an additional tape
guide occupies the curved space.
And of course, let’s not forget about the
lightbulb on a stick!
If you’ve got much of any experience with
a VHS cassette you’ll have undoubtedly noticed
that the tape leaders, that’s the bit of
tape at each end that’s meant to be a little
stronger to protect it from breaking, 
are clear.
The cassette is designed with a light path
between the center of this big hole and these
two smaller holes hiding under the cassette
lid.
Light sensors that sit right next to these
holes will see the light pass through the
cassette when the end of the tape has (been) (but he didn't say been) reached.
That’s pretty clever, if you ask me.
A newer machine like this will instead use
a couple of infrared LEDs on a stick.
Still.
Same concept.
Beta, meanwhile, went much more old-school.
The tape leaders on a Beta cassette are not
clear, but metallic.
Located near both ends of the tape transport
are what basically amount to metal detectors,
and these sense the end of the tape.
Let the record state that Sony used the technology
of the 8-track to signal the end of the tape
in Betamax.
While we’re talking about the differences
in tape handling, I’d like to address a
claim made by some of the Betamax loyalists
out there.
It was often claimed that the Beta transport
was more gentle to the tape, as unlike in
a VHS machine where the tape has to make two
180 degree turns,
“there are no sharp curves in Beta”.
Excuse me, but what is this?
That looks darn near like a 180 to me.
And up here in a VHS machine, the tape makes
two 90 degree turns, not a 180.
Sure, maybe you wanna call that a 180, but
let’s count the places where the tape touches something.
First, beta;
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
Fourteen.
And now VHS;
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Eleven.
Now.
Are each of the things the tape touches gonna
put the same amount of wear on the tape?
No.
And does the number of things the tape touches
change from VCR to VCR within the same format?
Yes.
But this claim seems so incredibly backwards
to me that I felt I needed to bring it up.
Also of note is that on a VHS machine, the
entire top half of the drum spins, whereas
on a Beta machine, only the heads spin and
the drum itself remains motionless.
This was another thing brought up in favor
of Beta,
since obviously that’s better for the tape.
But I think this is actually wrong.
It may be counterintuitive, but the spinning
drum of a VHS machine can create an air curtain,
meaning that the tape actually just floats
above it.
Now, obviously only the top half of the drum
spins so the tape does rub against the motionless
bottom part during some of its travel, particularly
at the end of the drum, but you can clearly
see on this Beta machine that, after years
of tape dragging across the motionless drum,
its surface has actually been polished a little
bit.
That can’t be good for the tape.
Regardless of the particulars, there is certainly
a delicious irony to the fact that the Beta
transport works like this.
Beta cassettes are smaller, right?
And they contain less tape, right?
That’s the main reason Beta failed, as it
just never had the recording time of VHS.
And no, it wasn’t pornography, that’s
a myth.
You could get porn on Beta, Sony had no control
over what content was being distributed so
stop saying “Sony wouldn’t allow porn”
because that’s nonsense and easily disproved.
Anyway.
For a system so short on tape, you’d think
that this
“let’s just yank out all the tape!” method would have been avoided.
Want to see exactly how much more tape the
Beta machine
needs just to make it through the transport?
Great!
So do I!
Let’s just do a little snip snip and compare.
Just look at the difference!
The Beta machine needs
(obviously recorded later) 
TWELVE
more inches of tape!
That’s about
(again, recorded later) 
THIRTY
centimeters!
Keep in mind that this entire length here
can never be used, so while the actual distance
from the first head to the last might not
be all that different compared to VHS, this
whole return path can never be recorded onto
at the start of a tape.
Now, since that’s obviously a tiny portion
of the overall tape in the cassette,
does it really matter?
No!
Of course not!
None of this matters!
We’re talking about two dead formats here
as if
their pros and cons matter in the slightest in 2019!
They don’t!
It’s over!
It’s done!
It’s history!
If you bought a Beta machine, feel free to
keep being smug about it.
But you backed the wrong horse, oh well, life
sucks sometimes.
Now, where’s my HD-DVD player?
♫ second-rate smooth jazz ♫
Hey there.
So, I just wanted to add here at the end that
history is weird and there were indeed some
VHS machines that used a U-load system like
Betamax.
If memory serves they were all made by Philips.
Whether there were any Beta machines that
used an M-load, I’m not sure.
But I kinda doubt it, given how reluctant Sony
would be to change things up, and given how
few third-party manufacturers there were making
Beta machines compared to VHS.
In a similar vein, it’s worth nothing that
not all VHS machines (or indeed Beta machines)
would put all the components in the same places.
Some VHS machines used this rather odd arrangement
whereby the pinch roller would be lifted up
and out of the way so that the capstan could
be placed in front of the cassette.
I have no idea why this arrangement was used
as it seems like it offers no practical advantage
and also comes with increased mechanical complexity,
but it serves as an example of the fact that
just because the standard of the format never
changed, doesn’t mean those specifications
weren’t achieved in weird and wacky ways.
But this one is a way more subtle.
Is “a way more subtle curve”.
That’s how the line should have been written.
...they rightly knew that tape recording /time/...
Tape /recording/ time.
/Recording/ time.
/Recording/ time.
...that mattered at all because since… because
since!
Because since!
I said because and since!
That’s because I’m not reading the line
as I wrote it.
It YANK…
(awkward pause).
Oh.
No I needed to read that!
*silly noise*
A light bulb on a steck.
If...
ON A STECK
...the heads move and the drum remains the motionble eugh bleugh ble
Usually I'd put a joke or something here, but it's No Effort November and I can't be bothered.
Oooh, but is this a joke, then?
That's an interesting conundrum.
Not as interesting as, say, air travel though.
That's some interesting stuff.
