Will SONY bring back the Betamax ?

However as far as storing multiple copies they can't be beat. 20 DVD's that take up the space of one VHS tape? That's 120 hours of capacity vs. 6 taking up the same amount of space while delivering superior video and audio quality.

Then you take a look at the hardware... VHS machines were often bulky units that had to be placed on top of the tv or on a nearby shelf taking up most of the space. BetaMax machines were huge even by VHS standards.

The sheer expense in parts alone would make it totally unacceptable to produce nowadays. Besides VCR's of both types had too many moving parts which means more things to wear out and break. DVD players have about 3 moving parts... The tray that the disc slides in and out on, the spindle that spins the disc and the heads that read the disc. VCR's have over 30 moving parts, mostly gears and motors. And a lot of people don't know it but there were so many safeguards built into VCR's to protect it from damaging the tape that if you took all of them out, the VCR would be about half it's original size.

Although certainly Beta quality beat VHS quality hands down.

Simple reason for this is that Beta machines exposed more of the tape to the reading heads than VHS did. When a VHS machine pulls the tape out of the cartridge and brings it into contact with the heads, there is only about 1.5 inches of tape in contact with the heads at any one time. BetaMax's on the other hand wrap the tape almost completely around the head. Thus exposing about 3 inches of tape to the head at one time.