Betamax

Betamax, also known as simply Beta, is a defunct analog home video format introduced on 10 May 1975 by Sony, one year before its main rival, the similar videotape format VHS from JVC. Star Trek releases on Beta included the first six films, all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Animated Series and various episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation before the format's ultimate demise in the early 1990s. Due to the co-existence of both formats, titles, including those of Star Trek, were released concurrently in both formats, until Betamax – even though it was technically the superior one of the two – lost the format war and was phased out near the end of the 1980s. That Betamax held out for as long as it did was only due to the popularity it initially enjoyed in the USA, France, and their (overseas) dependencies in particular, persevering well after VHS had been universally embraced by the rest of the world, where the there relatively short-lived Betamax had already been phased out almost a decade earlier.

Ironically, a third contemporary competing videotape format, the Video 2000 developed by Philips, was actually the even more superior one technically by far, but was also the first to fall in the format war due to poor marketing decision making, before a titles catalog of any substance could be released. The least qualitative one, VHS, eventually won out through JVC's imaginative and aggressive marketing by making the fullest use of the burgeoning video rental circuit – eventually completely overpowering the Betamax in the rental circuit – , which had also served the Star Trek franchise well. (see also in this regard: main article)

Beta tapes were first released in boxes that were slightly larger than the tape itself providing for a tight fit, similar to the sleeve that come with a blank video tape. All of the episodes, including the color version of "The Cage", were first released in this fashion. Paramount was one of the last, if not the last, studio to release video tapes in the Betamax format. Beta tapes released towards the end of the format's life were often in the boxes made for the commercially more popular VHS format. Star Trek releases were no exception to this and Beta tapes of the episodes were released in VHS sized boxes, with a piece of cardboard inserted into the box to make for a tighter fit and a big sticker on the front of the box saying "BETA" and smaller ones on the side of the box saying "Beta" that were used to cover up the VHS logo.

Release chronology[]

Dates in italics are approximate.

1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993

External links[]

• Betamax at Wikipedia
• Beta tapes