Not really. VHS had 2-4x the run time. Betamax's picture quality was only slightly better, and that was only when you used the normal 1 hour cassettes, which are useless for most feature-length films; if you used the 2 hour cassettes, the picture quality was pretty much the same. Then VHS HQ came out and pretty much erased the remaining difference.
Betamax just didn't have any significant advantages over VHS, and it cost a lot more to boot.
This is pretty much how I remember it.
Beta tapes came in a few lengths;
L 250 : this gave me one hour in the beta ll speed (I never owned a betamax that would record in the beta L speed)
L 500 : this gave me 2 hrs in beta ll and 3 in the slow beta lll.
L 750 : IIRC this provided at most 4 1/2 hours.
L 830 : This rare tape lasted 5 hours, about all you could get from the Beta format.
VHS was available in T 60, T 120, and T 160 formats, the last providing 8 hours. I have a Panasonic DVD/VHS deck that has a Sslp mode that makes a tape last 5 times (as opposed to the normal 3X) the regular runtime, ie, a 2 hour tape will go 10 hours. I don't use this mode as I have no other VHS machine that will play it.....and the quality is inferior.
When HQ came out it pretty much erased a lot of the betamax's advantage.
Beta had other advantages....it had fewer sharp turns in the tape path and thus tapes lasted longer (more rerecords).
Hi Fi sound introduced earlier....Sony mistakenly believed VHS could not have HiFi, but forgot to tell JVC this, so JVC simply invented their own version.
I will not miss the end of beta tapes being made....
BUT let me say this. I started in beta, went over to VHS.....then to DVD. Now I have bluray.....
whoever invents the next format, I will make it my life quest to hunt down, horribly torture, and viciously kill.
ENOUGH FORMATS!
ENOUGH!
NO MORE !
