VHS beat Betamax by backing an open standard and by recording twice as long

science & techWikipedia1970s · Japan

VHS beat Betamax by backing an open standard and by recording twice as long

the gist

VHS won the 1970s home video format war against Sony's Betamax through a mix of licensing strategy and practical advantages. JVC engineers Yuma Shiraishi and Shizuo Takano secretly built a working prototype after their company shelved the project in 1972. In 1974 Japan's trade ministry (MITI) tried to force one home video standard, and Sony pushed Betamax. JVC argued for an open standard that competitors could use without licensing, and won over Matsushita, which had the largest electronics business and was JVC's majority owner, along with Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Sharp. Betamax's major weakness was recording time: its early version held one hour, while the first VHS machines held two. Sony slowed its tape to match, but VHS had already won, reaching 60% of the North American market by 1980.

how it works

Slower tape speed stretches recording time, and VHS used a slightly slower speed on a longer tape inside a bigger cassette. Betamax's smaller cassette limited how much tape it could hold, so Sony had to slow the tape to match, reducing its quality advantage.

so what

The VHS story shows that the best format is not always the technically superior one. Alliances, licensing rules and a simple user benefit such as longer recording time decided a market worth billions and shaped how people watched TV for decades.

fun fact

The first commercially successful professional video recorder, Ampex's VRX-1000 of 1956, cost US$50,000.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗