It also means that you can get by with less battery power. Taking it one more step, this coming spring Zenith will be making available a full stereo hi-fi camcorder. Formats Essentially you have 3 choices, with a 4th soon to come. Beta came first. It was developed by Sony, and Sony still holds proprietorship on Beta.
Beta is well known for having a superior reproduction, particularly in the video.
They called it VHS, for video home system. It didn't quite match Beta for picture quality, but the system was easier on the tapes. That longer tape life caused the VHS to be more popular with both owners and rental stores, which in turn influenced owners to go VHS because of the wider selection of tapes, which brought out more tapes, which . . . The battle between Beta and VHS continues. Beta came out with Beta Hi-Fi, then stereo, and various other improvements.