Hey kids, did you know once upon a time there was a way to watch movies other than Netflix? (That’s Netflux for our New Zealand friends). Once there was a handy little device called Betamax that were super popular before their demise in the 80s. Your parents will explain. Even though they fell out of style some decades ago, Sony has announced that they have decided to discontinue their production in March 2016.
Wait, they were still making these things?
One of the landmarks of home video entertainment, the Betamax tape has been retired by Sony. That’s right kids, “Betamax and chill?” is no longer a thing.
Remember watching movies on tapes? They were those clunky, plastic things that you’d have to rewind back to the start after watching, lest you’d want to incur the wrath of the person who watched said tape next. At the height of the tape revolution stood the Betamax. As it turns out, Sony has continued to produce Betamax tapes despite losing a popularity contest to VHS some thirty years ago, which in turn was replaced by DVDs, Blu Ray and now online pirating streaming.
In a statement Sony announced “This will make the final shipment of all our memory media for Betamax“. Japan was the last country where Betamax tapes were being produced, which is unsurprising given that this is the same country that sells Super Saiyan hair gel, super umbrellas (that’s an umbrella that has a curtain around it), chin rests on trains, vending machines with beer and plenty of other weird shit.
Sony first introduced the Betamax tape in 1975 a year before JVC launched the VHS tape. Although tech heads will tout that Betamax was the better of the pair, VHS endured as it was cheaper and was able to record three hours worth of content in comparison to Betamax’s one hour.
Naturally people have taken to Twitter to air their grief that such a beloved piece of technology has now (finally) gone the way of the dinosaurs.
Sony to stop selling Betamax tapes in 2016. OK fine, we’ll switch to VHS but this better be the last format we ever need!
— 22Minutes (@22_Minutes) November 11, 2015
“Hey mom, how did you get pregnant?” “Your dad and I were Betamax and chillin.” — SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) November 10, 2015
Remember Betamax, fax machines & working at work?
— CrankyPappy (@CrankyPappy) November 10, 2015
This story was first seen on CNET.
