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As an occasional lecturer on media technology I can confirm Magoo is correct.

Although Betamax didn't die...it evolved into Betacam and then Betacam SP (Superior Performance) for a long time the TV production industry standard.

Modern VHS is, though, considerably superior to Betamax, as the VHS format evolved to offer higher grade tape and hi-fi sound.

Philips did indeed have their own format - it was called
Philips 2000 and the cassettes were double sided - so you could turn them over.

But here's one for you video trivia buffs....anyone remember a very short lived format called McNallyVision? Ask if you want to know more....

Accylad,

Not sure whether this has been mentioned,but they are becoming
available on dvd.
Probably available from lots of other sites,but here's one...
that stocks them.

Hope that's of use.

Not quite right! Betamax is NOT used by BBC or any other broadcasters. Maybe you're thinking of Betacam. The small Betacam cassette (used in cameras) is the same size as a Betamax tape but it runs at about 8 times the speed!

VHS won the battle with Betamax because JVC, who developed VHS, had the forthought to liscence the technology to rival brands. Thus VHS was used by Panasonic, Toshiba and 101 other makes, whilst Sony kept Betamax to itself. By the time they realised this folly, only one other brand took it up.

Betamax was certainly far better than VHS in the 1980s (my Sony C9 plays forwards and backwards at several slow motion speeds plus X2 speed, etc), but I suggest VHS is now superior picture-quality wise, and control wise on a few costly machines. South America still uses Betamax in a big way.

Not so! My first Betamax machine was a Toshiba (actually branded 'Bush', but the same model was available under both brandnames.) Sanyo and NEC also made Beta machines.