The Betamax has been an icon for decades. There are those who consider it relics in the video industry. As a matter fact, Sony has been producing Betamax tapes despite its players and recorders being phased out 13 years ago. However, that will soon change as the Japanese tech giant has announced that it's going to stop producing tapes for it next year.
According to reports, Sony has still been producing its Betamax tapes in Japan, despite players and recorders for it being out of production since 2002. However, the Betamax format was somehow phased out earlier than the last Betamax player since the VHS format managed to take main attraction all thanks to its variety of cheaper players as well as longer overall recording time. At launch, the Betamax format only managed to take an hour of recording time, but it featured greater image quality than VHS tapes.
Furthermore, Betamax tapes aren't the only things being discontinued in the market. Apparently, Sony's MicroMV camcorder cassettes are part of the equation. MicroMV camcorder cassettes were used by a range of its camcorders in the beginning of 2000. For those that still want to use Betamax and MicroMV tapes, however, eBay in Japan still offers a huge selection of it.
Betamax still continues its breath in the form of Betacam, which is a similar, but incompatible professional video cassette format that is still being used until now. It even has a digital version called DigiBeta, which has become the standard for professional broadcast digital recording.
As TV and movie streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and HBO Go create and fill the demands of the people, it's no question that the majority of the populace find on demand media a more convenient and cheaper solution in comparison to the video formats of the past.
