On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 23:43:52 +0000 (UTC), Stewart Pinkerton
wrote:


Elcaset was indeed technically excellent when compared with
Musicassette. However, Betamax was *not* the best of the available VCR
technologies. I still have a Philips Video 2000 recorder...... :-)

When they were good they were very, very good, but when they were bad
...(etc).

V2000 technically should have been head and shoulders above the rest,
but they were perhaps too sophisticated to be reliable in the rough and
tumble of everyday use.

I've never quite understood this. Why do distribution media for use
in a stable domestic environment have to withstand 'rough and tumble'?

You're domestic environment must differ from that of a large section
of the population, but I think that the main problems of the Philips
machines was the manufacture. They produced many brilliant designs at
the time, but they didn't seem able to make them reliable.

Bill