This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. We've all been there. You hold onto a coupon but forget about it and suddenly it's expired. Expired in 2012?
Dang it. Fortunately, by switching to Geico, you could save about $900 on car insurance without ever touching a coupon. It feels good to save big. It feels good to Geico. CBS Tuesday is NCIS Night with new episodes of NCIS, NCIS Origins, and NCIS Sydney.
Possible abduction of the Marines. We need to move. Anybody is a potential target? We're gonna do what we do and we're gonna figure out answers. Wherever they're planning, it's going down here.
MCIS! MCIS night is all new. It's a night you've never seen. CBS Tuesday, starting with 7 Central and streaming on Paramount Plus. For delicious meals, you could go out to eat.
or spend hours in the kitchen. Or you could just make a Marie Calendars meal. Yeah, you heard me. Marie Callender's classic chicken parmesana bowl is delicious with scratch-made marinara sauce, creamy mozzarella cheese, and no preservatives. Italian protein with 30 grams per serving.
Marie Callendars, What Having It All Tastes Like. Right now, get up to 20% off Select Online Storage Solutions. Put heavy-duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid, impact-resistant design prevents cracking. and the clear basin sides make items easy to find, even when the totes are stacked.
Find select online shelving and tote storage up to 20% off at the Home Depot. to organize every room in your home, from your garage to your attic. Visit HomeDepot.com, how doers get more done. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports, and from business to history, and everything in between, including your stories.
Send them to ouramericanstories.com. That's ouramericanstories.com. They're some of our favorites. Over the years, there have been many format and console wars, including Nintendo vs. Sega.
PlayStation vs. Xbox, Apple vs. Android, but there was one full-fledged format war. that ruled them all. Years before we had to decide between streaming the latest video or taking it home on DVD or Blu-ray, a format war between Sony's Betamax.
and JVC's VHS began. Battle lasted for more than a decade with neither Betamax Nor VHS giving up. Bill Hammack is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois. He is known as the engineer guy. is the creator and host of his popular YouTube channel, explaining the engineering of everyday objects.
In 1976, Sony introduced the Betamax video cassette recorder. It catalyzed the on-demand of today by allowing users to record TV shows, and the machine ignited the first new media intellectual property battle. In only a decade, this revolutionary machine disappeared, beaten by JVC's VHS. is set recorder. Here's Bill Engineer Guy Hammock.
telling the story of how Betamax was defeated by the VHS tape. This mighty machine sparked a revolution in our use of media. It's a Sony Betamax video cassette recorder from 1979. This monster weighs about 36 pounds. The engineer in me finds it fascinating.
There's nothing digital, it's a truly analog machine, all moving pieces and parts. You're obviously a man who's having troubles at home. You're constantly fighting with your family over what T V shows to watch.
Well, fortunately, you're looking at a simple solution to your problems.
Sony Betamax. Early adopters of the Betamax used it to record television shows, a revolutionary concept at the time, because prior to the Betamax, you had to watch a show when it was broadcast. It threatened the entertainment industry so much that in 1979, they argued that recording television shows at home infringed on their copyright. It all came to a head in a Supreme Court case, Sony Corporation of America versus Universal City Studios, where five justices allowed home recording. The Sony Bayamax.
Its only purpose is to serve you. Although Sony won this court battle, they ultimately lost out to a machine that used this size tape. This is a VHS recorder made by Sony's great rival, JVC. Both machines solve the same problem, how to store information compactly on a tape. Here's the brilliant innovation used by both machines.
The machine grabs the tape, drags it forward as this silver drum starts to spin rapidly. The drum has two electromagnets called heads arranged on opposite sides of the drum that read the magnetic information on the tape. That rotating head allowed for a compact recorder. In many previous recorders, the magnetic heads didn't move, only the tape. Because there was a limit to how fast the tape could move, it took a lot of tape, about a 7-inch reel to record an hour, which meant that a movie would need two 7-inch reels inside a cassette.
So the rotating heads dramatically reduced the amount of tape needed, reducing the size to where it could be easily held in a cassette.
So if the machines are so similar, why did Betamax lose to JVC? Many thought the Betamax machine would win. It had the better image quality, and the Betamax is decidedly better built. Compare ejecting a tape on the Betamax to the VHS. First, watch the Betamax.
Note how smooth it is, and then watch the VHS. That's abrupt and will wear out the mechanism. Yet, to my engineer's eye, The VHS was the better solution. First, the VHS was lighter than the Betamax, 29.5 pounds compared to 36 pounds for this Betamax machine. That's a huge difference for a mass manufactured object.
It impacts everything from material costs to assembly time to shipping costs.
So, at the low end of the market, the VHS machines were cheaper than Sony's Betamax. Second, the earliest Betamax tapes played for only one hour, VHS played for two hours, enough time for a movie. Marty, shh, you'll scare the fish. We're missing the big football game. Max, my VHS home video recorder is taping it right now.
Terrific. Watch. Terrific. But suppose it's over three hours. Relax.
Panasonic VHS takes up to four hours of sports, movies, specials on one cassette. Wow. This VHS is for me. VHS, the four-hour system from Panasonic and other leading companies. The ultimate killer though was the rental market.
Well Betamax focused its ads and energies on time shifting. Their ads featured headlines like watch whatever whenever.
Well JVC, the maker of the VHS system, created relationships with the nascent video rental industry. When this market grew, VHS dominated in titles and while you could for a while find both formats, eventually retailers began giving shelf space to the slightly more dominant brand which then dominated even more.
So The Betamax versus VHS dispels the notion that simply being first to market is the most important issue. It reminds us that technical excellence in one area isn't enough, here the superior picture quality of Betamax, but that all technical aspects matter. For any mass manufactured object, the winner is usually the one that is just good enough. I'm Bill Hammack, the engineer guy. And that is so true just good enough often, does it?
And what a terrific story, and all of us who are old enough to remember these days. My goodness, just the simple idea that you could tape a show and watch it later. for anyone under the age of 35. This is nonsense to you. You can't even imagine a world where you don't get to watch what you want, where you want, and when you want.
But back in the day, there were three channels: three, ABC, NBC, and CBS. And there was a PBS station. And if you held the rabbit ears up to the satellite, you could maybe get a little better picture. And it all turned off at the end of the night with a national anthem. And then it was just a gray screen.
Hard to imagine what progress in this great country as it relates to content and the tremendous amount of creativity that's been unleashed by technology for artists. The story, the battle, of Betamax vs. VHS. And VHS, the good enough winner. And very special thanks to Bill Hammack, aka engineer guy.
for sharing this story with us. Here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily. Again, please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
It helps us keep these great American stories coming. This is Julian Edelman from Games with Names. I want to take a second to talk about something that's personal to me. I've had the privilege of working closely with Robert Kraft for a long time. And one thing I've always respected is how seriously he takes up standing up to hate.
As a Jewish athlete my identity is something I am proud of. But I also know what it feels like to be singled out for it. That's why this new commercial for the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate. That aired during the big game really hit home. It's about showing up for someone when they're targeted, even if you don't have the perfect words.
And sometimes standing next to someone is enough. And you can show support by sharing the blue square. CBS Tuesday is NCIS Night with new episodes of NCIS, NCIS Origins, and NCIS Sydney. Possible abduction of the Marines. We need to move.
Anybody is a potential target? We're gonna do what we do and we're gonna figure out answers. Whatever they're planning, it's going down here. MCIS! MCIS night is all new.
It's a night you've never seen. Yeah. CBS Tuesday, starting at 7 Central and streaming on Paramount Plus. Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? Wash away your worries with Anibay.
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So visit us at cvs.com or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
Mm-hmm.
