What were the previous format wars like?

[atomik kinder]

Originally Posted by Blue_Baron

In my opinion, although Beta was a superior format than VHS, it lost out on the format war because, ultimately VHS was cheaper and more titles available.

With Laserdisc, it was the price (approx. $40/ea) that made it a niche format and it had limited capabilities. The main thing I disliked about laserdisc besides the price was they were 2-sided and large. I eventually switched to DVD because they were more affordable, had better resolution (audio & video) and smaller. Honestly, I didn't think it would get any better than DVD.

The good thing also about DVD was it was a unified format. All the players (Sony, JVC, Philips, etc.)got together and agreed on a standard.

Now, with this current format war, I think at the end of the day Blu-ray will win. Blu-ray has more studio support thus, more available titles. Both formats have about the same quality although Blu-ray wins in the storage capacity.
The prices of the discs are comparable. The difference here also is in the price of the players. If Blu-ray players drop in price, and Warner Studios decide to drop HD-DVD, i think the format war will be over.

Two things about this are incorrect. Beta kept lowering the price of their players so they were much cheaper than VHS, but VHS won because of more studio support, that part is correct. But at the time, VHS and Beta tapes were $100 and over to purchase them. The first VHS VCR I bought was $600, but that was after the price came down a lot, I never considered Beta because of lack of titles. Earlier VHS VCRs were well over $1000, Does any of this sound familiar?

Also, one of the bigger draws for a lot of people with Laserdisc was the affordability. Yes, some of the players were expensive, but you could get a really good player for little more than a VHS VCR. And, at this time VHS tapes were still $100 and over at first they were meant only for the rental market, thus the $100 price tag. You sometimes had to wait a year or more before the prices came down to an affordable range. That is one of the reasons many people picked LD too, They were more affordable from release date by about $60!