Betamax

Betamax was a video cassette format which was in some respects superior to its competitor in the format wars, VHS, but lost to that format anyway.

This format ended up becoming the name of the famous U.S. Supreme Court case that resulted in the use of videotaping at home for time-shifting of TV programs being declared legal, due to the case being against Sony regarding the legality of its Betamax VCR.

Sony announced in 2015 that it was no longer manufacturing Betamax tapes, another of the things you probably thought happened many years earlier.

Links

 * Mediacollege.com entry on Betamax
 * The Internet Archive Wants To Digitize 40,000 VHS And Betamax Tapes
 * First Betamax - Salesman Training Video 1977