I liked betamax better, sorry. The tapes were more compact and used less storage space. Can't argue with that. I also liked that you could use betamax with a Sony PCM F1 processor to record digital audio before the advent of the DAT format (digital audio tape). Can't argue with that. But when was the last time I even thought about betamax? Much more front of mind are the vagaries of blu-ray formats; and I rarely think about them either.

Are you joking? (Or otherwise trying to prove my point?)

> The tapes were more compact and used less storage space.

That generally is considered the "death nail" of the format. People generally chose VHS because they could record 6-9 hours on a single tape, (while on vacation,) but the smaller size of the Betamax cassette limited it to shorter recordings.

It also impacted quality of feature length movies: They used the fastest tape speed on VHS, but had to be a slower tape speed on Betamax, negating the supposed quality improvement on Betamax.

> I also liked that you could use betamax with a Sony PCM F1 processor to record digital audio before the advent of the DAT format (digital audio tape)

Most people (consumers) never used their VCRs to record and play back digital audio, they used CDs and cassettes.

The PCM F1 was a professional / prosumer device, not a consumer device like a CD player. I assume that people who were using it were going to have a separate VCR for studio use than their living room (VHS), and weren't going to decide between VHS vs Betamax for pairing with their PCM F1.