Sony EDV-9000
(1988 - 1995)

The penultimate ßetamax masterpiece!

Available for quite a while due to the fact that a) there was no further improvement technically possible to the 1974 ßetamax standard b) ßetamax' maket share had shrunk quite a lot since the mid 1980s so there wasn't such big crowd to sell such a monster to.

However, with a 9.3MHz bandwidth and a 500-line resolution, ED Beta was better than anything on the consumer market bar the MUSE Hi-Res Laserdisc format or Sony's own broadcast machines. But at 3,300$ (or 272,400¥ in 1993), the EDV-9000 was a little expensive for a dying format.

As for the earlier VHS vs. Beta battle, S-VHS wasn't nearly as good as ED Beta but it was much cheaper and benefitted from the largest user base - and that, as they say, is that.