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Why choosing coal is like choosing Betamax : Comments
By Ben Pearson, published 28/12/2007We must consciously, deliberately and ambitiously help developing countries produce and consume energy in a sustainable way.
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From a technical point of view they were about the same. In the early days Betamax had better pictures but VHS had better recording times, consumers preferred longer record time as most couldn't pick the quality difference (they were both terrible by todays standards). At any rate the differences quickly faded, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotape_format_war for more details.
Betamax was never used by professionals, that is a myth probably caused by the similar name of the professional Betacam format which is incompatible with the consumer Betamax format.
Regarding, HD-DVD vs. Blue-ray. It is entirely possible that dual-format players will prevail (they exist already). The barrier to cheap dual-format players is the licensing expense not the hardware expense.
What does all this have to do with climate change? Not a lot, that's the point, VHS vs. Betamax is a tempting but ultimately flawed analogy.