My parents bought a Beta VCR at Sears back in the 80s -- it was on sale for some reason. It was a freaking huge top-loading model (which was probably a good thing, as I had recently destroyed my dad's front-loading 8 track player with a peanut butter sandwich).<p>I remember watching the 'Beta' section at Blockbuster shrink until they finally sold off all of their Beta tapes for $5/pop (which was a steal back then). After a while, the thing was really only good for recording TV shows, as movies were simply unavailable for it.<p>When we finally "upgraded" to VHS some years later, the drop in picture quality <i>was</i> noticeable.