Sony announced on Tuesday that after four decades, it will stop shipping Betamax (or Beta) and MicroMV video cassette tapes next March. The company explained that it is ending sales in these formats in light of the changing marketplace, due to the end of analog television broadcasts in Japan in 2012, the decreased demand, and other factors.
The MicroMV video cassette is a separate format of recordable magnetic tape media for digital video cameras. Sony also stopped producing MicroMV video cameras in 2005.
Cowboy Bebop, a Sunrise science-fiction television anime set in the year 2071, made an obsolete Betamax cassette a pivotal element in its 18th episode, “Speak Like a Child” (pictured above).
Source: AV Watch via Hachima Kikō
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