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The result of the fervent development push was a VCR that used a Sony Diary sized video cassette tape, two-thirds the weight of the U-matic. The number of parts used was about half the number of the U-matic cassette tape. The new tape had a width of half an inch. Morita, president of Sony at the time, thought to himself,  This is a revolution! Around 1973, the percentage of color televisions in Japanese households was overtaking that of black and white televisions. The VCR was the answer to the question on many people's lips: What comes after the color TV? Key players in the consumer electronics industry set out with vigor to deliver the answer to consumers, and Sony was very quick to have an answer. Sony's new VCR could be connected to a television and used to record one hour of video and audio. The TV guide no longer restricted what people watched on their televisions. They could record whatever programs they liked and replay them when they wanted. It truly was an entertainment revolution that would completely change people's lifestyles.
Sony had to think of an appropriate name for this definitive product. What Kihara called the Azimuth Recording had been nicknamed the Beta Recording, beta being the Japanese word used to describe the way signals were recorded onto the tape. From this sprung the idea of using the word beta. Just as the tape path in the U-matic loading system resembled the letter U, the tape path in the new loading system closely resembled the Greek letter  or beta, when seen from above. This symbol is associated with good luck and can be construed as a drawn out pronunciation of the English word better. Max, an abbreviation of the word maximum was intended to impart a meaning of grandness, and was then added to the end. The name Betamax was born.
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 | The press conference announcing the
Betamax VCR. Ibuka is holding a Betamax
tape in his right hand (To compare the
size, Ibuka is holding a 2-inch
broadcast tape in his left hand). |
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While Sony believed it had a revolutionary product on its hands, it still had to convince consumers throughout the world how to benefit from a Betamax VCR in their homes. Morita thought the best way to achieve this was through a short, catchy slogan, and the slogan time-shift was created. This encapsulated the core concept behind the Betamax; to build a machine that frees consumers from the constraints of watching television programs on the day they are broadcast. With the time-shift function, consumers could record their favorite programs and watch them whenever they liked.
By 1975, color televisions could be found in over 90% of Japanese households and they had become an integral part of people's daily lives. Just as the relationship between the radio and the audio tape recorder had fueled sales of both products, it was thought that the relationship between the color television and the home-use color VCR would trigger sales of both products. Sony was convinced that the time was right.
On April 16, 1975, Sony announced its latest VCR products, the SL-6300 VCR deck and the LV-1801, a TV/VCR combination unit that incorporated the SL-6300 and an 18-inch Trinitron color television. Both products were released for sale nationwide on May 10. The SL-6300 sold for 229,800 yen, approximately the same price as a large color television and only around 60% of the price of a U-matic machine. The accompanying video cassette with a playing time of 60 minutes was priced at 4,500 yen or less than half the price of a U-matic video cassette. The LV-1801 was 449,800 yen, approximately twice the price of a large color television.
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