On this episode of Our American Stories, there was a moment when the future of home entertainment was uncertain. VHS and Betamax were locked in a format war, and the VCR you bought determined which tapes you could play.
VHS eventually became the dominant video cassette system, reshaping movie rentals, television recording, and 1980s pop culture. Engineer Guy Bill Hammack explains how VHS won the format war and why Betamax slowly disappeared.
