"VHS is actually superior. Trust me, I used both."
Neither one was inherently superior with regard to picture and sound quality. They both use half-inch tape and have the same bandwidth. It comes down to the quality of individual machines, i.e., a high-end VHS machine will be better than a low-end Betamax machine, and vice versa. If comparing the best VHS machine ever made to the best Betamax machine ever made, there won't be any noticeable difference.
There were times when Betamax was temporarily superior to VHS, such as during the ~year that Betamax machines were available with Hi-Fi stereo and VHS machines weren't.
Outside of picture and sound quality, VHS was always superior in terms of recording time, because it used bigger cassettes which allowed for more tape. Plus VHS obviously had a far superior selection of pre-recorded tapes to buy or rent.
Since picture and sound quality ended up being a tie, the two big VHS advantages (longer recording time and bigger movie selection) made VHS the better choice by far.
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