Sony To Stop Beta Tape Production

Editor's note: We have always been big Beta fans. There is still a Beta recorder in my garage but I admit that I have no idea if it still works.

Sometimes the tape keeps going after you thought it had run out. But three decades?

It turns out that Sony is still making videocassette tapes for its Betamax video recording systems, largely vanquished from the gadget scene in the 1980s.

Not for much longer, though. Sony announced Wednesday that it will stop producing Betamax tapes in March of next year.

"This will make the final shipment of all our memory media for Betamax," Sony said in a Japanese-language statement.

Tech standards come and go, and for the most part, Betamax has been long gone.

In its heyday, it was at the center of a cultural moment that may have been the first time consumers really had to worry about competing tech standards. Its battle with the rival VHS standard, the eventual winner, was a momentous one in an era when a television set was probably the most significant electronic device in many households.