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Widely accepted as the first
large Betamax and VHS duplication house, early Magnetic Video
Corporation releases had this cutout in the front so that one
reel could be seen through the box
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An early style of case used
for both VHS and Beta was this drawer-like design used by
Magnetic Video Corporation after becoming CBS Fox Video, with a
shared cardboard outer sleeve and a different inner tray insert
that was marked VHS or Beta on the spine so that when inserted
the format would be shown through a window in the spine |

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Another early case design
used for both formats was this frontloading big box design with
a flapped front used by MGM and some others. The Beta sized box
was approximately the height of a regular VHS box but wider,
while the VHS equivalent was larger than the common VHS box in
both dimensions |

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Later on, Beta tapes would
sometimes be packaged with a cardboard spacer into the same
boxes as VHS, with a blue Beta sticker stuck over where the
boxes said VHS originally |

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Another earlier Magnetic
Video Corporation design which ended up being much closer to
what would become the most common commercial slipcase design for
VHS and Beta, a simple sleeve with the bottom left open |

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In the early 80s, Columbia
Pictures, Paramount, and others used a fully enclosed style of
box similar in size to the cassette itself but with a front flap
that opened to allow the tape to be taken out from the inside |

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A window in the inner sleeve
lets the tape label (or, if desired, the supply reel) peek
through. The tabs that close the front covers on this style of
case are sometimes ripped off |
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Some later RCA-Columbia
Pictures Beta and VHS releases were side-loading like blank
tapes instead of bottom loading like most commercial releases.
These cases had a cardboard flap over the side that had to be
opened to get the tape out, and are often found with the flap
torn off or the bottom of the case torn open |

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Some manufacturers produced
one size of tape labels that were shorter than the Beta label
space and thinner than the VHS label space so that they could
fit both |

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Interestingly, some
manufacturers (most commonly Disney) used Beta sized labels on
both VHS and Beta releases, leaving the labels oddly hanging
over on VHS |

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Before the advent of
internet video and file sharing, tapes like these from smaller
dubbing houses were a common place to find older and public
domain television and movies |

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This Japanese Beta hi-fi concert video
of Hanoi Rocks makes a specific point of noting that
it is recorded in Beta II, possibly because Japan saw
more widespread early Beta adoption. Some Japanese
boxes (like this one) have a flap over the bottom
opening that is easy to open.
More scans and video transfer available on the Internet
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