Comment by Braxton1980

Technology connections did a video on Betamax vs VHS that debunked this in a practical sense as Betamax had a version II that allowed 2 hour recordings, the quality was slightly better to early VHS instead the significant improvement of beta I (original standard)

Retail movie releases used II since most movies could fit on one tape. Beta I was rare and later betamax decks just ignored it or something for compatibility.

VHS HQ and HiFi, which came much later when beta was basically dead, was probably better than beta II and close to beta I in quality