In January 1988, bowing to the inevitable, Sony announced that they were to start making VHS machines. Although they continued to make Beta decks as well, this pretty much marks the death of Beta in Europe. Production continued for some parts of the world, such as Venezuela, where the format was still popular. In Japan beta evolved into the high-band Super Beta format, with HiFi decks such as the HF-100 remaining popular at the top end of the market through the 90's. Production outside Japan stopped in 1998, and in August 2002 Sony announced that production would cease altogether at the end of the year. Less that 3000 machines were sold in 2001; the arrival of digital formats such as DV and DVD had killed the remaining top-end market, and the story was finally at an end. 27 years and 18 million units later, Betamax was dead. Speaking of quality, you will often hear Betamax fans claiming that Beta was technically better than VHS. However, on closer inspection this turns out to be something of a myth; an advantage Beta might have had was quickly matched by VHS, and anyway was only apparent using sophisticated test equipment. In fact, independant tests of picture quality at the time actually put VHS ahead, the scores over four tests being VHS: 2, Beta: 1, No difference: 1. This urban legend probably reflects Sony's marketing rather than any actual quantifiable difference. In the USA, the Betaphile Society was formed in 1988 to try to keep Beta alive, This had about 2000 members, and lasted until 1991. (A link to the Betaphile Society can be found at the information desk.)