Betamax (also called Beta, and referred to as such in the logo) is a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain .50 in (12.7 mm)-wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional .75 in (19 mm) wide, U-matic format. The format is virtually obsolete, though an updated variant of the format, Betacam, is still used by the television industry.

Like the rival videotape format VHS (introduced in Japan by JVC in October 1976 and in the U.S. by RCA in August 1977), Betamax had no guard band and used azimuth recording to reduce crosstalk. According to Sony's own history webpages, the name came from a double meaning: beta being the Japanese word used to describe the way signals were recorded onto the tape, and from the fact that when the tape ran through the transport, it looked like the Greek letter beta (β). The suffix -max came from "maximum", to suggest greatness. In 1977, Sony came out with the first long play Betamax VCR, the SL-8200. This VCR had two recording speeds: normal, and the newer half speed. This provided two hours recording time on the L-500 Beta videocassette. The SL-8200 was to compete against the VHS VCRs that had 2 or 4 hours of recording time.

Cem Yılmaz (born 23 April 1973 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a Turkish stand-up comedian, actor and filmmaker and cartoonist, best known for his films G.O.R.A. (2004), A.R.O.G (2008) and Yahşi Batı (2010), who has won two Sadri Alışık awards for his roles in Organize İşler (2005) and The Magician (2006).